Understanding african american women church members' health decision-making and described behavior: a qualitative inquiry

Abstract

This' dissertation described the processes that African-American women church members used to make health decisions and investigated the experiences and perceptions that faith had on this cohort's health beliefs. African-American women historically have suffered disproportionately from health disparities, and African-American women church members have played a central role as their families' primary caregiver. It is perceived that faith-based interventions can be effective at reducing health disparities. However, there is little understanding of the impact on the health decision-making process. By . undertaking an investigation into this process in a cohort of African-American women church members, this study incorporated and advanced nursing theories used to guide the development of risk-reduction interventions through describing and delineating the role of faith-based health decision-making. A purposive, intensity sample of eleven African-American women church members were recruited to participate. . Naturalistic inquiry methodology was used to analyze the interview data, answering the following questions: 1) What process(es) do African-American women church members use to make health decisions, and what health behaviors do these women describe? 2) What is the role of faith (if any) in the health beliefs of African-American . women church members? VI The results indicated religious faith was integrated throughout the health decisionmaking process; additionally, three overarching processes were used by the study subjects, which are described herein as: 1) Believing in God, 2) Empowering Self, and . 3) Using Resources. This demonstrated that their faith was a major influence in the lives participants and that faith impacted their competence and ability to be empowered and resourceful-as well as influenced health decision-making. Due to the targeted, purposive sampling methods along with.the qualitative nature of the data obtained from study participant interviews, these research results cannot be generalized to the genera~ population of African-American women. Nevertheless, understanding the process of health decision~making in this sample may be important to enabling researchers, clinicians and clergy to promote further research regarding the interplay of faith in health decision-making, risk reduction activities, and quality of life. The implications for nursing theory, practice and research, and empowering the community are included, and provide the essential foundation for this study.