Collins O Airhihenbuwa
Biographic Data
| ID | 257131 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Collins O Airhihenbuwa |
| GIVEN NAMES | Collins |
| FAMILY NAME | O Airhihenbuwa |
| SIGNATURE | AIRHIHENBUWA C O |
| AFFILIATIONS | Pennsylvania State University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5789-1551 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 31 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 417 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 31 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1987 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Building capacity for HIV and implementation science among students in the United States: The stimulating training and access to HIV research experiences (STAR) program
Background: Expanding HIV research capacity among the global majority (individuals identifying as Black/African American, American Indian and Alaska Native, Asian, Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander, Multiracial, and Hispanic/Latino) is important. However, achieving national goals to increase the pool of implementation science and HIV early-stage investigators from underrepresented backgrounds remains elusive, largely due to limited inves…
Stimulating training and access to HIV research experiences (STAR program): A protocol for a crowdsourced, project-based, implementation science training program using mixed-methods design
Background: HIV is more common among underrepresented minority adolescents and young adults (AYA, 13-24 years old) in the United States. Low uptake of HIV prevention services suggests a missed opportunity for implementing evidence-based interventions such as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and sexually transmitted infection testing among this important population. Most research institutions in the United States also have limited opportunities for…
Intersectional stigma and resilience in the uptake of cervical cancer prevention services in Nigeria: A qualitative study
BACKGROUND: Cervical cancer is one of the leading causes of death among women in Africa, but stigma often delays cervical cancer prevention. We explore the perceptions, enablers and nurturers through the lens of intersectional stigma in the uptake of cervical cancer prevention services in Nigeria. METHOD: Indepth interviews and focus group discussions were conducted among women aged 30-65 years and girls aged 9-26 years in Lagos, Nigeria. Data we…
Improving training on hepatitis B research in Nigeria: Findings from an innovation bootcamp to strengthen capacity
We organized an Innovation Bootcamp for young people in Nigeria to develop strategies promoting the uptake of the hepatitis B birth dose vaccine among newborns, which remains low, with an estimated coverage of 52%. This event was a collaborative, cross-disciplinary capacity-building platform to generate creative solutions addressing barriers to Hepatitis B vaccine uptake. The purpose of this study was to describe the bootcamp activities that addr…
Reimagining Partnerships Between Black Communities and Academic Health Research Institutions: Towards Equitable Power in Engagement
Community-Engaged Research (CER) arose as a means of increasing the democratic participation of communities that study outcomes directly impact. CER has been identified as a recommended approach for conducting biomedical and behavioral health research with Black communities, a population that has been excluded from and exploited by academic health research for centuries. However, solely increasing community participation without identifying and r…
Music as a strategy to improve hypertension and stroke management: Evidence from a crowdsourcing open call and designathon in Nigeria
The designathon produced various music genres, including afrobeats, rap, and R&B, with lyrics deemed feasible and socio-culturally appropriate. This suggests that music interventions tailored to Nigeria could enhance public awareness of hypertension and stroke prevention if scaled up
Applying the PEN-3 cultural model to explore and improve cancer survivorship in Black and Latinx people in the US
The findings of this study will add to a body of knowledge on using a cultural lens to deepen our understanding cancer survivorship inequities and may inform culturally tailored cancer survivorship interventions in Black and Latinx communities
An innovation bootcamp model for developing youth-led HIV self-testing delivery strategies in Nigeria: Post-designathon capacity building
Introduction: Many designathons, hackathons, and similar participatory events suffer from minimal training and support after the events. Responding to this need, we organized a health innovation bootcamp: an intensive, team-based apprenticeship training with research and entrepreneurial rigor among young people in Nigeria to develop HIV self-testing (HIVST) delivery strategies for Nigerian youth. The purpose of this paper was to describe an innov…
Decolonization and antiracism: Intersecting pathways to global health equity
In this paper, as Black scholars, we address ways that interventions designed to promote equity in health can create pathways for coupling decolonization with antiracism by drawing on the intersection of the health of Africans and African Americans. To frame this intersection, we offer the Public Health Critical Race Praxis (PHCRP) and the PEN-3 Cultural Model as antiracism and decolonization tools that can jointly advance research on colonizatio…
Young people’s preferences for HIV self-testing services in Nigeria: A qualitative analysis
HIV self-testing preferences among Nigerian youth appear to be influenced by several factors including lower cost, less invasive testing method, location of testing, and linkage to care and support post testing. Findings underscore the need to address young people's HIV self-testing preferences as a foundation for implementing programs and research to increase the uptake of HIVST
Structural Interventions to Reduce and Eliminate Health Disparities
Health disparities research in the United States over the past 2 decades has yielded considerable progress and contributed to a developing evidence base for interventions that tackle disparities in health status and access to care. However, health disparity interventions have focused primarily on individual and interpersonal factors, which are often limited in their ability to yield sustained improvements. Health disparities emerge and persist th…
Disclosure Narratives of Women Living with HIV in South Africa
This study explored the disclosure narratives of women living with HIV (WLWH) to establish how they make sense of the stigmatized identity associated with HIV and decisions to conceal or reveal knowledge of their seropositive status to others. Forty‐eight WLWH participated in seven focus group discussions (with 42 participants) and six in‐depth interviews about their experiences with living with HIV and disclosure of their HIV seropositive status…
The Pan-University Network for Global Health: Framework for collaboration and review of global health needs
In the current United Nations efforts to plan for post 2015-Millennium Development Goals, global partnership to address non-communicable diseases (NCDs) has become a critical goal to effectively respond to the complex global challenges of which inequity in health remains a persistent challenge. Building capacity in terms of well-equipped local researchers and service providers is a key to bridging the inequity in global health. Launched by Penn S…
Role of healthcare in childbearing decision-making of WLHA in Nigeria: Application of PEN-3 cultural model
Healthcare experiences among women living with HIV/AIDS (WLHA), determine their utilisation of sexual and reproductive health services, which ultimately influences their decisions on childbearing. This study aimed to understand the importance of healthcare support in the childbearing decision-making processes of WLHA, and its impact on eliminating new paediatric HIV infections. We conducted in-depth interviews between July and August 2012 with 15…
Prevalence, determinants and systems-thinking approaches to optimal hypertension control in West Africa
BACKGROUND: In West Africa, hypertension, once rare, has now emerged as a critical health concern and the trajectory is upward and factors are complex. The true magnitude of hypertension in some West African countries, including in-depth knowledge of underlying risk factors is not completely understood. There is also a paucity of research on adequate systems-level approaches designed to mitigate the growing burden of hypertension in the region. A…
“He Doesn't Love Me Less. He Loves Me More”: Perceptions of Women Living With HIV/Aids of Partner Support in Childbearing Decision-Making
Our purpose in this study was to understand the importance of male partner support in the childbearing decision-making processes of women living with HIV/AIDS (WLHA) by exploring their perceptions of support after disclosure, prepartum, and postpartum. We conducted in-depth interviews with 15 WLHA who were receiving clinical HIV care at a teaching hospital in Lagos. Results show that all male partners were consistently supportive, except the part…
Framing the impact of culture on health: A systematic review of the PEN-3 cultural model and its application in public health research and interventions
HIV Positive Women's Perceptions of Stigma in Health Care Settings in Western Cape, South Africa
We explored the cultural context of HIV positive women's perceptions of stigma in health care settings in Western Cape, South Africa. We conducted seven focus groups with women living with HIV/AIDS in Gugulethu and Khayelitsha. We used deductive/inductive approaches to identify themes. Fifty-one women participated, with ages ranging from 18 to 47. Using the PEN-3 model as a guide, we detected these emergent themes: expectation of care (perception…
Cultural Expectations and Reproductive Desires: Experiences of South African Women Living With HIV/Aids (WLHA)
We explored factors influencing sexual and reproductive (SR) decisions related to childbearing for women living with HIV/AIDS (WLHA) in South Africa. We conducted four focus group interviews with 35 women living with HIV/AIDS. Our results show that the SR health care needs of women were not being addressed by many health care workers (HCWs). Additionally, we found that health care decisions were influenced by partners and cultural expectations of…
Cultural Implications of Death and Loss from Aids Among Women in South Africa
Over 1.8 million people have died of AIDS in South Africa, and it continues to be a death sentence for many women. The purpose of this study was to examine the broader context of death and loss from HIV/AIDS and to identify the cultural factors that influenced existing beliefs and attitudes. The participants included 110 women recruited from 3 communities in South Africa. Focus group methodology was used to explore their perceptions surrounding d…
HIV and Aids-related stigma in the context of family support and race in South Africa
Within the context of the family race, cultural values, and religious and spiritual values all contribute to HIV stigma in South Africa. Interventions should address the role of stigma within families in order to promote better HIV prevention, treatment, and care
Rethinking HIV/Aids Disclosure Among Women Within the Context of Motherhood in South Africa
This qualitative study explored whether motherhood plays a role in influencing decisions to conceal or reveal knowledge of seropositive status among women living with HIV/AIDS in 2 South African communities: Gugulethu and Mitchell's Plain. Using the PEN-3 cultural model, we explored how HIV-positive women disclose their status to their mothers and how HIV-positive mothers make decisions about disclosure of their seropositive status. Our findings …
Critical Race Theory, Race Equity, and Public Health: Toward Antiracism Praxis
Racial scholars argue that racism produces rates of morbidity, mortality, and overall well-being that vary depending on socially assigned race. Eliminating racism is therefore central to achieving health equity, but this requires new paradigms that are responsive to structural racism's contemporary influence on health, health inequities, and research. Critical Race Theory is an emerging transdisciplinary, race-equity methodology that originated i…
The public health critical race methodology: Praxis for antiracism research
Stigma, Culture, and HIV and Aids in the Western Cape, South Africa: An Application of the PEN-3 Cultural Model for Community-Based Research
HIV- and AIDS-related stigma has been reported to be a major factor contributing to the spread of HIV. In this study, the authors explore the meaning of stigma and its impact on HIV and AIDS in South African families and health care centers. They conducted focus group and key informant interviews among African and Colored populations in Khayelitsha, Gugulethu, and Mitchell's Plain in the Western Cape province. The audio-recorded interviews were t…
Critical Race Theory, Race Equity, and Public Health: Toward Antiracism Praxis
Racial scholars argue that racism produces rates of morbidity, mortality, and overall well-being that vary depending on socially assigned race. Eliminating racism is therefore central to achieving health equity, but this requires new paradigms that are responsive to structural racism's contemporary influence on health, health inequities, and research. Critical Race Theory is an emerging transdisciplinary, race-equity methodology that originated i…
The public health critical race methodology: Praxis for antiracism research
Cultural aspects of African American eating patterns
The high mortality from diet-related diseases among African Americans strongly suggests a need to adopt diets lower in total fat, saturated fat and salt and higher in fiber. However, such changes would be contrary to some traditional African American cultural practices. Focus group interviews were used to explore cultural aspects of eating patterns among low- and middle-income African Americans recruited from an urban community in Pennsylvania. I…
Structural Interventions to Reduce and Eliminate Health Disparities
Health disparities research in the United States over the past 2 decades has yielded considerable progress and contributed to a developing evidence base for interventions that tackle disparities in health status and access to care. However, health disparity interventions have focused primarily on individual and interpersonal factors, which are often limited in their ability to yield sustained improvements. Health disparities emerge and persist th…
Culture and African contexts of HIV/Aids prevention, care and support
Culture plays a vital role in determining the level of health of the individual, the family and the community. This is particularly relevant in the context of Africa, where the values of extended family and community significantly influence the behaviour of the individual. The behaviour of the individual in relation to family and community is one major cultural factor that has implications for sexual behaviour and HIV/AIDS prevention and control …
Stigma, Culture, and HIV and Aids in the Western Cape, South Africa: An Application of the PEN-3 Cultural Model for Community-Based Research
HIV- and AIDS-related stigma has been reported to be a major factor contributing to the spread of HIV. In this study, the authors explore the meaning of stigma and its impact on HIV and AIDS in South African families and health care centers. They conducted focus group and key informant interviews among African and Colored populations in Khayelitsha, Gugulethu, and Mitchell's Plain in the Western Cape province. The audio-recorded interviews were t…
Rethinking HIV/Aids Disclosure Among Women Within the Context of Motherhood in South Africa
This qualitative study explored whether motherhood plays a role in influencing decisions to conceal or reveal knowledge of seropositive status among women living with HIV/AIDS in 2 South African communities: Gugulethu and Mitchell's Plain. Using the PEN-3 cultural model, we explored how HIV-positive women disclose their status to their mothers and how HIV-positive mothers make decisions about disclosure of their seropositive status. Our findings …
Disclosure Narratives of Women Living with HIV in South Africa
This study explored the disclosure narratives of women living with HIV (WLWH) to establish how they make sense of the stigmatized identity associated with HIV and decisions to conceal or reveal knowledge of their seropositive status to others. Forty‐eight WLWH participated in seven focus group discussions (with 42 participants) and six in‐depth interviews about their experiences with living with HIV and disclosure of their HIV seropositive status…
HIV and Aids-related stigma in the context of family support and race in South Africa
Within the context of the family race, cultural values, and religious and spiritual values all contribute to HIV stigma in South Africa. Interventions should address the role of stigma within families in order to promote better HIV prevention, treatment, and care
Nigerian Heads of Households' Attitudes Toward Modern and Traditional Medicines
Two hundred and fifty five heads of households were surveyed in Iyekuselu district, Bendel state, Nigeria. Fifteen villages were randomly selected from the list of 107 villages that constitute the district. A total of seventeen heads of households were interviewed in each of the fifteen villages. This survey was conducted to assess the attitudes of subjects toward modern medicine and traditional medicine. The heads of households generally express…
Cultural aspects of African American eating patterns
The high mortality from diet-related diseases among African Americans strongly suggests a need to adopt diets lower in total fat, saturated fat and salt and higher in fiber. However, such changes would be contrary to some traditional African American cultural practices. Focus group interviews were used to explore cultural aspects of eating patterns among low- and middle-income African Americans recruited from an urban community in Pennsylvania. I…
A Critical Assessment of Theories/Models Used in Health Communication for HIV/Aids
Most theories and models used to develop human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) communication are based on social psychology that emphasizes individualism. Researchers including communication and health scholars are now questioning the presumed global relevance of these models and thus the need to develop innovative theories and models that take into account regional contexts. In this paper, we discuss the c…
HIV/Aids and the African-American Community: Disparities of Policy and Identity
Collins O. Airhihenbuwa, J. DeWitt Webster, Titilayo Oladosu Okoror, Randy Shine, Neena Smith-Bankhead, HIV/AIDS and the African-American Community: Disparities of Policy and Identity, Phylon (1960-), Vol. 50, No. 1/2 (2002), pp. 23-46
Culture and African contexts of HIV/Aids prevention, care and support
Culture plays a vital role in determining the level of health of the individual, the family and the community. This is particularly relevant in the context of Africa, where the values of extended family and community significantly influence the behaviour of the individual. The behaviour of the individual in relation to family and community is one major cultural factor that has implications for sexual behaviour and HIV/AIDS prevention and control …
HIV/Aids and ‘othering’ in South Africa: The blame goes on
In order to explore the relevance of social concepts such as stigma and denial to the transmission of HIV, this qualitative study sought to examine cultural and racial contexts of behaviour relevant to the risk of HIV infection among South Africans. A cultural model was used to analyse transcripts from 39 focus group discussions and 28 key informant interviews. Results reveal how cultural and racial positionings mediate perceptions of the groups …
Stigma, Culture, and HIV and Aids in the Western Cape, South Africa: An Application of the PEN-3 Cultural Model for Community-Based Research
HIV- and AIDS-related stigma has been reported to be a major factor contributing to the spread of HIV. In this study, the authors explore the meaning of stigma and its impact on HIV and AIDS in South African families and health care centers. They conducted focus group and key informant interviews among African and Colored populations in Khayelitsha, Gugulethu, and Mitchell's Plain in the Western Cape province. The audio-recorded interviews were t…
HIV and Aids-related stigma in the context of family support and race in South Africa
Within the context of the family race, cultural values, and religious and spiritual values all contribute to HIV stigma in South Africa. Interventions should address the role of stigma within families in order to promote better HIV prevention, treatment, and care
Rethinking HIV/Aids Disclosure Among Women Within the Context of Motherhood in South Africa
This qualitative study explored whether motherhood plays a role in influencing decisions to conceal or reveal knowledge of seropositive status among women living with HIV/AIDS in 2 South African communities: Gugulethu and Mitchell's Plain. Using the PEN-3 cultural model, we explored how HIV-positive women disclose their status to their mothers and how HIV-positive mothers make decisions about disclosure of their seropositive status. Our findings …
Critical Race Theory, Race Equity, and Public Health: Toward Antiracism Praxis
Racial scholars argue that racism produces rates of morbidity, mortality, and overall well-being that vary depending on socially assigned race. Eliminating racism is therefore central to achieving health equity, but this requires new paradigms that are responsive to structural racism's contemporary influence on health, health inequities, and research. Critical Race Theory is an emerging transdisciplinary, race-equity methodology that originated i…
The public health critical race methodology: Praxis for antiracism research
HIV Positive Women's Perceptions of Stigma in Health Care Settings in Western Cape, South Africa
We explored the cultural context of HIV positive women's perceptions of stigma in health care settings in Western Cape, South Africa. We conducted seven focus groups with women living with HIV/AIDS in Gugulethu and Khayelitsha. We used deductive/inductive approaches to identify themes. Fifty-one women participated, with ages ranging from 18 to 47. Using the PEN-3 model as a guide, we detected these emergent themes: expectation of care (perception…
Cultural Expectations and Reproductive Desires: Experiences of South African Women Living With HIV/Aids (WLHA)
We explored factors influencing sexual and reproductive (SR) decisions related to childbearing for women living with HIV/AIDS (WLHA) in South Africa. We conducted four focus group interviews with 35 women living with HIV/AIDS. Our results show that the SR health care needs of women were not being addressed by many health care workers (HCWs). Additionally, we found that health care decisions were influenced by partners and cultural expectations of…
Cultural Implications of Death and Loss from Aids Among Women in South Africa
Over 1.8 million people have died of AIDS in South Africa, and it continues to be a death sentence for many women. The purpose of this study was to examine the broader context of death and loss from HIV/AIDS and to identify the cultural factors that influenced existing beliefs and attitudes. The participants included 110 women recruited from 3 communities in South Africa. Focus group methodology was used to explore their perceptions surrounding d…
Prevalence, determinants and systems-thinking approaches to optimal hypertension control in West Africa
BACKGROUND: In West Africa, hypertension, once rare, has now emerged as a critical health concern and the trajectory is upward and factors are complex. The true magnitude of hypertension in some West African countries, including in-depth knowledge of underlying risk factors is not completely understood. There is also a paucity of research on adequate systems-level approaches designed to mitigate the growing burden of hypertension in the region. A…
“He Doesn't Love Me Less. He Loves Me More”: Perceptions of Women Living With HIV/Aids of Partner Support in Childbearing Decision-Making
Our purpose in this study was to understand the importance of male partner support in the childbearing decision-making processes of women living with HIV/AIDS (WLHA) by exploring their perceptions of support after disclosure, prepartum, and postpartum. We conducted in-depth interviews with 15 WLHA who were receiving clinical HIV care at a teaching hospital in Lagos. Results show that all male partners were consistently supportive, except the part…
Framing the impact of culture on health: A systematic review of the PEN-3 cultural model and its application in public health research and interventions
The Pan-University Network for Global Health: Framework for collaboration and review of global health needs
In the current United Nations efforts to plan for post 2015-Millennium Development Goals, global partnership to address non-communicable diseases (NCDs) has become a critical goal to effectively respond to the complex global challenges of which inequity in health remains a persistent challenge. Building capacity in terms of well-equipped local researchers and service providers is a key to bridging the inequity in global health. Launched by Penn S…
Role of healthcare in childbearing decision-making of WLHA in Nigeria: Application of PEN-3 cultural model
Healthcare experiences among women living with HIV/AIDS (WLHA), determine their utilisation of sexual and reproductive health services, which ultimately influences their decisions on childbearing. This study aimed to understand the importance of healthcare support in the childbearing decision-making processes of WLHA, and its impact on eliminating new paediatric HIV infections. We conducted in-depth interviews between July and August 2012 with 15…
Disclosure Narratives of Women Living with HIV in South Africa
This study explored the disclosure narratives of women living with HIV (WLWH) to establish how they make sense of the stigmatized identity associated with HIV and decisions to conceal or reveal knowledge of their seropositive status to others. Forty‐eight WLWH participated in seven focus group discussions (with 42 participants) and six in‐depth interviews about their experiences with living with HIV and disclosure of their HIV seropositive status…
Structural Interventions to Reduce and Eliminate Health Disparities
Health disparities research in the United States over the past 2 decades has yielded considerable progress and contributed to a developing evidence base for interventions that tackle disparities in health status and access to care. However, health disparity interventions have focused primarily on individual and interpersonal factors, which are often limited in their ability to yield sustained improvements. Health disparities emerge and persist th…
Young people’s preferences for HIV self-testing services in Nigeria: A qualitative analysis
HIV self-testing preferences among Nigerian youth appear to be influenced by several factors including lower cost, less invasive testing method, location of testing, and linkage to care and support post testing. Findings underscore the need to address young people's HIV self-testing preferences as a foundation for implementing programs and research to increase the uptake of HIVST
An innovation bootcamp model for developing youth-led HIV self-testing delivery strategies in Nigeria: Post-designathon capacity building
Introduction: Many designathons, hackathons, and similar participatory events suffer from minimal training and support after the events. Responding to this need, we organized a health innovation bootcamp: an intensive, team-based apprenticeship training with research and entrepreneurial rigor among young people in Nigeria to develop HIV self-testing (HIVST) delivery strategies for Nigerian youth. The purpose of this paper was to describe an innov…
Decolonization and antiracism: Intersecting pathways to global health equity
In this paper, as Black scholars, we address ways that interventions designed to promote equity in health can create pathways for coupling decolonization with antiracism by drawing on the intersection of the health of Africans and African Americans. To frame this intersection, we offer the Public Health Critical Race Praxis (PHCRP) and the PEN-3 Cultural Model as antiracism and decolonization tools that can jointly advance research on colonizatio…
Building capacity for HIV and implementation science among students in the United States: The stimulating training and access to HIV research experiences (STAR) program
Background: Expanding HIV research capacity among the global majority (individuals identifying as Black/African American, American Indian and Alaska Native, Asian, Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander, Multiracial, and Hispanic/Latino) is important. However, achieving national goals to increase the pool of implementation science and HIV early-stage investigators from underrepresented backgrounds remains elusive, largely due to limited inves…
Medicine (24 works) · Sociology (17 works) · Psychology (13 works) · HIV/AIDS Research and Interventions (12 works) · Political science (11 works) · Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health (10 works) · Family medicine (10 works) · Nursing (10 works) · Public health (9 works) · Environmental health (8 works)