Health Disparities Research at SIRC: Cultural Processes in Risk and Resiliency

描述（由申请人提供）：本申请提议建立一个探索性NCMHD卓越研究中心，以探索影响少数民族健康和健康差异的复杂因素，并为卫生与人类服务部（DHHS）改善少数民族健康和减少美墨边境地区种族和少数民族之间的健康差异做出贡献。该中心将开展跨学科、以社区为基础的少数民族健康和健康差异研究，研究健康结果差异的途径，重点是家庭因素、文化适应和性别。西南跨学科研究中心（SIRC）为建立新的健康差异研究中心提供了基础。探索中心的成立将加强亚利桑那州立大学（ASU）在美墨边境地区作为国家领导者的能力，以推进健康差异研究，并为推进国土安全部消除西南地区健康差异的倡议做出重大贡献。该中心的任务是提出和应用科学发现，通过提倡不受限制地获得文化上合适的健康/行为健康预防、服务和少数民族人口的治疗，从而改善少数民族的健康和减少健康差距。探索中心将健康差异研究从发病和死亡的近端原因扩展到疾病的根本原因以及作为保护因素或风险因素的相关文化进程。要实现这一目标，必须查明和改善缺乏反应的护理系统中贫穷、语言障碍、种族、民族、性别和文化规范相互作用所产生的有害制约因素。该中心的研究项目及其行政、研究、培训和社区参与/外联核心旨在预防、减少和消除下列卫生和社会服务部确定的特别重点领域和决定因素内的健康差距：艾滋病毒/艾滋病、精神健康和药物滥用。这三个重点领域将在整个预防到服务连续体中进行研究，特别强调了解它们的共病及其对西南历史上的民族社区（墨西哥裔美国人和美洲印第安人）和该地区两个快速增长的少数民族人口（非洲裔美国人和亚裔美国人）的健康结果的影响。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This application proposes the establishment of an Exploratory NCMHD Research Center of Excellence to explore the complex factors influencing minority health and health disparities, and to contribute to the Department of Health and Human Services' (DHHS) initiatives for improving minority health and reducing health disparities among the racial and ethnic minorities of the U.S.-Mexico border region. The Center will conduct interdisciplinary, community-based minority health and health disparities research by studying the pathways to disparities in health outcomes with an emphasis on familial factors, acculturation, and gender. The Southwest Interdisciplinary Research Center's (SIRC) provides the foundation upon which the new center on health disparities will be established. Founding the Exploratory Center will strengthen Arizona State University's (ASU) capacity as a national leader in the U.S.-Mexico border region to advance health disparities research and make a significant contribution to advancing DHHS' initiatives for eliminating health disparities in the Southwest. The proposed center's mission is to produce and apply scientific findings leading to the improvement of minority health and the reduction of health disparities by advocating the unfettered access to culturally competent health/behavioral health prevention, services, and treatment for minority populations. The Exploratory Center expands health disparities research from proximal causes of morbidity and mortality to fundamental causes of disease and related cultural processes which act as protective or risk factors. This will be achieved by identifying and ameliorating the pernicious constraints that emerge from the interaction of poverty, language barriers, race, ethnicity, gender, and cultural norms within unresponsive systems of care. The center's research projects and its administrative, research, training and community engagement/outreach cores aim to prevent, reduce and eliminate health disparities within the following DHHS identified special emphasis areas and determinants: HIV/AIDS, mental health, and substance abuse. The three focus areas will be studied throughout the prevention-to-services continuum with a special emphasis on understanding their comorbidity and their effect on the health outcomes of the historical ethnic communities of the Southwest (Mexican Americans & American Indians) and two fast growing racial minority populations in the region, African Americans and Asian Americans.