title: Recruitment and Participation of African American Men in Church-Based Health Promotion Workshops.
abstract: Health promotion interventions in African American communities are frequently delivered in church settings. The Men's Prostate Awareness Church Training (M-PACT) intervention aimed to increase informed decision making for prostate cancer screening among African American men through their churches. Given the significant proportion and role of women in African American churches, the M-PACT study examined whether including women in the intervention approach would have an effect on study outcomes compared with a men-only approach. The current analysis discusses the men's participation rates in the M-PACT intervention, which consisted of a series of 4 bimonthly men's health workshops in 18 African American churches. Data suggest that once enrolled, retention rates for men ranged from 62 to 69 % over the workshop series. Among the men who were encouraged to invite women in their lives (e.g., wife/partner, sister, daughter, friend) to the workshops with them, less than half did so (46 %), suggesting under-implementation of this "health partner" approach. Finally, men's participation in the mixed-sex workshops were half the rate as compared to the men-only workshops. We describe recruitment techniques, lessons learned, and possible reasons for the observed study group differences in participation, in order to inform future interventions to reach men of color with health information.
authors.affiliation: Department of Behavioral and Community Health, School of Public Health, University of Maryland, 2369 School of Public Health Building (255), College Park, MD, 20742, USA. drsaunders2@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Darlene R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Saunders
authors.affiliation: Department of Behavioral and Community Health, School of Public Health, University of Maryland, 2369 School of Public Health Building (255), College Park, MD, 20742, USA. cholt14@umd.edu.
authors.forename: Cheryl L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Holt
authors.affiliation: Department of Behavioral and Community Health, School of Public Health, University of Maryland, 2369 School of Public Health Building (255), College Park, MD, 20742, USA.
authors.forename: Daisy
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Le
authors.affiliation: Community Ministry Prince of George's County, Upper Marlboro, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Jimmie L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Slade
authors.affiliation: Access to Wholistic and Productive Living Institute, Inc., Lanham, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Bettye
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Muwwakkil
authors.affiliation: Community Ministry Prince of George's County, Upper Marlboro, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Alma
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Savoy
authors.affiliation: Access to Wholistic and Productive Living Institute, Inc., Lanham, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Ralph
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Tony L
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: Whitehead
authors.affiliation: Department of Behavioral and Community Health, School of Public Health, University of Maryland, 2369 School of Public Health Building (255), College Park, MD, 20742, USA.
authors.forename: Min Qi
authors.initials: MQ
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Michael J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Naslund
mesh_terms: D001741:Black or African American / Q000193:education*; D055088:Early Detection of Cancer; D005260:Female; D006266:Health Education / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D054526:Men's Health; D008875:Middle Aged; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000208:ethnology; D012067:Religion; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors
keywords: Community-based participatory research; Health disparities; Health promotion; Prostate cancer; Recruitment