title: Health Promotion and Health Behaviors of Diverse Ethnic/Racial Women Cosmetologists: A Review.
abstract: Women from diverse ethnic/racial backgrounds have higher chronic disease mortality rates when compared to White non-Hispanic women. Community-based programs, such as beauty salons, have been used to reach diverse ethnic/racial women, yet little is known about diverse ethnic/racial women cosmetologists' involvement in health promotion and their health behaviors, which is the purpose of this review. The growing beauty salon health promotion literature indicates that their roles in these studies have been varied, not only as health promoters but also as recruiters, facilitators, and in general major catalysts for investigator-initiated studies. However, the review also identified a major void in the literature in that there were few studies on health behaviors of diverse ethnic/racial women cosmetologists, especially African American women cosmetologists. Recommendations include increasing the capacity of diverse ethnic/racial women cosmetologists as community health leaders and investigating their health status, knowledge, attitudes, and practices.
authors.affiliation: Project Assistant, Center on Better Health and Life for Underserved Populations, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA.
authors.forename: Naomi
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Thelusma
authors.affiliation: Professor, Dean Emeritus, and Director, Center on Better Health and Life for Underserved Populations, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA.
authors.forename: Penny
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ralston
keywords: beauty salons; cosmetologists; diverse ethnic/racial women; health behaviors; health promotion