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Diabetes among African American women is a pressing health concern, yet there are few evaluated culturally relevant prevention programs for this population. This article describes a case study of the Eat Well Live Well Nutrition Program, a community-based, culturally specific diabetes prevention nutrition program for African American women. The stages of change theory and principles from community organization guided the development of the program. Health education strategies, including participatory development and program delivery by peer educators, were applied to promote cultural relevance. Results indicated that overall participants (90%) believed the program to be culturally relevant and were very satisfied with the program (82%). Cultural relevancy was significantly associated with greater program satisfaction and changes in dietary patterns when controlling for the number of sessions attended. Conclusions suggest that participatory strategies can be effective in designing culturally specific prevention programs for African American women.

This study assesses attitudes toward elderly nursing home clients as interviewed by 255 aides from three Black cultural groups: Afro-Americans; English-speaking Caribbeans; and Haitians. Results indicate that aides from all three groups had generally positive attitudes toward the elderly and the English-speaking Caribbean group expressed the most positive attitudes. Aides did express some negative attitudes toward the families of the elderly residents for not taking care of the elderly at home. Results were interpreted as reflecting the cultural norms of the three groups which included the infrequent placement of elderly persons in nursing homes. Findings indicated a need for inservice workshops in cultural diversity for aides who serve clients from different cultural groups. Social work curricula should prepare graduate social workers to conduct such experiences.

The Perceptions of the Elderly Scale (PES) was administered to a sample of 246 aides working in nursing homes in the New York Metropolitan Area. The aides represented three Black American cultural groups: African Americans, English-speaking Caribbean Blacks (including Jamaicans, Trinidadians, and Barbadians) and Haitians. Members of these groups make up the overwhelming majority of nursing home aides in New York City. The results indicated that aides from all three groups had generally favorable attitudes toward the elderly, but the English-speaking Caribbean groups expressed significantly more favorable attitudes than aides in either of the two other groups. The observed differences were attributed to the traditional role of the older individual within West Indian culture as disciplinarian and authority figure. Implications for in-service education are discussed.