A Biopsychosocial Approach to Racial/Ethnic Differences in Menopausal Hot Flashes

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The purpose of this proposed Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development (K23) Award is to support the Candidate's long term career goal of conducting interdisciplinary research to characterize the biological, psychological, and social determinants of women's health during menopause. The specific objective of this award is to understand disparities in menopausal hot flashes. Hot flashes are a pressing public health issue among aging women. They are experienced by the majority of midlife women, are a leading determinant of quality of life, and are in need of safe and effective treatments. Like many health issues in the United States, hot flashes are overrepresented among key racial/ethnic minority groups. The training aims of this award are to build upon the Candidate's training in clinical health psychology and social epidemiology to address the primary training areas obesity/body composition and physiologic aspects of hot flashes and secondary training areas racial/ethnic disparities in health and longitudinal data analysis. Because the understanding of hot flashes has been limited by the incomplete understanding of hot flash physiology, proposed research will focus on one important biological factor relevant to racial/ethnic disparities in hot flashes: body size and composition. The Candidate will conduct an ancillary investigation to the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation applying physiologic and self-report measures of hot flashes to examine associations between body size/composition and hot flashes among African American and Caucasian midlife women. Secondary aims include examining aims include examining the role of reproductive hormones in this association and comparing the subjective reporting of physiologically measured hot flashes by body size/composition. Achieving these training and research objectives has the potential to clarify key mechanisms involved in hot flashes and to inform interventions for hot flashes to improve the lives of diverse women as they age. The skills, training, and data obtained from this award will support the Candidate's development as an independent investigator and an interdisciplinary women's midlife health expert, with particular expertise in hot flashes.