Oral

In a rural county of North Carolina, the mortality rate among African American men is 13% higher from heart disease and 45% higher from stroke disease than for White men. To increase men’s adherence to their cardiovascular disease (CVD) care plans, a community-based participatory research (CBPR) partnership was formed among a research university, a divinity school of a Historically Black University, a community-based organization, and a county health department. With NIH funding, this partnership is implementing and evaluating Brother’s Keeper, a male lay health advisor (LHA) intervention that builds on the influence of scripture, sermons, corporate prayer, and song to transfer meaning and impetus for change in African American men’s CVD outcomes. Few LHA interventions have focused on rural African American men as natural helpers, and none, to our knowledge, has attempted to engage rural Black churches in research to eliminate inequities in men’s CVD outcomes.

Session Objectives: 1. Describe an innovative protocol for conducting and analyzing participant observations pertaining to the influence of the rural Black church context on African American men’s CVD outcomes. 2. Differentiate secular training of LHAs from that which is informed by Biblical principles. 3. Identify lessons learned from the process evaluation of training African American men to serve as LHAs to improve adherence to CVD care.

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