Session: Innovative Alcohol and Drug Health Disparities Research for Underserved Populations Drawing from Qualitative Methodologies (Society for Prevention Research 26th Annual Meeting)

The goal of this symposium session is to present a series of innovative alcohol and drug health disparities research studies with under-served populations (Appalachian communities, Latino immigrant men, and the US/Mexico Border population). These studies apply qualitative methodologies for optimizing recruitment and engagement, in curriculum development, and in understanding help-seeking. This symposium addresses SPR conference themes on optimizing the relevance of prevention science to systems. This symposium examines community-based research with health disparity populations, as conducted within three diverse regions of the country.

The first paper, “Strategies for Engaging Latino Immigrant Men in a Community-based Alcohol Research Study,” reports on the competing priorities of Latino day laborers, and systemic strategies to engage and recruit them into a community-based research study. Observations from research staff and participant input have identified culturally-relevant engagement strategies that also offer fair compensation. These strategies also include Latino staff outreach using telephone calls and text messaging.

The second paper, "Teacher Adaptations to Challenges of a School-Based Drug Education Curriculum" reports on major challenges in youth engagement, and intervention fidelity-adaptations as conducted by middle school teachers from a rural region of the nation that has the highest rates of drug mortality. These teachers identified limitations in manualized curriculum contents in their relevance for rural culture youth. This limitation has prompted the need to supplement the curriculum with well-selected curriculum contents and activities that appeal to students’ interests. The author offers suggestions for adaptations to drug education curriculum that also maintain fidelity to the original intervention’s theoretical focus.

The third paper, “Help-Seeking for Mexican-Origin Men: A Qualitative Inquiry to Inform the Cultural Adaptation of Alcohol Brief Motivational Interviewing” explores help-seeking for Mexican-origin men who are at-risk for alcohol problems. The authors illustrate how values shape help-seeking, and can inform adaptive interventions. Results are based on Project Valor a Cultural Adaptation of Brief Motivational Interviewing.

An expert on health promotion and relapse prevention with under-served populations, will serve as the discussant. After these three presentations, the discussant will identify common challenges and culturally-relevant solutions for engaging and promoting intervention acceptability among these diverse and vulnerable populations. The main aim is to improve engagement and intervention acceptability within these health disparity populations.