Mammography use has increased over the past 20 years, yet more than 30% of women remain inadequately screened. Structural barriers can deter individuals from screening, however, cognitive, emotional, and communication barriers may also prevent mammography use. This study sought to identify the impact of number and type of barriers on mammography…

The Internet has been used extensively to offer health education content and also for social support. More recently, we have seen the advent of Internet-based health education interventions that combine content with structured social networking. In many ways this is the Internet equivalent to small group interventions. While we have some knowledge…

More than 60% of cancer-related deaths in the United States are attributable to tobacco use, poor nutrition, and physical inactivity, and these risk factors tend to cluster together. Thus, strategies for cancer risk reduction would benefit from addressing multiple health risk behaviors. We adapted an evidence-based intervention grounded in social…

Background: Dementia health literacy is low among the public and likely poses a significant barrier to Alzheimer's disease (AD) symptom recognition and treatment, particularly among minority populations already facing higher AD burden. We evaluated the pilot phase of a novel AD health education program, Old SCHOOL (Seniors Can Have Optimal…

The objective of this secondary analysis was to evaluate the utility of several participant adherence indicators for predicting changes in clinical, anthropometric, dietary, fitness, and physical activity (PA) outcomes in a lifestyle intervention, HUB City Steps, conducted in a southern, African American cohort in 2010. HUB City Steps was a…

Approximately 8.3% of the U.S. population (25.8 million people) is affected by type 2 diabetes. The burden of diabetes is disproportionately greater in the African American community. Compared with non-Hispanic Caucasian adults, the risk of diagnosed type 2 diabetes was 77% higher among non-Hispanic Blacks, who are 27% more likely to die of…

Girls struggling to be successful in middle school are often dealing with negative life experiences that affect their ability to achieve academically. Frequently, their academic failures and problem behaviors are associated with feeling overwhelmed by difficult and challenging life circumstances. In the absence of intervention, these patterns may…

The alarming obesity prevalence in Black women is well documented yet poorly understood. Obesity interventions for Black women have failed to produce long-term reductions in weight. Recommendations to incorporate a lifestyle and behavioral modification approach have been made to address obesity in this population. The purpose of this article was…

The current study examines predictors of HIV test acceptance among emergency department patients who received an educational video intervention designed to increase HIV testing. A total of 202 patients in the main treatment areas of a high-volume, urban hospital emergency department used inexpensive netbook computers to watch brief educational…

Background: Community-based peer support may help meet the practical, emotional, and spiritual needs of African Americans with advanced cancer. Support teams are a unique model of peer support for persons facing serious illness, but research is rare. This study sought to (a) implement new volunteer support teams for African Americans with advanced…

Objective: A substantial gap exists between patients and their mental health providers about patient's perceived barriers, facilitators, and motivators (BFMs) for taking antipsychotic medications. This article describes how we used an intervention mapping (IM) framework coupled with qualitative and quantitative item-selection methods to…

Although many interventions are effective for health behavior initiation, maintenance has proven elusive. Interventions targeting maintenance often extend the duration with which initiation content is delivered or the duration of follow-up without intervention. We posit that health behavior initiation and maintenance require separate psychological…

Background: Healthy eating is important for obesity control. Dietary interventions target the adoption of behavioral strategies to increase fiber and decrease fat consumption. However, little is known about the contributions of psychosocial factors to the use of these strategies. Purpose: This study examined psychosocial correlates of behavioral…

Background: Many U.S. adults have multiple behavioral risk factors, and effective, scalable interventions are needed to promote population-level health. In the health care setting, interventions are often provided in print, although accessible to nearly everyone, are brief (e.g., pamphlets), are not interactive, and can require some logistics…

Theories about health behavior are commonly used in public health and often frame problems as ascribed or related to individuals' actions or inaction. This framing suggests that poor health occurs because individuals are unable or unwilling to heed preventive messages or recommended treatment actions. The recent United Nations call for…