The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA

Abstract #55936

Julie Gast, PhD and Emily Whitney, BS. Health, Physical Education, and Recreation, Utah State University, 7000 Old Main Hill, Utah State University, Logan, UT 84322-7000, 435-797-1490, julieg@cc.usu.edu

Women’s church groups are an excellent way to reach and assess the health concerns of a diverse group of women in terms of socioeconomic status, education levels, employment status, and race/ethnicity. Additionally, it is important in program planning to involve the participants in the needs assessment process. To achieve this crucial step, this study conducted a health needs assessment. For the needs assessment four focus groups were held with a volunteer sample of women (n=38) from four separate church denominations (Presbyterian n=10, Church Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints n=9, Catholic n=7, and Episcopal n=12). Of interest was (1) perceptions of health issues in the community (2) perceptions of health concerns of women in general (3) personal health concerns and behaviors related to health (4) utilization of health services and suggestions for improvement of services and (5) interest in church based health promotion programs. Data were analyzed using N5 software. As expected, some concerns appeared to be universal across denominations while other issues seemed more specific to women of certain denominations. Part of this could be that the focus group participants tended to be of similar age for a church denomination. Issues of local culture and health also varied by focus group (e.g., living in a predominantly LDS community). Other themes and implications will be discussed in the presentation.

Learning Objectives:

At the conclusion of the session, the participant (learner) in this session will be able to:
• Identify why focus groups were used to obtain needs assessment data with female church memebers
• List the differences in perceived health needs for community women by church denomination
• List the common concerns in perceived health needs for community women by church denomination
• Identify how focus group participants learned about health services in the communities as well as what services were most often utilized in the community.

Keywords: Faith Community, Health Education

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.