Encouraging family health history in African-American faith communities: A community-centered approach to family health history education

Significant stigma exists in communities and families surrounding health information. Privacy concerns and fears of discrimination within the family can make it difficult to discuss health. Yet the family plays an important role in shaping a person's habits and encouraging healthy behaviors. In addition, genes passed down through generations can be significant predictors of risk for developing a condition. For these reasons, discussing health history with your family can save your life. The Institute for Cultural Partnerships (ICP), in conjunction with Genetic Alliance, has participated in the development and evaluation of a community-centered, accessible family health history tool entitled, Does it Run in the Family? The toolkit was customized and piloted for use in African American health ministries in Harrisburg, PA. In this presentation, we describe how the stories and experiences of community members were gathered and translated into a locally adapted version of the Does It Run In the Family? health history toolkit. We focus on the projects' community participatory methods, including the roles of the community advisory committee and community liaisons who were integral to the process of development, recruitment and testing. We also review the results of post-survey interviews that explore the dynamics of family communication about health-related topics.