A health needs assessment process in the African American faith community to develop a church-based multilevel health promotion intervention

African Americans are disproportionately burdened with health problems, including diabetes, heart disease, and limited access to health care. Using a CBPR approach, we conducted a health needs assessment process in collaboration with our Kansas City (KC) FAITH Initiative Community Action Board (CAB) to identify: a) priority health disparity issues (e.g., asthma, diabetes, violence) of importance to the African American faith community and b) relevant church-appropriate intervention strategies for development of a multilevel health church-based intervention. Hence, a CAB-guided needs assessment process was completed over a 6 month-period and included: a) reviewing national and local African American health disparity data; b) identifying over 110 empirically-tested and home-grown intervention strategies to address health disparities; c) developing a needs assessment survey inclusive of health disparity issues and potential intervention strategies; d) administering needs assessment surveys in 11 KC African American churches (449 participants); and e) holding a community forum to share and gain input on survey findings with church-community members and stakeholders. Survey findings identified diabetes/heart disease/ stroke as top concerning health issues and related feasible/important intervention strategies (e.g., Coordinate church walking groups and adopt a health foods church policy) for church-based implementation. This needs assessment process guided development of a multilevel, church-based health promotion intervention to increase diabetes/heart disease/stroke preventive behaviors, receipt of health screenings, and linkage to care services among African American church-community populations. Benefits/challenges of conducting the needs assessment process and the resulting intervention project will be discussed.