title: A qualitative exploration of the community partner experience in a faith-based breast cancer educational intervention.
abstract: Although community partner engagement is a key component in faith-based health promotion/disease prevention intervention research, the perspective of community partners on their experiences in the intervention process has been infrequently investigated. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with 12 African-American community partners [i.e. four pastors and eight lay health co-ordinators (LHCs)] from eight churches in greater Baltimore, MD, USA, that engaged in a breast cancer educational intervention that followed a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach. Audiotaped interviews were transcribed, coded and content analysis was used to identify themes across the codes. Findings show that pastors support a holistic approach to health and that LHCs act as a link between the pastors, participants and academic researchers. In addition, pastors and LHCs emphasized that the religious and/or spiritual program elements should not overpower the importance of reaching participants with critical health information regardless of their religious or spiritual beliefs. Study findings suggest that faith-based educational intervention efforts that follow a CBPR approach are important in promoting cancer awareness in the African-American community. Including community partner assessment can further elucidate critical intervention impacts and helps to address health disparities in underserved communities.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Behavior, School of Public Health and Health Professions, The State University of New York at Buffalo, 3435 Main Street, 321 Kimball Tower, Buffalo, NY 14214, USA. emr4@buffalo.edu
authors.forename: Elisa M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Rodriguez
authors.forename: Janice V
authors.initials: JV
authors.lastname: Bowie
authors.forename: Shannon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Frattaroli
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gielen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American; D000368:Aged; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D055812:Community-Based Participatory Research; D005260:Female; D006266:Health Education / Q000379:methods*; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening; D008875:Middle Aged; D012068:Religion and Medicine