Promoting Health Equity with Qualitative Research
Washington, D.C. – The Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE) announces the publication of Health Education & Behavior’s (HE&B) special theme issue, “Advancing the Science of Qualitative Research to Promote Health Equity.”
Co-edited by HE&B Associate Editors Derek M. Griffith, PhD, Rachel C. Shelton, ScD, MPH, and Michelle C. Kegler, DrPH, this issue examines innovative ways health education and behavioral researchers are using qualitative research to advance health equity. Fifteen peer-reviewed articles explore uses of qualitative methods such as Photovoice, ethnographic interviews, oral histories, focus groups, and in-depth individual interviews. A community-based participatory research approach is prominent in several papers.
In their opening editorial, the associate editors underscore the critical role that qualitative research plays in considering and incorporating a diverse array of contextual information that is difficult to capture in quantitative research. They explain how the qualitative approaches seek to
“reduce, if not eliminate, the artificial separation between the research subject and object that limits our ability to understand the phenomena … brings into sharper focus the subjective meaning of health behaviors and psychosocial determinants of health.”
The theme issue showcases how qualitative research is being used to expand the health equity lens across a variety of public health issues such as cancer, HIV, HPV, condom use. childhood obesity, and school nutrition policy.
Through this issue, SOPHE seeks to catalyze new discussions among researchers and practitioners about uses of qualitative research in understanding complex attitudes and behaviors and better explain why disparities exist and what can be done to reduce or eliminate them.
Limited open access is available to the featured articles :
Advancing the Science of Qualitative Research to Promote Health Equity by editors Derek M. Griffith, PhD; Rachel C. Shelton, ScD, MPH; and Michelle Kegler, DrPH, MPH
“You Have to Approach Us Right”: A Qualitative Framework Analysis for Recruiting African Americans Into mHealth Research by Delores C. S. James, PhD, Cedric Harville, MPH, Orisatalabi Efunbumi, MS, Ida Babazadeh, BS, Sheriza Ali, BS
Read the full issue online . http://journals.sagepub.com/toc/hebc/current
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Contact: Liz Marshall (202) 408-9804 ext. 160 lmarshall@sophe.org
About Health Education & Behavior (HE&B)
Health Education & Behavior explores social and behavioral change as they affect health status and quality of life. It also examines the processes of planning, implementing, managing, and assessing health education and social-behavioral interventions. The journal provides empirical research, case studies, program evaluations, literature reviews, and discussions of theories of health behavior and health status, as well as strategies to improve social and behavioral health. For more information, visit http://heb.sagepub.com/
