Oral

With specific data from field studies and community outreach, it can be concurred that access to reproductive health services by minority women remains a health concern. Offering prenatal counseling and screening targeting minority population in the community has been a successful approach to reducing the rate of low birth weight and birth defects in children and at the same time ensuring good maternal health. However, access barriers remain and deficiencies in prenatal care utilization are concentrated in specific areas and subpopulations. The findings indicate the importance in assessing potential policy and program options for reducing disparities in prenatal care access. Other new methods like pictorial medication labeling have been tried and have been helpful to address the problems related to maternal and child health.

Session Objectives: Describe methods for conducting community-based participatory research for minority women's health. Assess the effectiveness of seed grants to stimulate interest and career development of CBPR methods for students and junior faculty. Identify innovative approaches to facilitating informed health decision making, and challenges to developing culturally competent genetics curriculum and workshop in minority groups. Interpret the effectiveness of using locally-developed images with medications to communicate health information to illiterate communities in low-resource settings.

CE Credits: Medical (CME), Health Education (CHES), Nursing (CNE), Public Health (CPH)