Interdisciplinary GCSU study seeks to improve preventive health messaging to immigrants

By Gil Pound

I mmigrants to the United States are more focused on assimilating to their new culture than preventive healthcare, according to a peer-reviewed study involving multiple Georgia College & State University academic departments.

Led by associate professor of public health Dr. Ernest Kaninjing, the ongoing research seeks to give healthcare professionals a framework to better communicate with immigrants adjusting to their new culture.

The multiyear study centers on sub-Saharan African immigrant men and prostate cancer, which is 70% more common in Black males, though findings could be expanded to other immigrant populations and diseases.

"Healthcare professionals who work with immigrants need a framework to understand some of the issues these people are dealing with," Kaninjing said. "Understanding where they are can help clinicians better show them there are services here if these people can avail themselves of them. You don't have to wait and become a statistic."

Sub-Saharan African immigrants, or SSAIs, are an expanding populace in the United States. Their number has grown 16-fold since 1980 and tripled since the year 2000.

The study finds that in moving to America there are many factors weighing on the minds of SSAIs, including obtaining legal status, finding housing and transportation, learning a new language and gaining employment.

Preventive health, meanwhile, is taking a back seat. That decision can prove fatal, even with a survivable disease like prostate cancer where early detection is key. The American Cancer Society says the five-year survival rate for localized or regionalized prostate cancer is greater than 99%. Given time to spread more distantly, though - like while an immigrant transitions to a new country - the survival rate drops drastically to 38%.

"What we're trying to do is change the thought pattern to be more proactive as opposed to reactive," said Kaninjing. "Our model explains the reasons why immigrants may be reactive and what can be done to change that."

Sixty-eight SSAI men were interviewed for the study. Kaninjing enlisted the help of Georgia College School of Health & Human Performance colleague Dr. Damian Francis and his epidemiology class. Students under Department of Psychological Science Professor Dr. Whitney Heppner aided with psychometric analysis, and Department of Mathematics Professor Dr. Jebessa Mijena lent his statistics expertise.

Students used survey questions developed by the research team to interview subjects, giving students research experience that makes them 81% more likely to be hired upon graduation, according to the American Association of Colleges and Universities.

"Throughout the project we made a multitude of informed consent forms, and we really had to understand what we were asking of people," said senior public health major Kiley Jones.

"Seeing what this research does and how it affects people was a really valuable hands-on experience," said Katherine Kennedy ('26), a recent GCSU nursing graduate with a minor in public health. "In epidemiology we look at the statistics and other research, but it was great being on the ground floor and seeing how that data is obtained."

Patterns emerged throughout the interview process, leading to the creation of an infographic defining the various phases of the acculturation process. Kaitlin Van Voorhis ('23, '25), a double Bobcat with a Bachelor of Public Health and Master of Science in Health and Human Performance with a health promotion concentration, helped create the visual model as a graduate student.

"As interviews were coming in, we started seeing concepts and connecting the dots between everything," said Van Voorhis, who now works for the American Red Cross. "We saw instances where these people who haven't spoken to each other have the same concerns. It was really interesting to be part of making this research visual because pictures transcend language."

Findings were published in the peer-reviewed journal, BMC Public Health. Based on that manuscript, Kaninjing was invited to present at the World Congress on Cancer Research and Therapy in Rome, Italy, this June.

The next step will be to determine what interventions are warranted at the clinician level to improve health outcomes.

"Our goal is to make sure we're changing the narrative of late-stage diagnosis," Kaninjing said.

Header Images: Dr. Kaninjing presenting at the World Congress on Cancer Research and Therapy in Rome. Brennan Rae Walker ('24) and Kaitlin Van Voorhis ('23, '25) at the American Association for Cancer Research Conference in Orlando, Florida, in 2023. (Photos: Dr. Ernest Kaninjing)