ASSESSING THE FEASIBILTY AND EDUCATIONAL IMPACT OF PROVIDING SICKLE CELL DISEASE EDUCTION IN BARBERSHOPS AND SALONS IN THE AFRICAN AMERICAN COMMUNITY

Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a severe autosomal recessive blood disorder that affects around 1 in 500 African Americans in the United States. Approximately, 1 in 12 African Americans are carriers of sickle cell trait (SCT). The high prevalence of sickle cell trait carriers highlights the importance of having education and trait testing available for individuals, particularly those, who are of childbearing age. Misconceptions and misinformation about sickle cell disease and sickle cell trait can be the reason for an individual to not be motivated to get sickle cell trait testing. This study was created to provide education to the African American community. A pre-post survey research design was used to evaluate 1) knowledge acquisition and retention among study participants who received genetic counseling in the barbershop and beauty salon; and 2) the feasibility of delivering a health education module on sickle cell disease in barbershops and salons in the African American community. As a result of this project, knowledge of sickle cell disease, concern over trait testing, and attitudes toward receiving genetic counseling in a non-clinical setting were evaluated. The data collected suggested that there was significant knowledge gain in 7 of the 9 knowledge questions administered with a p-value <0.05. Concern about trait testing remained low for both the pre and post questionnaires. Attitude about trait testing and genetic counseling remained high for both the pre and post questionnaires as well, resulting in an overall supportive attitude about trait testing and genetic counseling. The mean amount of knowledge gain overall knowledge questions were evaluated using a paired t-test with significance (p<0.05). Overall knowledge gain had a significance of (p