Social and environmental determinants of hypertension in African Americans: Project CHOICE in the rural community of Gadsden County Florida

APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Richard D. Gragg, PhD¹, Cynthia M. Harris, PhD, DABT², Cynthia H. Harris, PhD³, Saleh M. M. Rahman, MBBS, PhD, MPH², Selina Rahman, MBBS, PhD, MPH⁴, and Angela Burgess². (1) Environmental Sciences Institute, Florida A&M University, 1515 South M.L. King Blvd., RM 305, Tallahassee, FL 32307, 850-599-8549, richard.gragg@famu.edu, (2) Institute of Public Health, Florida A & M University, FSH Science Research Center, Suite 207F, Tallahassee, FL 32307, (3) Dean, School of Allied Health Sciences, Florida A & M University, 1500 South Bronough St., Tallahassee, FL 32307, (4) Environmental Sciences Institute, Florida A & M University, 1520 South Brinough St., SRC 308-O, Tallahassee, FL 32307

While it is evident that racial and ethnic minorities and low income populations experience disparate environmental exposures and health outcomes, the association between the two is not well understood. The Center for Healthy Options and Innovative Community Empowerment (CHOICE) is a National Institutes of Health – National Center for Minority Health Disparities Project EXPORT initiative exploring this association via collaborative community based participatory research focusing on the contributions of racial discrimination, job stress, and lead exposure to hypertension in the African-American population in the rural community of Gadsden County Florida. This presentation will explore the benefits and barriers encountered by various stakeholders, including the County Commission, County Health Department, Community Health Council, faith based organizations and a multidisciplinary academic team in building coalitions and developing the infrastructure for the research project. The strategies for effective community based participatory research evolved through successive and interactive dialogues among and between the Gadsden and Boston components of project CHOICE. The experiences and impacts of the community-university partnership in the implementation of the research protocol including hiring and training community health advisors, recruiting and training volunteer research associates, door-knocking for survey administration, outreach, social marketing, and other activities in rural community settings will be provided.

Learning Objectives:

At the conclusion of the session, the participant (learner) in this session will be able to

1. Articulate the process of implementing a multi-stakeholder community based participatory research infrastructure and project in a unique rural setting.
2. Describe the intricate and detailed multi-institutional interactions and processes necessary to build and sustain needed coalitions in a rural setting.
3. Assess the resulting artifacts with regard to the communities and universities involved in the project.

Keywords: Community-Based Partnership, Rural Communities

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Coordinating the Environmental Health Research Aims and Methods of Scientists and Affected Communities

The 134th Annual Meeting & Exposition (November 4-8, 2006) of APHA