Kidneys for Life: Identifying health communication strategies to increase kidney disease screening in African Americans

Background: Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) is the 9th leading cause of death in the United States. While CKD affects individuals varying in race, ethnicity, and gender, African American (AA) males as well as AA's with a family history of the following risk factors are disproportionately affected by the disease: diabetes, hypertension, obesity. Therefore, identifying innovative ways to increase kidney disease screening in both target populations, living in rural and urban Alabama, becomes an important issue. Methods: Six focus groups (n = 41) were conducted with AA males and females in Birmingham and Macon County, AL. Additionally, respondents were asked to complete a short survey, which included demographic, general health, and screening questions. Responses were analyzed and emergent themes were identified. Results: A range of media preferences; screening benefits and barriers; source and message content preferences as well as screening improvement strategies were identified. For example, both male and female participants reported an affinity for humorous and memorable commercials. Moreover, AA females reported a desire to see real, sincere people reporting information; some expressed the need to see a female while others did not. On the contrary, the majority of males strongly desired to see and hear AA males present relevant health information. Conclusion: Communication channel preferences, media imaging preferences, screening perceptions, as well as target audience suggestions on how to increase screening, are important formative data that are essential to creating a targeted health communications campaign.