New centers to focus on health disparities.

Abstract

CHICAGO—Countless studies have shown that racial and ethnic minorities in the United States are at much higher risk than whites for a number of serious health conditions, often even after socioeconomic status is taken into account. In light of this enduring health gap, the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) is targeting $60.5 million to establish eight centers at academic institutions across the United States to support research aimed at understanding and reducing differences in health outcomes, access, and care. Claude Allen, deputy secretary of DHHS, announced the grants during a press conference on September 12 at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). The grant money, dispersed over a 5-year period, will be shared by 11 institutions to establish eight “Centers for Population Health and Health Disparities” (see chart). The program follows recent recommendations from the National Academy of Sciences calling for approaches to health disparities that integrate research in the natural, behavioral, and social sciences to create better understanding of disease pathways. According to the DHHS, the centers will form a network of research teams “to explore the complexity of health disparities.” The research will feature a community-based approach in studies focusing on obesity, cardiovascular disease, cancer, mental health, and other factors. Populations to be studied include low-income whites, blacks, Hispanics, and elderly individuals. “The problem is very complex, and a solution needs to be equally complex,” said Sarah Gehlert, PhD, who will direct one of the new centers, at the University of Chicago’s School of Social Service Administration. Using both animal and human studies, Gehlert plans to explore why American black women of African ancestry have an unusually high rate of breast cancer at an early age. “Black women experience a disproportionate burden of premenopausal breast cancer for reasons that remain unknown and understudied,” Gehlert said. The research, which will involve collaborators in Nigeria and draw insights from social workers, psychologists, physicians, and molecular geneticists, will explore multiple possible factors that may contribute to breast cancer in black women. Researchers at the new center at UIC will study why mortality rates for breast and other cancers are much higher in blacks and Hispanics than in whites. In the initial investigation, which will focus on breast cancer, the investigators will partner with the Chicago Department of Public Health and the Healthcare Consortium of Illinois, an organization on the city’s South Side that addresses health disparities. The goal: to study how a woman’s neighborhood, social network, and psychological profile, including issues of faith and fear, come into play when breast cancer symptoms appear or a diagnosis is made. “All these individual, demographic, and sociocultural factors determine what kind of health care information a woman receives, how she interprets that information, and when she seeks treatment,” said Richard Warnecke, PhD, director of the new UIC center. Centers for Population Health and Health Disparities