Charitable Food Distribution Sites Offer Novel Opportunities for XXXX Prevention Research and Intervention Among Vulnerable, Hard-to-reach, and Underserved Populations.

@entity1 @entity5
UNASSIGNED: @entity1 who live in food-insecure households face significant unmet health needs. At the same time, this population may be under-represented in clinical research studies because of the population's limited and intermittent engagement with the health care system. We describe preliminary results of a research partnership between UT Southwestern Medical Center (UTSW) and Crossroads Community Services (CCS), the largest charitable food distributor of the North Texas Food Bank. The goal of the study is to improve understanding of this population's health- and mammography-related needs, knowledge and service utilization. Eight structured focus groups were conducted in English (n = 4) and Spanish (n = 4) at CCS. Discussions focused on 13 open-ended questions designed to solicit group communication about members' health status, healthcare access, mammography awareness and utilization, and attitudes toward participation in future health research. @entity1 included 42 CCS clients, about 90% of whom were Hispanic or African-American @entity1 . Key findings include: (1) @entity1 reported multiple co-morbid conditions among themselves and household members, yet utilization of health services was cost-dependent and often limited to emergency triage. (2) Many @entity1 did not know what a mammogram was and utilization was closely linked to having health insurance, which most did not. (3) Despite reporting numerous daily life challenges, the majority were interested in participating in future research-related focus groups as a means of communicating their health needs and obtaining information and emotional support from peers. Recruitment from charitable food distribution sites will target a high-need, underserved population. The community-academic partnership between CCS and UTSW has created a robust foundation for @entity5 prevention research that has already produced important insights about the population's needs and willingness to participate in research. Ongoing research is focused on implementing longitudinal health assessments of CCS clients. These data will be used to guide future interventions to increase awareness and utilization of @entity5 prevention services, e.g. mammography, in a population facing multiple barriers to care.
