CARDIOVASCULAR HEALTH PROMOTION IN NORTH FLORIDA AFRICAN-AMERICAN CHURCHES

Traditionally, many African American churches have strived to meet the religious, social, educational and cultural needs of their communitie s. Some churches also address health problems as a part of their churc h's mission. Culturally specific, church-based programs for African Am ericans have been shown to be necessary due to the increased mortality and morbidity in these populations. The purpose of this article is to describe cardiovascular problems of minority populations to explore w ays that churches can help their communities, and to describe the outc omes of a model intervention on four African American churches in nort h Florida. Positive outcomes were observed, particularly regarding com munity members' participation in health-promotion activities.