Expanding Vietnamese Community and Academic Infrastructure for Health Research

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Vietnamese Americans have socio-economic and health disparities and are medically underserved. The objective of this project is to provide infrastructure services to the community and academic health centers (AHC) to overcome collaboration barriers to form community-academic partnerships to conduct health science research. The specific aims are 1) to expand infrastructure in the Vietnamese American community and at AHC and 2) to support, conduct, and sustain community-academic collaborative health science research to reduce health disparities in this underserved community. The project expands the infrastructure 1) services - to include collaboration support, mentorship, training and workshops, proposal review panels and submission, and community health forums; 2) research topics - to include diet, smoking cessation, hepatitis B, occupational exposure reduction, comparative- and cost-effectiveness of mobile mammography, and breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer screening; 3) geographical area - to include 4 contiguous San Francisco Bay Area Counties (Alameda, San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Clara) in California; 4) type of community organizations - to include community-based organizations, community health centers, and healthcare provider organizations; 5) number of organizations conducting collaborative research; and 6) target population - from the Vietnamese to Asian American community. The infrastructure provides a) collaborative support service to form and sustain community-academic partnerships, b) mentorship, c) training and workshops, d) proposal review panels to provide helpful comments to improve proposals and funding success, f) proposal submissions, and g) community health forums to obtain community support for research and disseminate findings to community members. The project innovations include: 1) a community-based participatory research process to conceptualize, design, and implement the project by community organizations and AHC, 2) a wide range of infrastructure services, 3) a trans-disciplinary approach that spans scientific disciplines (e.g. internal medicine, psychiatry, public health, nutritional science, environmental and occupational epidemiology, and ethnic studies) and has potential impact across multiple diseases and conditions (e.g. obesity; diabetes; sexually transmitted diseases; hepatitis B; cardiovascular diseases; and cervical, breast, colorectal, liver, and lung cancer), and 4) incorporation of infrastructure service expenses in collaborative proposal budgets and commitment from an endowment and a cancer center to sustain the infrastructure. If this infrastructure model is found to successful in achieving its aims in the Vietnamese and Asian American communities, the model will be disseminated to other underserved, low income, ethnic, and racial populations throughout the U.S. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The relevance of this project to public health includes potential impact in science and health. Potential impact in science of the example projects supported the infrastructure services are finding: 1) an effective community-based hepatitis B testing and vaccination intervention, 2) an effective cervical cancer screening lay health worker intervention model for sexually exploited minors, 3) an effective smoking cessation intervention for Vietnamese American men, 4) an effectiveness and cost-effective multi-disease media intervention for cancer control, 5) an effective and cost-effective mammography delivery model for medically underserved populations, 6) a more accurate survey instrument for dietary intake for Asian subgroups using family style meals, and 7) an effective lay health intervention to reduce chemical exposure in the workplace among nail salon workers. Potential impact in health of the example projects supported the infrastructure services are reducing incidence and mortality caused by obesity; diabetes; sexually transmitted diseases; late stage breast cancer diagnosis; breast, cervical, colorectal, liver, and lung cancer; liver cirrhosis; cardiovascular diseases; tobacco-related diseases; and other diseases caused by exposure to carcinogens, endocrine disruptors and respiratory irritants.