Purpose/Objectives To assess the efficacy of Korean Immigrants and Mammography—Culture-Specific Health Intervention (KIM-CHI), an educational program for Korean American (KA) couples designed to improve mammography uptake among KA women. Design A two-group cluster randomized, longitudinal, controlled design. Setting 50 KA religious organizations in the Chicago area. Sample 428 married KA women 40 years of age or older who had not had a mammogram in the past year. The women and their husbands were recruited from 50 KA religious organizations. Methods Couples were randomly assigned to intervention or attention control groups. Those in the KIM-CHI program (n = 211 couples) were compared to an attention control group (n = 217 couples) at baseline, as well as at 6 and 15 months postintervention on mammogram uptake. Main Research Variables Sociodemographic variables and mammography uptake were measured. Level of acculturation was measured using the Suinn-Lew Asian Self-Identity Acculturation Scale. Researchers asked questions about healthcare resources and use, health insurance status, usual source of care, physical examinations in the past two years, family history of breast cancer, and history of mammography. Findings The KIM-CHI group showed statistically significant increases in mammography uptake compared to the attention control group at 6 months and 15 months postintervention. Conclusions The culturally targeted KIM-CHI program was effective in increasing mammogram uptake among nonadherent KA women. Implications for Nursing Nurses and healthcare providers should consider specific health beliefs as well as inclusion of husbands or significant others. They also should target education to be culturally relevant for KA women to effectively improve frequency of breast cancer screening.

Background Despite the widely known benefits of physical activity, people with disabilities are more likely to be inactive when compared to people without disabilities. Previous questionnaires that measure barriers physical activity for people with disabilities do not measure barriers from an ecological perspective. Objective The purpose of this study was to develop the Barriers to Physical Activity Questionnaire for People with Mobility Impairments (BPAQ-MI) that measures barriers using an ecological framework. Methods This study consisted of two phases. In Phase one, developed the content validity by (a) developing an item bank, (b) identifying missing items and combining items using a Delphi panel, and (c) refine item wording via cognitive interviews. In Phase two, people with mobility impairments took part in in-person interviews to establish test-retest reliability, internal consistency, and construct validity of the BPAQ-MI. Results Exploratory factor analysis revealed the BPAQ-MI was comprised of eight subscales or factors: health; beliefs and attitudes; family; friends; fitness center built environment; staff and policy; community built environment; and safety. The BPAQ-MI demonstrated very good test-retest reliability. Cronbach’s alpha ranged from 0.792 to 0.935. The BPAQ-MI showed significant negative correlations with exercise (minutes/week) and significant positive correlations between BPAQ-MI subscales and inactivity (hours/day). Conclusions The BPAQ-MI is the first questionnaire that places greater equity at measuring barriers to physical activity across the intrapersonal, interpersonal, organizational, and community domains. The BPAQ-MI has the potential to assist researchers in understanding the complex relationship between barriers and ultimately develop physical activity interventions that address these barriers.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore perceptions about barriers to Korean American immigrant women's seeking mental health services. Four focus groups were conducted with 27 Korean American participants, including two groups of providers and two groups of community women. Discussions were recorded and transcribed to identify and code themes. Barriers included language problems, cultural differences, lack of time, financial limitations, lack of transportation, lack of knowledge, lack of funding for community agencies, lack of partnership with churches, and perceived stigma. Recommendations include ethnically and linguistically matched mental health services, community outreach services, training for providers, and community education.

Relationships between smoking cessation behaviors and demographic characteristics and attitudes were analyzed among two groups of smokers, those who had and had not ever tried to quit. Telephone interviews were completed with 1501 smokers at baseline and at a 3 month follow-up. Multiple logistic regression analyses were used to identify factors that were associated with planning to quit, attempting to quit and quitting smoking within the two groups of smokers. Different patterns of correlates were found across groups and within the three outcome measures, indicating the potential importance of targeting interventions according to whether or not smokers have made a prior quit attempt. These findings also support the value of using multiple outcome measures in the smoking cessation process.

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