247209 Heart of a Woman Project: Utilizing salon hairstylists as lay health advocates to deliver culturally tailored heart health messages in their community

Tuesday, November 1, 2011: 5:15 PM

Marilyn A. Fraser-White, MD , Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health, Brooklyn, NY
Lakeisha Lubin , Community Health Empowerment, Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health, Brooklyn, NY
Soņia Banks, PhD , Psychology Department, VCU, Richmond, VA
Ruth C. Browne, ScD , Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health, Brooklyn, NY
Joseph Ravenell, MD , Department of General Internal Medicine, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY
Calpurnyia Roberts, PhD , Brooklyn Health Disparities Center, Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health, Brooklyn, NY
Shonnette Campbell , Community Health Empowerment, Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health, Brooklyn, NY
Allana Rollins , Community Health Empowerment, Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health, Brooklyn, NY
Nicole Primus, MPA , ARTHUR ASHE INSTITUTE FOR URBAN HEALTH, Brooklyn, NY
Background: Women of African descent are disproportionately affected by heart disease. A recent population based study found that African Americans are less knowledgeable about risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD ) than whites. Thus, innovative strategies to reach more women of color with health information focused on CVD are much needed. In minority communities, the beauty salon is a traditional cultural epicenter and is an ideal setting which health promotion take place. This pilot study utilized the salon setting to train stylists as advocates to deliver culturally tailored heart health messages to their clients to promote heart healthy behaviors.

Methods: 7 stylists were trained using a CVD culturally tailored curriculum for two-hours. The curriculum was presented utilizing a role play format. A pre- and post-training assessment was conducted.

Results: The stylists' age ranged from 20-59 with the majority being 30-39 years of age (42.9%). Knowledge concerning systolic blood pressure significantly increased from the pre-curriculum (28.5%) to post curriculum (85.7%) (p-value = 0.05). However, although more women recognized diastolic blood pressure and effective ways to reduce CVD there was not a significant change (p-values = 0.30 and 0.23, respectively). Following the curriculum 100% of the women were willing to discuss CVD education with their clients.

Conclusion: The curriculum is an acceptable guide to educate hairstylists about CVD. The program is being piloted to test the impact of stylist delivered CVD control messages on health behaviors of salon customers.

Learning Areas:
Administer health education strategies, interventions and programs
Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Public health or related education
Public health or related research

Learning Objectives:
1. Describe an innovative cardiovascular disease curriculum culturally tailored for women in a salon setting. 2. Discuss a health program using salon stylists as lay health advocates. 3. Describe a model of conducting community based research within the salon environment.

Keywords: Community-Based Health Promotion, African American

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am qualified to present because I oversee disease prevention programs.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.