The major goal of the NCCU EXPORT Center Conmmnity Outreach Core Component is to develop focused efforts to address the issue of health disparities in the Durham, North Carolina area African American community. Outreach efforts include both health assessment and health education activities as well as providing structured opportunities for NCCU students to participate as researchers in population based research studies that focus on minority health issues. To achieve this goal propose four specific aims are proposed.
Specific aim 1 is to develop a program that allows NCCU student interus to participate in the conduct of population-based biomedical research studies. Student interns from the Department of Physical Education at NCCU will work with NCCU and DUMC scientists to conduct community based research on a DUMC-initiated project (CHANGES) that has he goal of assessing gene-environment interactions in African Americans with metabolic syndrome. The student interns will work with exercise physiologists to assess the effect of three interventions: diet, exercise, and diet + exercise on risk factor reduction in this population.
Specific aim 2 is to develop an NCCU-based outreach program that provides colmnunity education regarding cardiovascular disease, cardiovascular disease risk factors, and risk reduction strategies. Culturally sensitive materials that are designed to educate the African American public about cardiovascular disease (hypertension, coronary artery disease, stroke, and renal failure) will be developed and disseminated through community based lectures and health fairs.
Specific aim 3 is to develop an NCCU-based outreach program that provides community education regarding alcohol and substances use and misuse, and risk reduction strategies. NCCU Neuroscience and Drug Abuse Program resources will be used to train NCCU students to deliver culturally sensitive educational presentations to the Durham area cormnunity to increase awareness of the physiology and pharmacology of drug abuse and associated social consequences.
Specific aim 4 is to test the hypothesis that a drama-based community health education tool will be more effective in delivering health care education to the African American comnmnity than the more traditional, didactic lecture approach. There is a growing body of evidence that indicates that drama-based educational media may be more effective in health education of African American community, but this has not been documented The goal will therefore be rigorous compare the effectiveness of drama-based comnmnity education with more traditional didactic presentations. It is anticipated that these activities will result in an effective community outreach component of the EXPORT Center, significantly impact the level of awareness of disease risk factors and health care choices in the local African American community, mad provide a critical test of the concept that drama based health education is more effective in changing risk reduction behavior than more traditional outreach mechanisms.
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