In order to operationalize and develop preventative/therapeutic health delivery systems into tangible outcomes that successfully meet the needs of any vulnerable sub-population, researchers must examine and understand the multiple meanings of the social categories of race, gender and old age that can lead to cumulative vulnerability. The study will specifically draw on two distinct sample populations of older African American women (aged 40-55 and 56 and over), and will include women who have utilized preventative health care services (e.g. mammograms, and other screening tests) and those who have not. It is reasoned that women of these two age groups may have distinct health care seeking behavior, different social support networks, as well as divergent health conditions associated with aging. The proposed study will obtain detailed qualitative information on life events, as well as quantitative information on the use of preventative and curative health care services by older African American women. This study will utilize key informants and document African American women's health care seeking behavior through individual in-depth interviews with (40) women and focus group interviews. In addition, focus groups will be conducted with health care providers/practitioners who work with this population. A mixed method approach allows for a more careful, detailed investigation of how predisposing, enabling and service factors may impact decisions to access and utilize preventive services (e.g., annual physicals, mammograms, pap smears, etc.) as well as curative health care services (e.g., follow-up, therapeutic services, etc).
| Sims, Colette Marie (2010) Ethnic notions and healthy paranoias: understanding of the context of experience and interpretations of healthcare encounters among older Black women. Ethn Health 15:495-514 |
