Assessing organizational readiness for the Clean Cuts and Sharp Minds Collective: a barbershop health promotion network.

BACKGROUND: Black men have among the lowest life expectancy in the United States. Alarmingly, these men are underrepresented in health promotion efforts. There are well-documented barriers to recruiting and retaining Black men in health promotion efforts, such as exclusionary research practices - many researchers may be hesitant to reach Black men in culturally unique spaces, such as barbershops. Despite these practices, qualitative research among Black men unanimously find that Black men are interested in health promotion efforts. The Clean Cuts and Sharp Minds Collective (CCSMC) was designed to bridge this gap. The objectives of the CCSMC are to train barbers to be lay advocates for their clients, train barbers to be research partners, and serve as a nexus between barbers interested in health promotion at their shops and researchers interested in implementing such efforts. The present study sought to assess the organizational readiness of barbershops in South Carolina (SC) to participate in the CCSMC. METHODS: Barbers in SC were invited to complete a modified version of the Readiness Thinking Tool to assess organizational readiness to participate in the CCSMC. RESULTS: Thirty-six (36; mean age = 41.12; 94.4% identified as Black; 91.7% identified as male) barbers completed the organizational readiness assessment. Results indicated that there was a high level of motivation, innovation-specific capacity, and general capacity within barbershops to participate in the CCSMC. Additionally, many barbers indicated that there would be widespread support to join the CCSMC. CONCLUSIONS: The results from the present study highlight exciting opportunities and future directions for barbershop-academic partnerships. Such partnerships have the potential to promote health equity among, and in partnership with, Black men.

Lessons Learned From a Community-Based Men's Health Fair.

INTRODUCTION: Strategies are needed to promote the uptake of preventive health services among Black, Hispanic, and rural men because these men underutilize health services. Previous research indicates that men prefer community-based health promotion programming, such as health fairs; however, specific guidance on how to tailor health fairs for Black, Hispanic, and rural men are lacking. The present seeks to study provides that guidance. METHODS: A multisectoral team developed, implemented, and evaluated a men's health fair in a county of South Carolina with a sizeable Black, Hispanic, and rural-dwelling population. Although the health fair was open to all men in the county, specific outreach campaigns were implemented to attract Black and Hispanic men. The health fair occurred on Father's Day weekend in 2023 and consisted of health screenings, health information, and other resources (eg, condoms, research studies). Participants who attended the health fair were asked to complete a check-in survey (N = 103) that assessed demographic information and how they heard about the health fair, followed by a survey (N = 58) that assessed facilitators/barriers to participation in a men's health fair. RESULTS: Results were stratified by the gender of respondent. The results highlight the facilitators/barriers experienced by men to attending health fairs and also highlight important differences in facilitators/barriers for men to attend a health fair as perceived by men and women. CONCLUSIONS: These findings have implications for the design and implementation of future men's health fairs to promote preventive health service use among Black, Hispanic, and rural men.

Community Health Worker Interventions for Men: A Scoping Review Using the RE-AIM Framework.

INTRODUCTION: Community health workers (CHWs) are health promotion specialists who are trusted members of the community served and have a close understanding of the community's needs and values. CHWs are a cost-effective and scalable workforce to promote health among men through tailored approaches. The purpose of the present review was to use the RE-AIM Framework to assess design, implementation, and outcomes of CHW-implemented health promotion efforts tailored for men to provide recommendations for future efforts. METHODS: The protocol was pre-registered with PROSPERO. The primary inclusion criteria were that the interventions were (a) implemented at least partially by CHWs, (b) conducted only among men, and (c) designed to improve a health-related outcome. PubMed, EMBASE, PsycINFO, CINAHL, Web of Science, and Global Index Medicus were searched using a librarian-generated search strategy. In all, 1,437 articles were uploaded to Rayyan and two reviewers blindly reviewed each article for inclusion. A total of 24 articles met the inclusion criteria. RESULTS: Most interventions (a) targeted men under 50 years, (b) were conducted among a subset of underserved men, (c) improved health outcomes, (d) community-based and informed, (e) atheoretical, and (f) had satisfactory retention rates. The roles and responsibilities of CHWs were varied. Attention was given to training of CHWs, but limited attention was given to how/if the CHWs were supervised. DISCUSSION: CHW-implemented interventions can improve health outcomes among men. Opportunities exist to build on past interventions, such as addressing mental health and incorporating prosocial aspects of masculinity. The results have implications for designing similar interventions.

Understanding and Promoting Preventive Health Service Use Among Black Men: Community-Driven and Informed Insights.

Black men experience high rates of adverse health that can be prevented or mitigated by the regular use of preventive health services. Efforts are urgently needed to promote this type of health service use among Black men. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force and the Institute of Medicine indicate that such efforts must align with Black men's values, perspectives, and preferences. However, little guidance exists on how to align these efforts for Black men. The present qualitative study was developed to understand factors associated with preventive health service use among Black men and community-informed strategies to promote preventive health service use among these men. An approach rooted in community-based participatory research and ecological theory was used. A core leadership team consisting of five Black men from the area guided the project's development, implementation, and evaluation. The core leadership team conducted 22 interviews with Black men from their communities. Four themes emerged from these interviews: (1) holistic well-being challenges faced by Black men: interaction of mental, physical, and societal forces; (2) the interplay of financial, informational, and gendered barriers/facilitators to using preventative health services among Black men; (3) the importance of shared identity in peer health education about preventive health service use; and (4) the need for community-centered initiatives to improve preventive health service use among Black men that prioritize accessibility and information. Findings of the present study can be used to tailor preventive health service use efforts for Black men. Such efforts have the potential to promote health and mitigate health disparities.

Implementing barbershop-based health-promotion interventions for Black men: A systematic scoping review.

OBJECTIVE: Health-promotion efforts among Black men in the United States have been limited in their ability to recruit, retain, and produce meaningful health-related changes. These difficulties have led to Black men being referred to as a "hard-to-reach" population-a designation that places undue blame on these men as opposed to the dissemination and implementation strategies being used by health-promotion specialists. Gender- and race-based strategies that align with the lived experiences of these men are likely to circumvent these challenges. Barbershops are cultural institutions that are uniquely positioned to promote health among Black men. There is little guidance on how to develop, implement, and evaluate barbershop-based efforts. This scoping review seeks to provide this guidance by applying the RE-AIM framework to analyze existing interventions. METHOD: Information was identified by searching the following bibliographic databases: PubMed, EMBASE PsycINFO, CINAHL, and Web of Science. A grey literature search was conducted using Web of Science and ClinicalTrials.gov. Results were uploaded to Rayyan. Each article was independently and blindly assessed by two reviewers. A third reviewer blindly resolved any discrepancies. Data were then independently extracted by the two reviewers. Discrepancies were flagged and resolved collaboratively. RESULTS: Results indicate that barbershop-based health-promotion efforts that prioritize community engagement and intentional alignment to the gender- and race-based lived experiences of Black men are likely to result in satisfactory recruitment, retention, and health-related changes among these men. CONCLUSIONS: More intervention efforts are needed that target young Black adults, rural Black men, mental health outcomes, and which implement peer-to-peer models. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

The role of sense of community in improving the health-related quality of life among Black Americans.

Black Americans have the lowest life expectancy and health-related quality of life (HRQoL; a strong predictor of premature mortality) of any racial/ethnic group in the United States. Low rates of physical activity and engagement in healthy eating are two known contributors to low HRQoL. Black Americans are more likely to live in environments that inhibit engagement in these two contributors. The present study examined sense of community as a buffer against the adverse effects of low physical activity and healthy eating on HRQoL among Black Americans. A sample of 290 Black American adults were recruited for the present study. Results indicate that sense of community buffers against the adverse effects of low physical activity on HRQoL. The results of the present study can be used by health promotion interventionists and policy-makers to improve HRQoL and reduce premature mortality among Black Americans.

Predictors of Health-Related Quality of Life Among African American Men.

African American men have the lowest life expectancy of any ethnic gender group in the USA. Furthermore, these men endorse having a lower health-related quality of life (HRQoL) than any other group. There have been recent calls from national organizations to improve HRQoL-a multidimensional indicator of health strongly associated with mortality and morbidity. Following these calls, there have been widespread efforts implemented to improve HRQoL among the US population, though no known effort has been implemented that is tailored to the unique experiences of African American men. Health promotion efforts that are not tailored to the unique preferences and experiences of these men are likely to produce limited results. Formative research conducted among African American men is needed in order to design and implement an effective HRQoL-promoting intervention for African American men. The present study constitutes such formative research and was conducted with a sample of 211 African American men. Hierarchical regressions were performed to understand the role of literature-derived predictors of HRQoL among these men. Results found that depression, stress, and physical activity were found to be significant predictors of HRQoL among these men. This is the first known study to examine predictors of HRQoL among African American men-a group that disproportionately experiences health disparities and low HRQoL, though for who few successful health promotions exist. The findings from this study have implications for those seeking to design and implement HRQoL-promoting interventions among African American men.

Improving Recruitment, Retention, and Cultural Saliency of Health Promotion Efforts Targeting African American Men: A Scoping Review.

BACKGROUND: When health promotion efforts intend to include African American men, they experience challenges with recruitment and retention, in addition to limited cultural saliency-interventions that do not align the cultural preferences and experiences of the target population produce less effective results. PURPOSE: This scoping review provides an understanding of (a) how health promotion efforts among African American men are developed and implemented, in addition to the (b) main outcomes, (c) retention rates, and (d) methodological rigor of those efforts. METHODS: The following databases were used: PubMed, EMBASE (Ovid), PsycINFO (EBSCO), CINAHL (EBSCO), Web of Science (Clarivate), and ProQuest. Included studies were restricted to those: (a) conducted among African American men and (b) reported the effects of a health promotion intervention. Interventions using single-group pre-post study, post-test-only study, non-randomized controlled trial, and randomized controlled trial (RCT) study designs were included. RESULTS: The results indicate that varying degrees of customization in the design and implementation of health promotion efforts targeting African American can improve recruitment, retention, and health-related outcomes. Results draw attention to the need for community input when designing and implementing efforts targeting these men. CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate that opportunities exist to innovate health promotion efforts among African American men, such as the intentional incorporation of the community's values, perspectives, and preferences in the effort (i.e., cultural saliency) and explicitly indicating how the efforts were culturally tailored to improve saliency. Opportunities also exist to innovate health promotion efforts among African American men based on literature-derived best practices.

The Role of Modifiable, Self-Empowerment-Oriented Variables to Promote Health-Related Quality of Life Among Inadequately Insured Americans.

Inadequately insured Americans experience a disproportionately low health-related quality of life (HRQoL)-a multidimensional and subjective indicator of health associated with premature mortality. Although the inadequately insured are a growing and at-risk group of individuals, little research has examined factors associated with HRQoL within this population. Health Self-Empowerment Theory (HSET) and precision prevention influenced the conceptualization of this study. HSET is a health empowerment theory that recognizes the effects of certain cognitive-behavioral variables on health promotion within at-risk groups. Precision prevention advocates for individual or precise group-specific tailored and optimized health promotion approaches based on key sociodemographic variables. We investigated the impact of HSET variables on mental and physical HRQoL among 279 inadequately insured women and men who completed a questionnaire assessing HRQoL, health self-efficacy, health motivation, and active coping. Among the women in our sample, results indicate that exercise and psychological well-being self-efficacy were significantly and positively associated with mental and physical HRQoL. Among men, psychological well-being and responsible health practices self-efficacy, in addition to active coping, were significantly and positively associated with mental HRQoL. Psychological well-being self-efficacy and active coping were significantly and positively associated with physical HRQoL among men. The findings of our study suggest that HSET variables play an important role in the development of tailored HRQoL-promotion interventions for inadequately insured Americans, and that the roles of those variables may differ based on gender.

Peer-to-peer health promotion interventions among African American men: a scoping review protocol.

BACKGROUND: Health promotion efforts among African American men have been met with significant challenges and have produced limited results. Interventions that do not align with the values, perspectives, and preferences of African American men often produce less effective results. Research among African American men has provided compelling evidence that these men prefer informal networks of health support. Recent successful health promotion efforts among these men have benefited from peer-to-peer models of implementation. To date, no known scoping or systematic review of peer-to-peer health promotion interventions among African American men has been conducted. The goal of this scoping review is to understand the extent of, design, implementation, and use of peer-to-peer interventions to promote health, improve quality of life, and prevent disease among African American men. METHODS: A review of the literature will be performed in PubMED, EMBASE, PsycInfo, CINAHL, and Web of Science. The development of this protocol was guided by the work of Arksey and O'Malley and the PICOS statement. Reporting will be guided by the PRISMA-ScR checklist. Eligible studies include those testing the effects of a peer-to-peer health promotion intervention targeting African American men. A comparison group will not be required. For the purposes of the current review, "peers" will be limited to other African American men. An initial screening of the titles and abstracts of potentially eligible studies will be completed by two independent reviewers. The full text of records that appear to meet the eligibility criteria will be accessed and further screened. Data will then be extracted and collected using a custom Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. Extracted data will include authors' name and publication year, target health issue(s), design of the intervention, components of the intervention, peer-led components of the intervention, peer role, length and type of training for peer leaders, intervention duration, frequency of the intervention, study design and number of participants, and main outcomes. Finally, results will be presented in table format and summarized in text format. DISCUSSION: Results will have implications for the design, implementation, and evaluation of health promotion interventions among African American men. SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION: PROSPERO CRD42020198664.