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

描述（由申请人提供）：这个拟议的以患者为导向的研究职业发展（K23）奖的目的是支持候选人进行跨学科研究的长期职业目标，以表征更年期妇女健康的生物学，心理学和社会决定因素。该奖项的具体目标是了解更年期潮热的差异。在老年妇女中，潮热是一个紧迫的公共健康问题。大多数中年妇女都有这种经历，是生活质量的主要决定因素，需要安全有效的治疗。像美国的许多健康问题一样，潮热在主要的种族/少数民族群体中被过度代表。本奖项的培训目标是在候选人在临床健康心理学和社会流行病学方面的培训基础上，解决主要培训领域肥胖/身体组成和潮热的生理方面的问题，以及次要培训领域健康方面的种族/民族差异和纵向数据分析。由于对潮热生理的不完全理解限制了对潮热的理解，因此拟议的研究将集中在与潮热的种族/民族差异相关的一个重要生物学因素：身体大小和成分。候选人将对全国妇女健康研究进行辅助调查，应用生理和潮热自我报告测量来检查非裔美国人和白种人中年妇女的体型/构成与潮热之间的关系。次要目的包括检查目的包括检查生殖激素在这一关联中的作用，并通过身体大小/组成比较生理测量的潮热的主观报告。实现这些培训和研究目标有可能阐明与潮热有关的关键机制，并为潮热的干预措施提供信息，以改善不同年龄妇女的生活。从该奖项获得的技能、培训和数据将支持候选人发展成为独立研究者和跨学科妇女中年健康专家，特别是在潮热方面的专业知识。

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.