This study explores HIV/AIDS communication strategies among church leaders at predominately African American churches in a metropolitan city and surrounding areas in North Carolina. The church leaders contacted for the study are members of an interfaith-based HIV/AIDS program. The researchers used semi-standardized interviews to explore how church leaders address HIV/AIDS in the church. The findings indicate that the seven church leaders who participated in the study use a variety of communication channels to disseminate HIV/AIDS information for congregants and their surrounding communities, which include both interpersonal and mass media.
This integrative review was conducted to present results of the use of recommended criteria to evaluate faith-based weight management interventions (WMIs) that target African American women. This group experiences the highest prevalence of adult obesity in the US when compared to other ethnic groups. "Best practice" WMIs can help to alleviate obesity. Faith-based interventions hold promise for helping to address the problem of obesity in African American women since a significant portion of these persons views the church as a trusted entity that advocates for their well-being. No systematic evaluation of faith-based WMIs has been reported even though there is an ongoing plea for the need for better evaluation of health interventions that prioritizes comprehensive description of their attributes (e.g., linkage to theory, interventionists' background, and dosage) to enable replication and a broader assessment of their validity to include appropriateness and feasibility). Critique criteria were applied to faith-based WMIs (n = 5) that target African American women. Findings highlighted the need for increased disclosure about the (1) interventionists' background, (2) intervention's location within the church setting, and (3) nature of any "pre-intervention"’ treatment. The review also indicated the need for interventions that are (1) designed from robust research methodologies (effectiveness) that include randomization of both church setting and participants, (2) deemed appropriate from the perspective of African American women targeted, and (3) are financially feasible-without steep participant incentives/implementation costs that compromise internal validity and any positive outcomes generated.
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