Exploratory Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities in Smaller Cities

产品说明：拟议工作的基本依据是，小城镇中的少数民族社区与大城市中的少数民族社区在重要方面存在差异，这些差异既影响到健康差异的性质，也影响到消除这些差异的解决办法。小城市少数民族健康和差异探索中心将支持来自多个学科的研究人员与社区合作伙伴进行研究，以了解小城市健康差异的多种决定因素，并通过与社区团体合作，测试减少障碍的方案，并提高利用率和健康。因此，该中心的重点不是一种特定的疾病，而是小城市特有的健康差距问题。该中心将开展三个研究项目，一个是与当地非洲裔美国人社区合作，以改善生殖保健服务的使用，另一个是与美国土著社区合作，关注当地食品供应污染对健康的影响，第三个项目是汇集来自所有参与州的行为风险因素监测系统14年来的数据，以描述种族之间的关系，种族和社会经济地位与健康状况的衡量标准。这些项目扩大了中心原来的地理重点奥尔巴尼和阿姆斯特丹，纽约州，同时保留其概念上的重点在小城市的少数民族健康差距。该中心还将支持和加强其他大学研究人员对健康差距的研究，从而加深对健康差距的理解，并提出更多解决方案。它将使本科生和研究生了解少数民族健康差异的研究，并增加他们专业从事这项研究的机会。此外，该中心将为非终身教职人员提供关于健康差距和伙伴关系研究方法的培训，使他们能够获得研究支持。作为其研究培训和社区伙伴关系的一部分，该中心将传播医疗保健信息，并将研究结果纳入文化和语言适当和相关的社区成员的教育宣传材料。

DESCRIPTION: The fundamental basis for the proposed work is that minority communities in smaller cities and towns differ in important ways from those in very large cities, and these differences influence both the character of health disparities, as well as the solutions to eliminate them. The Exploratory Center on Minority Health and Disparities in Smaller Cities will support researchers from multiple disciplines to perform research with community partners to understand the multiple determinants of health disparities in smaller cities, and, by working with community groups, it will test programs to reduce barriers, and improve utilization and health. Thus, the Center's focus is not on one specific disease, but on the problems of health disparity characterizing smaller cities. The Center will conduct three research projects one with a local African American community to improve the use of reproductive health care services, another with a Native American community concerned with health effects of local contamination of the food supply, and a third that pools data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System over a 14 year period from all participating states to describe the relationship of race, ethnicity and measures of socioeconomic status with health status. These projects expand the Center beyond its original geographic focus on Albany and Amsterdam, NY, while retaining its conceptual focus on minority health disparities in smaller cities. The Center also will support and enhance research on health disparities by other university researchers, and thus develop greater understanding of, and more solutions to health disparity. It will expose undergraduate and graduate students to research on minority health disparities, and enhance their opportunities to pursue this research professionally. In addition, the Center will provide untenured faculty with training on health disparities and partnership research methods enabling them to obtain research support. As part of its research training and community partnership, the Center will disseminate health care information, and integrate research findings into educational outreach materials for community members that are culturally and linguistically appropriate and relevant.