Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #104780

Laura A. Linnan, ScD, CHES¹, Veronica L. Carlisle, MPH², Kacey Hanson, MPH², Alice Ammerman, DrPH, RD³, and Kelly Evenson, PhD⁴. (1) Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, UNC Chapel Hill School of Public Health, CB #7440, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7440, 919 843-8044, linnan@email.unc.edu, (2) Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, CB #7440, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7440, (3) Department of Nutrition, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1700 Airport Road, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, (4) Epidemiology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Bank of America Plaza, Suite 306, 137 East Franklin St., Chapel Hill, NC 27514

More than 11,000 licensed beauty salons are located in North Carolina, and represent an untapped place for promoting health. In 2000, NC researchers and community members decided to explore the idea of working in partnership with beauty salons and licensed cosmetologists to promote health among their customers. Using community-based participatory research (CBPR) methods, a BEAUTY (Bringing Education And Understanding To You) Advisory Board was convened to help conduct three pilot studies (survey of licensed cosmetologists, observational study in ten salons, pilot study testing interventions in two salons) over two years that gathered evidence to support a larger study designed to test two promising methods for delivering cancer prevention messages to beauty salon customers: targeted health magazines and specialized training for licensed stylists. This paper will describe how CBPR methods were applied over two years of pilot work, briefly review results of the three pilot studies, and give the rationale/overview for the present 4-yr research study underway in 40 African American beauty salons. Strategies for building trust by continuously engaging partners from the beauty industry (salon owners, stylists, product distributors, beauty school representatives), local health professionals (local/state health department, voluntary agencies, community leaders), and customers in all phases of study planning, implementation and evaluation will be shared. Both successes and challenges of working in beauty salons to reach African American women with health messages will be discussed.

Learning Objectives: After attending this session, the participant will be able to

• Explain at least 3 reasons why beauty salons are a promising setting for promoting health
• List at least 3 unique characteristics of licensed cosmetologists and why they are promising individuals to consider for educating their customers about health
• Describe 3 ways in which the North Carolina BEAUTY and Health Project has used formative research to build a promising strategy for working with beauty salons and licenesed stylists to promote health

Keywords: African American, Participatory Research

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.