Biomedical subjects

Evelyn L Lewis

Publications and source records attributed to Evelyn L Lewis.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Cultural competency training for third-year clerkship students: effects of an interactive workshop on student attitudes.

UNLABELLED: With an increasing awareness of health disparities, medical schools are challenged to develop training in cultural competency for their students. We developed and evaluated the effectiveness of an interactive workshop designed to improve third-year students' attitudes, beliefs and cross-cultural communication skills. METHODS: At the start of a six-week required family medicine clerkship, 196 medical students participated in small group (20-24 students) workshops. Didactics included facts about health disparities and a model of cultural competency. During a skill-building component, students were exposed to live vignettes portraying ineffective and effective cross-cultural doctor-patient interactions. Impact on students' attitudes, perceived bias and knowledge of techniques was assessed by comparing pre- and postworkshop scores. RESULTS: Participants increased their cultural awareness on most items of a cultural awareness scale. Fifty-five-, 71- and 66% of the sample agreed or strongly agreed the program was valuable, appropriate and effective, respectively. Conversely, only 17-, 6- and 9% of the sample disagreed or strongly disagreed, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: A workshop for third-year students led to an increase in cultural awareness and was considered appropriate and valuable. Further study, including longitudinal training and evaluation, is needed regarding effective methods to increase cultural competence in clinical practice.

Adult↗

PubMed2005

Church-based obesity treatment for African-American women improves adherence.

This study compared adherence to Behavioral Choice Treatment (BCT), a 12-week obesity treatment program that promotes weight loss and exercise, among 22 Caucasian-American and 10 African-American overweight women in a university setting to 10 African-American overweight women in a church setting. Behavioral Choice Treatment (BCT) promotes moderate behavior change that can be comfortably and therefore permanently maintained. Participants obtained feedback from computerized eating diaries and kept exercise logs. Results indicated that both university groups exhibited comparable eating pathology at pre- and post-treatment and comparable weight loss, despite the African-American sample attending fewer sessions. The African-American church group exhibited less disordered eating attitudes, less interpersonal distrust (eg, reluctance to form close relationships or sense of alienation) at pre-treatment, and experienced significantly greater weight loss than either university group. All groups lost weight and maintained these losses at 12-month follow-up. Preliminary results suggest treatment setting may play an important role in treatment adherence and sample characteristics.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2004

Factor structure, reliability, and validity of the Penn State Worry Questionnaire: differences between African-American and White-American college students.

This study examined differences in the factor structure of the Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ) between African-American (n=181) and White-American (n=180) college students. Results from a confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the traditional single-factor solution did not provide the best fit for the data from either ethnic group. A multiple-group factor analysis indicated that underlying structure of Factor 1 was roughly equivalent between ethnic groups. Structure of Factor 2, however, differed between groups. Specifically, item 10 loaded on different factors for each group. In support of these analyses, an exploratory factor analyses (EFA) among White-American participants indicated the presence of a two-factor model while an EFA among African-Americans indicated the presence of three factors. Despite some overlap in the overall factor structure between ethnic groups, African-Americans scored significantly lower on the PSWQ than the White-American group. Furthermore, among African-Americans level of ethnic identity was negatively related to state and trait measures of anxiety, but unrelated to measures of depression and worry.

Adult↗