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

Abstract #109154

Beth Dudley, BS¹, Stephen B. Thomas, PhD², Angela F. Ford, MSW¹, Kristen Vogel, BS², and Vinaya S. Murthy, MPH¹. (1) Graduate School of Public Health/Center for Minority Health, University of Pittsburgh, 125 Parran Hall, 130 Desoto Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15261, 412-624-5665, bdudley@cmh.pitt.edu, (2) Center for Minority Health, University of Pittsburgh, 125 Parran Hall, 130 Desoto Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15261

The Center for Minority Health in the University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Public Health established the Healthy Black Family Project, a program designed to increase awareness of the contribution of family health history to the development of chronic diseases. The U.S. Surgeon General's Family History Initiative stresses the importance of this familial contribution. The interactions between genes and environment place many Africans Americans at increased risk for multifactorial conditions such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and several types of cancer.

To date, 180 individuals have completed a family health history and 100 (56%) of these participants consented to enroll in a minority research recruitment database. Individuals in the database receive information about clinical trials that match patterns of disease in their family histories. We will describe community engagement strategies launched at community health fairs, barbershops, beauty salons, and black churches. Despite the history of fear surrounding genetics in the black community, we have been very well received. Genetic counseling graduate students conduct family health history interviews that focus on disease and causes of death among first- and second-degree relatives. They hand-record information to create a pedigree and later enter it into a computer program (Progeny). The interview includes an assessment of risk perception for chronic diseases. We hypothesize that by increasing awareness about genetic susceptibility to chronic disease, individuals will have more accurate risk perceptions and be more willing to participate in risk reduction behaviors and clinical research. We will discuss implications for elimination of racial and ethnic health disparities.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of this session, the participant will be able to

• Apply community engagement strategies to recruit minority participants
• Understand the process and importance of increasing knowledge about family health history
• Discuss the implications of knowledge about family health history in eliminating racial and ethnic health disparities

Keywords: Genetics, Community-Based Health Promotion

Related Web page: www.cmh.pitt.edu

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.