Barriers to health care and health-seeking behaviors faced by Black men

Purpose: To describe unique barriers to health care and health-seeking behaviors faced by Black men and to make recommendations to healthcare providers for improving healthcare access for Black men. Data sources: A PubMed search for research articles published after 1999 was conducted. Conclusions: The articles selected for this state of the science clinical paper addressed barriers to access faced by Black men and/or management strategies used to mitigate barriers and improve access. The barriers identified include socioeconomic status, masculinity, racism, lack of awareness of the need for primary care, religious beliefs, and peer influences. As singular entities, these may not appear unique, but when viewed collectively, they represent an overwhelming constellation of obstacles for Black men. Implications for practice: Individual, community, state, and national level recommendations for nurse practitioner actions to improve healthcare access for Black men include public service announcements, radio commercials, and billboards aimed at raising awareness of healthcare issues in the Black community, provision of preventive services through health fairs, and development of positive provider-patient relationships.