title: Decisions to seek healthcare based on family health history among urban Appalachian women.
abstract: Family health history (FHH) is a valuable health promotion tool that can be used to assess disease risk and make lifestyle and screening recommendations. However, few FHH resources exist for medically underserved populations such as the urban Appalachian community in Cincinnati Ohio. Women of Appalachian heritage with less than a college education who did and did not participate in a prior FHH education session were interviewed by phone in a semi-structured format. Interviewees were asked to discuss their understanding of FHH and the role FHH played in seeking (or not seeking) medical care. Analysis of their discussion identified four overarching themes as well as a model identifying conditions that facilitated or impeded the choice to seek medical care based on FHH. Findings from this study may be used to develop targeted FHH educational interventions in the urban Appalachian and other communities.
authors.affiliation: College of Medicine, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, USA. rac5038@psu.edu
authors.forename: Robyn A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Cree
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lynch
authors.forename: Margaret G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Au
authors.forename: Melanie F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Myers
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001061:Appalachian Region / Q000453:epidemiology; D001294:Attitude to Health; D003657:Decision Making; D005192:Family Health; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008507:Medically Underserved Area; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011314:Preventive Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014505:Urban Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D055815:Young Adult