Member News

Creating a Circle of Support to Enhance Family Management of Children's Asthma

Cathy Jordan PhD, associate professor in the Department of Pediatrics and Director of the University of Minnesota Extension's Children, Youth and Family Consortium, and partners from the Sustainable Resources Center, Cultural Wellness Center and Maxfield Elementary in St. Paul, received a $60,000 grant from the Bigelow Foundation to support "Creating a Circle of Support to Enhance Family Management of Children's Asthma". In this project the partners will develop and evaluate a pilot comprehensive asthma management program including home trigger assessment, trigger control education, asthma management education, medication management and a culturally specific approach to supporting family behavior change to prevent asthma symptoms and promote health.

Emerging Scholars Interdisciplinary Network Fellowship Program

PHDR member and Post-Doctoral Associate Guy-Lucien S. Whembolua has been awarded for the 2011 Emerging Scholars Interdisciplinary Network's (ESIN) Fellowship Program in Applied Multi-Ethnic Research. This program offers the opportunity for a select group of early career scholars and young investigators to participate in methodological, statistical and professional development training. Fellowships are given out annually. Now in its sixth year, the ESIN has awarded fellowships to over 97 early career scholars and junior investigators from across the country.

The 2011 cohort will convene in Ann Arbor, MI at the University of Michigan for an initial training at the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) during the summer component of the Fellowship Program in Applied Multi-Ethnic Research held June 19-July 15, 2011. During the 4 week program, fellows will get the opportunity to meet with mentors, expand their knowledge in statistics and research methods and make professional connections.

Neighborhood Cohesion and Stroke Survival Among Seniors

The odds of surviving stroke appear to be much better for seniors living in neighborhoods where they interact with their neighbors and count on them for help, according to research from PHDR member Cari Jo Clark, Sc.D., and PHDR Associate Director Sue Everson-Rose, Ph.D., M.P.H., published recently in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association.

“Social isolation is unhealthy on many levels, and there is a lot of literature showing that increased social support improves not just stroke survival rates, but many other health outcomes in seniors,” said Cari Jo Clark, Sc.D., lead author of the study and assistant professor of medicine at the University of Minnesota Medical School. “What’s unique about our research is that we have taken this to the neighborhood level instead of just looking at the individual.” Read the full story.

Presidents' Civic Engagement Steward Award: Michele Allen, M.D., Department of Family Medicine and Community Health

Dr. Michele Allen has dedicated her career to the promotion of engaged scholarship and the elimination of health disparities. An Assistant Professor of Family Medicine and Community Health and an investigator with the University of Minnesota’s Program in Health Disparities Research, Dr. Allen focuses on culturally appropriate health promotion programs in the Latino community, specifically among adolescents. With the Minnesota Minority Education Partnership, she is developing a teacher-focused substance use prevention and resiliency promotion intervention for Latino youth. She is part of a multi-partner, collaborative, NIH-funded program, “Padres Informados/Jovenes Preparados,” which supports Latino families in preventing youth substance use (other partners include Aquí Para Ti/Here for You, Centro, and University of Minnesota Extension). She is also co-investigator on a research project that seeks to understand the effects of immigration and acculturation on health outcomes, specifically cardiovascular health, of immigrant families. Finally, Dr. Allen co-led another NIH-funded project, the Partners in Research training program, which offered separate but parallel training tracks for academic researchers and community members from immigrant and refugee communities in community-based participatory research. The program also matched researchers with community-identified projects, and represents an important effort to further institutionalize engaged work among U of M faculty.

This award is for a member of the faculty, administration, or staff or for a group (e.g., advisory committee, task force, project team) that has significantly advanced their campus’ distinctive civic mission by forming strong partnerships, supporting others’ civic engagement, and working to institutionalize a culture and practice of engagement. These award recipients, along with those selected by other Minnesota Campus Compact member campuses, will be honored at the Compact's Annual Summit and Awards Luncheon on Tuesday, June 14 at St. Catherine University.

Children of Smokers Have Carcinogens in Urine
U.S. researchers reported that about 90 percent of children between 1 month to 10 years who live with an adult smoker had tobacco-related carcinogens present in their urine. The average level of carcinogens found in the children was about 8 percent of the amount seen in smokers, researchers said. “This finding is striking, because while all of the researchers involved in this study expected some level of exposure to carcinogens, the average levels were higher than what we anticipated,” lead researcher Janet L. Thomas, Ph.D., an assistant professor of behavioral medicine at the University of Minnesota and member of the Medical School’s Program in Health Disparities Research, said in an American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) news release. Read the full story.

UMN Library Health Disparities Research Tutorial
Do you need help researching a health disparity topic in PubMed? Need some tips for framing your research question and utilizing search terms effectively? The Health Disparity Research tutorial is a short (10 minute) online tutorial that covers best practices for researching a health disparity topic in the published journal literature. This tutorial is available on their Website.

Evaluating School Nutrition Policies
PHDR investigator Susie Nanney, PhD, MPH, RD, has received a grant from Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for her project "Evaluating nutrition policies and practices in U.S. secondary schools: Do they vary by ethnicity, income or location?". This 2-year, $94,000 grant allows for the collection of nutrition and activity policies from U.S. schools through each state. Partners include Minnesota State Office of Education and Minnesota School Nutrition Association.

Social Factors Contributing to Retinopathy among Latinos
Few studies have addressed preventive eye care among Latinos by examining social factors. Michele Allen, MD, MS, is a University recipient of the 2008 Planning Grants in Health Disparities Research Program. In partnership with Hispanic Advocacy and Community Empowerment through Research (HACER), the study, "Examining Social Factors Contributing to Disparate Rates of Retinopathy among Latinos with Type II Diabetes in Minnesota" will conduct focus groups to identify whether Latinos with type II diabetes in Minnesota seek out preventive eye care. 

Culturally Sensitive Intervention for Peripheral Arterial Disease
PHDR investigator Tracie Collins, PhD, MPH has received funding from the President's Faculty Multicultural Research Award for her study "Minority Awareness of Peripheral Arterial Disease". The funding of $7,000 is designated for one year. This study seeks to identify peripheral arterial disease awareness among minority groups within the Twin Cities and to address culturally sensitive ways (e.g., Internet based programs) to improve disease knowledge.

Reducing Unconscious Bias in Clinical Settings
PHDR investigator Michelle van Ryn, PhD, has been awarded by UCare Minnesota for her study "Eliminating Disparities in Care: Development and evaluation of an interactive training module to reduce unconscious bias in providers' clinical decision-making ". There is overwhelming evidence of racial inequalities in health care, and a 2002 Institute of Medicine study reports racial and ethnic disparities are consistently found across a wide range of disease areas and clinical services. Increasing the perception of need for change and enhancing internal motivation to avoid bias, enhancing emotional regulation skills to promote positive emotions and reduce anxiety and physiologic stress reaction, and enhancing providers' confidence in their ability to successfully interact with socially dissimilar patients are included in the aims of this study. 

Psychosocial Factors and Stroke Risk
PHDR researcher Susan Everson-Rose, PhD, MPH has received $744,000 in funding from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute for her study "Psychosocial Factors and Stroke Risk in a Biracial Population". This 33-month study is designed to determine whether vulnerability to stress and/or increased stress exposure contributes to disparities in stroke risk between blacks and whites. Findings seek to inform future stoke prevention efforts, in particular, excess stroke risk among African Americans.

Response to Minnesota's Freedom to Breathe Act
PHDR postdoctoral associate Carla Berg, PhD, has received $145,260 from ClearWay Minnesota for survey and focus group work with 2-year colleges and 4-year universities to characterize young-adult market segments and their response to Minnesota's Freedom to Breath Act. Demographic differences exist between ethnicity and socio-economic status for students of 2-year colleges and 4-year universities. This 24-month study aims to further the understanding of the different rates of smoking between the school types and specifically why the rates are higher among 2-year college students.

Promoting Home Smoking Restrictions
PHDR member Janet Thomas, PhD, has received $132,000 from the American Heart Association for a 2-year study on home smoking restrictions. The primary aim of this study is to develop and test an educational intervention to encourage the adoption of home smoking restrictions in African American homes. The intervention will be delivered through home visits facilitated by a community health worker/researcher counselor team and give biomarker feedback to both the smoker and non-smoker regarding documented exposure to air pollutants, nicotine, cotinine and NNAL in order to increase the adoption of home smoking restrictions and to motivate the smoker to make an attempt to quit smoking.

Smoking and Homelessness
Kola Okuyemi, MD, MPH, Director for the Medical School's Program in Health Disparities Research and Cancer Center member was recently awarded a 4-year $2.8 million R01 grant by the National Institutes of Health (NHLBI) for a study titled, "Improving NRT Adherence and Outcomes in Homeless Smokers". This study fills a critical gap in smoking research by extending smoking cessation research to a poor and underserved population using pharmacotherapy and motivational counseling. Research outcomes will provide a model on overcoming barriers to cancer prevention services among homeless persons. Among the 4 million homeless people in the U.S., at least 70% are cigarette smokers.

NIH Native Investigator Development Program
Program in Health Disparities Research faculty member Tiffany Beckman, MD, was awarded the Native Investigator Development Program sponsored by the Resource Center for Minority Aging Research (RCMAR) in the American Indian and Alaska Native Programs at the University of Colorado Health Sciences. The grant's purpose is to increase the number of Native American and Alaska Native (AI/AN) Principal Investigators; currently only 14 out of 35,000 Principal Investigators are AI/AN. The two-year grant includes training in Seattle and Denver, development of a pilot study, and assistance with preparation of K or R01 grant during year two.

Ramsey County Center for National Children's Study
Program in Health Disparities Research faculty member Pat Fontaine, MD, MS, received a five-year $1.3 million award as co-investigator of a grant from the National Institutes of Health National Institute of Child Health and Human Development in October 2007 to establish a center for Ramsey County for the National Childresn's Study. The study examines environmental influences on pregnancy health along with infant, child, and youth health and development.