K24 Mentoring Junior Faculty: The Minority Imperative

描述（由申请人提供）：尽管非洲裔美国人的艾滋病毒感染率急剧上升，但在美国从事艾滋病毒临床研究的非洲裔美国人很少。非洲裔美国人研究人员的缺乏可能阻碍了制定有效措施，在这一人群中防治这一流行病。这项建议的指导目标是增加研究人员的数量，特别是非洲裔美国研究人员，他们进行与艾滋病相关的以患者为导向的研究。该提案概述了一项计划，在学员走向独立研究的过程中招募他们，并为他们提供培训和支持。本提案的研究目标是研究促进和维持非洲裔美国人中艾滋病毒持续传播和艾滋病毒相关发病率和死亡率的种族差异的几个关键因素。本研究将探讨：1)非裔美国人异性性传播HIV感染晚期诊断的相关因素；2)病毒学治疗失败与社区贫困和公共处方药保险的关系。这些研究将建立在我之前关于异性恋传播的艾滋病毒感染的流行病学和社会经济背景因素在非洲裔美国人中艾滋病毒传播的重要性的研究基础上。通过与北卡罗来纳大学健康政策和管理学院的拟议研究和工作，我建议将我的研究技能扩展到包括健康结果和健康政策。这些研究将为未来个人层面和社区层面的结构性干预措施的发展提供经验数据，以减少非洲裔美国人之间的艾滋病毒传播，降低艾滋病毒+非洲裔美国人以及南部和全国其他地区的发病率和死亡率。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Despite dramatically escalating HIV rates among African Americans, few African Americans in the US engage in HIV clinical research. The dearth of African American researchers has likely hindered development of effective measures to combat the epidemic in this population. The mentoring goal of this proposal is to increase the pool of researchers - especially African American investigators - who conduct HIV-related patient oriented research. The proposal outlines a plan to recruit and provide training and support to mentees as they advance to research independence. The research goals of this proposal are to examine several key factors that foster and maintain continued HIV transmission and racial disparities in HIV-related morbidity and mortality among African Americans. The proposed research will examine: 1) factors associated with late diagnosis among African Americans with heterosexually transmitted HIV infection and 2) virologic treatment failure's relationship to neighborhood- level poverty and public prescription drug insurance. The studies will build on my previous research concerning the epidemiology of heterosexually transmitted HIV infection and the importance of socioeconomic contextual factors in population HIV transmission among African Americans. Through the proposed studies and work with UNC Health Policy and Administration faculty, I propose to extend my research skills to include health outcomes and health policy. These studies will provide empiric data for development of future individual-level and community-level structural interventions to decrease HIV transmission among African Americans and decrease morbidity and mortality among HIV+ African Americans and others in the South and the rest of the nation.