Enhancing health attitudes and information engagement among African American men using an online health education intervention.

Background and objectives: In this article, we describe the results of a 6-month follow-up assessment among African American (AA) men who participated in the Black Men's Health Forum, a 6-week online health education intervention.

Methods: A pre-post survey design was used to capture attitudes and behaviors before and 6-months after the intervention. The 6-month follow-up used the health conscious scale, Health Information Orientation Scale (HIOS), and the Short Multidimensional Inventory Lifestyle Evaluation (SMILE) to assess changes in attitudes toward health, health information seeking, and health behaviors. In addition, the influence of accountability partners among AA male participants of the forum was examined.

Results: A sample of 24 AA men [61.7 years of age (range: 34.1 to 75.9 years of age)] completed the follow-up. Participants became more self-aware of their health (5.6 to 6.2, p = 0.0093), more motivated to improve health (5.8 to 6.5, p = 0.0181), and took more personal responsibility for their health (5.6 to 6.4, p = 0.0099). Results from the HIOS revealed that health information engagement increased among participants (2.7 to 3.1, p = 0.0168).

Conclusions: AA men's attitudes towards health and information engagement were successfully improved through an online health education intervention. In addition, we leveraged family and friends in the lives of men to serve as a support system for men in the study to help improve health behaviors.