Despite the ever-growing presence of Black immigrant college students in the United States, little is known about their unique campus experiences or their mental health outcomes as it relates to psychopolitical determinants of well-being. This qualitative study aimed to explore the unique psychopolitical experiences of 14, first- and second-generation Black immigrant college students attending predominately White institutions in the United States. Using the theoretical frameworks of critical race theory, intersectionality, and psychopolitical validity to guide our study, a phenomenological approach uncovered six themes and 11 subthemes: (1) collective well-being, (2) relational well-being, (3) individual well-being (purpose; health and wellness; critical consciousness), (4) collective suffering (neocolonialism, oppressive policies, and political violence; institutional oppression; barriers to mental health care), (5) relational suffering (implicit racial bias, stereotypes, and microaggressions; violence and brutality), and (6) individual suffering (ethno-racial trauma; isolation; school-related stress). We highlight implications for practitioners working with Black immigrant college students such as providing culturally responsive mental health care and advocating for decolonized and antiracist trainings at predominately White institutions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

The Affordable Care Act includes a call for community health care workers (CHWs) to be integrated into health care delivery systems to improve health care quality. In recent years, there have been increasing calls for community-based participatory research (CBPR) and patient-centered outcomes research (PCOR), as such types of research hold much potential for identifying interventions to reduce health and health care disparities. Yet, little is known about the research training, knowledge, experience, and even interest of CHWs in these types of research or in health research in general (HR). Thus, the purposes of this study include determining if there are differences between participating CHWs (N = 202) in their levels of training, knowledge, experience, and interest in relation to CBPR, PCOR and HR. Findings suggest that certified CHWs, as compared to non-certified CHWs, have significantly higher knowledge levels across all three types of research (β = 1.3, p = .007). Additionally, participants had significantly higher knowledge of HR compared to CBPR (β = 0.5, p = .015), but not higher than their knowledge of PCOR (p > .5). Qualitative data analyses performed to determine research areas of interest among the participating CHWs resulted in eighteen major research interest themes. Examples of these major themes are chronic illness (n = 95), health promotion (n = 39), healthcare services and administration (n = 30), mental health (n = 29), and research evaluation and methodology (n = 26). Together, the findings suggest that though CHWs have an interest in a wide range of health research areas, they could benefit from research trainings tailored to their responsibilities and interests.

Black older adults experience poorer health and health-related outcomes than their non-Hispanic White counterparts. Novel, tailored strategies to promote health and prevent adverse health-related outcomes that are aligned with the preferences and values of Black older adults are needed given the limited effectiveness of “one-size-fits-all” approaches. The present study evaluated the impact of a 9-week, community-based participatory research-informed program called the Health-Smart Holistic Health Program for Seniors that aimed to improve health and prevent adverse outcomes among Black older adults by targeting body mass index (BMI), loneliness, food insecurity, and physical and psychological health-related quality of life. Participants ( N = 139) were community dwelling, economically disadvantaged Black older adults living in an underserved area. Results indicated that from pre-intervention to post-intervention there were (a) significant decreases in BMI, loneliness, and food insecurity and (b) significant increases in the participating seniors’ psychological and physical health-related quality of life. Most of these changes were maintained at a 3-month post-intervention follow-up. These results have implications for similar efforts attempting to prevent adverse health outcomes among Black older adults, a high-risk and understudied group. Such efforts should be tailored and should address factors at multiple levels.

Non-Hispanic Black women have the highest rates of overweight/obesity of any group in the United States. To date, few interventions have worked to reduce overweight/obesity in this population. This study investigated the views of Black women with overweight and obesity treated in a primary care setting regarding desired and undesired verbal and non-verbal behaviours by providers in provider-patient clinical encounters focused on losing weight, maintaining weight loss, and/or obesity. Two focus groups and an individual interview (n = 15) were conducted. Qualitative data analysis yielded five distinct themes, with 11 codes (listed in parenthesis): (a) desired weight-focused discussions (codes: Discussing weight loss with patients and discussing weight-loss maintenance with patients), (b) desired weight-focused support (codes: Supporting patients experiencing weight loss and supporting patients experiencing weight gain), (c) undesired weight-focused discussions (codes: Things to avoid during weight loss discussions and things to avoid during weight gain discussions), (d) desired attitudes and behaviours during weight-focused discussions (codes: Show caring and understanding and encourage behaviour change for weight loss), and (e) building physician-patient rapport (codes: Enable patients to feel respected by doctors, enable patients to feel comfortable with doctors and enable patients to trust their doctors). The qualitative approach employed in this study generates a deep understanding not only of the experiences of Black women patients but also of potential strategies that physicians could employ to succeed in their discussions with patients regarding healthy weight achievement and maintenance.

Background: Health initiatives have been established in many workplaces to promote healthy behaviors among employees. Health Self-Empowerment Theory (HSET) suggests that personal, modifiable factors, such as motivation to engage in healthy behaviors, are pathways to increasing such behaviors. Purpose: The present study examined the effects of the Health-Smart Behavior Program(TM) (Health-Smart), which is informed by HSET, on levels of perceived motivators of and barriers to engaging in healthy eating and physical activity among a sample of employees at a large health insurance company. Methods: Participants were 97 culturally diverse employees at this company who were divided into intervention and control groups. Results: From pre-intervention to post-intervention, the intervention group experienced significantly greater increases in motivators to engage in healthy eating and physical activity and significantly greater decreases in barriers to engaging in these behaviors. Discussion: Health-Smart may be effective in increasing motivation to engage in healthy behaviors among workplace employees. Translation to Health Education Practice: This study suggests that health educators who develop workplace health promotion programs use a theoretical framework (e.g., HSET) to inform these programs, implement a first-step program to increase motivators of and reduce barriers to these behaviors, and empirically evaluate these programs.