The intersection of gender, race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic status is a hallmark of being underserved in regard to access to and appropriateness of healthcare, as well as availability of resources to engage in widely recommended health-promotion activities. The authors whose work is collected here focus on subgroups of women who are underserved as a function of socioeconomic or ethnic minority status. The current supplement builds on the earlier Family & Community Health (Supplement 1, January-March 2006), which focused on health-promotion interventions for persons with chronic disabling conditions. Both publications are outcomes of an annual interdisciplinary conference and collaboration sponsored by the Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Research in Underserved Populations (CHPR) at The University of Texas at Austin. We thank Dolores V. Sands, Professor and Dean of The University of Texas at Austin School of Nursing, and the Cain Excellence Fund for financial support for the publication of these articles.

In recognition of the need to eliminate health disparities that underserved groups experience, the School of Nursing proposed and received funding from the National Institute of Nursing Research, National Institutes of Health (NIH), for the CHPR. Initially funded in 1999, the CHPR was refunded (P30NR005051) for the years 2005-2009. During this period, the CHPR is sponsoring 4 conferences for the dissemination of research and 4 invitational scholarly retreats (or collaboratories) to focus on theoretical, conceptual, and methodological issues related to health-promotion interventions for specific underserved groups.

This supplement issue of Family & Community Health is based on the CHPR collaboratory held immediately after the CHPR 2006 Annual Conference. All the articles included in this issue were conceptualized, drafted, discussed, and written in the collaboratory process and then underwent a peer-review process. The research letters were expanded from abstracts presented at the conference and were also peer reviewed.

Although our authors come from different backgrounds and institutions, their articles share many themes: women must be included in conceptualizing and designing healthcare and health-promotion research and interventions intended for them; we and other healthcare providers need to listen to women's own voices; our research effort and practice should represent women's concerns and interests. These themes are consistent with the women's health movement, which asserts that women should be at the center of decision making about their health; that diverse voices of women should be heard and respected in healthcare processes; and that women's health should be understood within their bio-psycho-sociopolitical-cultural situations.1

The authors also voiced how women themselves need to work together to identify and improve health-related circumstances in their lives, a stance that is philosophically congruent with social critical theory and feminist thought.2,3 This supplement examines and documents a range of topics related to women's health and particularly discusses activist methods (eg, community participatory research) and cultural considerations that arise when these topics are addressed. The first 5 articles address philosophical and theoretical issues related to health-promotion research with underserved women, while the second 5 deal with methodological approaches to research for health promotion of underserved women. Sampselle and Davis's contribution (expanded from their conference keynote) addresses gender and economic barriers faced by women as an underserved, understudied, and underestimated group. This theme is underscored in Im's article examining research on menopause from a feminist perspective and in Padilla and Villalobos's article on understanding culture within Mexican American families. Timmerman and Sanchez expand the conceptual foundations of research with underserved populations, and Fowles, Moore and Charvat, and Clingerman enrich the understanding of methodological choices in research with underserved women and cover collaborative methods, appreciative inquiry, and insider-outsider research teams. Adams's article brings to life the principles and lessons learned in a collaborative, community-based intervention with African American women. Closing the journal is an article by Walker and Sterling, which presents the structure of thriving among low-income women using the quantitative method of factor analysis.

We are certain that these articles will provide future direction for researchers and healthcare providers who are searching for ways to make advances in women's health. We are also sure that these articles will provide excellent stepping stones for promoting the health of women, particularly those who are underserved. We want to conclude this foreword with sincere thanks to the 641 women who participated in the studies that are reported or discussed here, as well as the numerous women who participated in the research cited here and whose contributions made our own possible.

We also acknowledge the contributions of a national panel of reviewers whose rigorous critiques, comments, and suggestions made this supplement possible.

Judith Berg, PhD, RNC, WHNP, FAANP

University of Arizona

Namkee Choi, PhD, MSW

The University of Texas at Austin

Elizabeth Chong, PhD, RN

George Mason University

Kirk Dearden, DrPH

Brigham Young University

Marie N. Fongwa, PhD, MPH, RN

University of California at Los Angeles

Joanne Hall, PhD, RN, FAAN

University of Tennessee

Tracie Harrison, PhD, RN

University of Texas at Austin

MarySue Heilemann, PhD, RN, APRN-BC

University of California at Los Angeles

Eugenie Hildebrandt, PhD, RN, APRN-BC

University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee

Deborah Koniak-Griffin, EdD, RNC, FAAN

University of California at Los Angeles

Kathryn Lee, PhD, RN, FAAN

University of California at San Francisco

Laura Lein, PhD

The University of Texas at Austin

Gwat-Yong Lie, PhD

University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee

Ramona Mercer, PhD, RN, FAAN

University of California at San Francisco

DeAnne Messias, PhD, RN

University of South Carolina

Sue Popkess-Vawter, PhD, RN, ARNP

University of Kansas

Carmen Portillo, PhD, RN, FAAN

University of California at San Francisco

Beth Rodgers, PhD, RN, FAAN

University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee

Judith Spiers, PhD

University of Alberta

Alexa Stuifbergen, PhD, RN, FAAN

University of Texas at Austin

Sandra Underwood, PhD, RN, FAAN

University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee

Antonia Villarruel, PhD, RN, FAAN

University of Michigan

Kyeongra Yang, PhD, MPH, RN

University of Pittsburgh

Eun-Ok Im, PhD, RN, FAAN

Lorraine O. Walker, EdD, RN, FAAN

Professor, School of Nursing, The University of Texas at Austin

Luci B. Johnson Centennial Professor in Nursing School of Nursing The University of Texas at Austin

REFERENCES