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NIH Funds Eight Centers for Population Health and Health Disparities
Health and Human
Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson announced today the creation of eight
Centers for Population Health and Health Disparities, designed to support
cutting-edge research to understand and reduce differences in health outcomes,
access and care. Four institutes or offices
within the National Institutes of Health (NIH) - the National Institute of
Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the
National Institute on Aging (NIA), and the Office of Behavioral and Social
Sciences Research - will support this transdisciplinary research to examine how
the social and physical environment, behavioral factors, and biologic pathways
interact to determine health and disease in populations.
These new grants,
which total $60.5 million over the next five years, address the recommendations
of recent reports from the National Academy of Sciences. The reports called for an approach to health
and health disparities that integrates research in the natural, behavioral and
social sciences to create a more comprehensive understanding of disease
pathways. The reports also stressed the
need to examine causation and intervention at the population and environmental
levels, rather than solely at the individual level.
"It is vital that all
populations benefit from scientific knowledge and advances," said Secretary
Thompson. "This initiative is an
exciting step toward understanding and eliminating health disparities for
numerous diseases throughout the United States."
The
eight centers will form a network of research teams to explore the complexity
of health disparities. Investigators
will follow a community-based research approach that involves community
stakeholders in the planning and implementation of research, with studies
focusing on obesity, cardiovascular disease, breast cancer, prostate cancer,
cervical cancer, mental health, gene-environment interactions, psychosocial
stress, and other factors. Populations
will include low-income whites, African Americans, Hispanics, and the elderly.
"Today,
people in this country of various backgrounds, ages, or socioeconomic levels
bear an unequal burden of disease," said NIH Director Elias A. Zerhouni. "These centers will perform innovative
research, collaborating extensively to address the important and complicated issue
of health disparities."
The
grants for the Centers for Population Health and Health Disparities include:
Center Name
and
Location
|
Center
Director/Principal Investigator
|
Focus
of Study
|
Grant
Funding
(per
year)
|
Ohio
State University
(Columbus,
Ohio)
and
University
of Michigan
(Ann
Arbor, Mich.)
|
Electra
Paskett, Ph.D.
|
The
overall goal of this project is to increase early detection of cervical
cancer by increasing the proportion of Appalachian women, age 18 and older,
who receive Pap tests at appropriate intervals and return for necessary
follow-up care. To address barriers
to cervical cancer screening in these women, the study will involve
educational sessions in the women's homes, as well as presentations by lay
health educators.
|
$1.455
million
from
NCI
|
RAND
Corporation
(Santa
Monica, Calif.)
|
Nicole
Lurie, M.D., MSPH
|
This
center will assess the impact of Los Angeles park improvements on the
physical activity and health of
local
residents. The study will be conducted
in partnership with the Department of Parks and Recreation and Neighborhood
Oversight Committees, and the Wilmington Coordinating Council, as well as the
Multi-Cultural Area Health Education Center, a community-based organization
whose mission is focused on improving health and wellness and reducing health
disparities among Latinos. Study
results will be presented to local authorities to inform future policy
decisions.
|
$1.400
million
from
NIEHS
|
Tufts
University
(Boston,
Mass.)
and
Northeastern
University
(Boston,
Mass.)
|
Katherine
Tucker, Ph.D.
|
This
center will conduct several research studies among
older adults
of Puerto Rican origin in Boston to evaluate the specific stressors affecting
the Puerto Rican community. The center
aims to gain a better understanding of the factors that lead to poor health
outcomes, and to determine how these processes link to the health disparities
observed in minority communities.
|
$1.600
million
from
NIA
|
University
of Chicago
(Chicago,
Ill.)
and
University
of Ibadan (Nigeria)
|
Sarah
Gehlert, Ph.D.
|
Researchers
will use an animal model to test the hypothesis that social isolation and
excess stress in African-American women of African ancestry increase the risk
of early, lethal breast cancers.
|
$1.330
million
from
NIEHS
and
$200
thousand from NCI
|
University
of Illinois
at
Chicago
|
Richard
B. Warnecke, Ph.D.
|
Researchers
will partner with the Healthcare Consortium of Illinois, a community-based organization
that addresses health disparities in the Chicago area, to examine the effects
of social context on stage of breast cancer diagnosis. The outcomes then will be applied to a
pilot project to test a community-based intervention.
|
$1.455
million from NCI
|
University
of Pennsylvania
(Philadelphia,
Pa.)
|
Timothy
Rebbeck, Ph.D.
|
This center will study the complex interaction of biological, clinical, behavioral, and environmental factors that are predictive of various prostate cancer outcomes. Researchers will evaluate how these factors explain disparities in outcomes by ethnicity and will disseminate this information to at-risk populations and the public health community.
|
$1.690
million
from
NCI
|
University
of Texas
Medical
Branch, Galveston
|
James
Goodwin, M.D.
|
This
project will explore the relationship between neighborhood context and
measures of health among Hispanics.
Investigators will explore the reasons for strong neighborhood effects
on health by examining several data sets linked to census data: Surveillance,
Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) data on cancer incidence and survival,
vital registration data on cancer mortality, and the National Health
Interview Survey-National Death Index file on cancer prevalence and mortality
and all-case mortality.
|
$1.700
million
from
NCI
|
Wayne
State University
(Detroit,
Mich.)
|
John
Flack, M.D., MPH
|
Researchers
will examine the effects of stressors, obesity, and genetic variation of
angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) and endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS)
genotypes on oxidative stress and salt sensitivity. This research will provide important new insights into the
pathophysiology of salt sensitivity in African Americans who are at high risk
for development of hypertension and related cardiovascular diseases.
|
$1.270
million
from
NIEHS
|
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