The mission of our Prevention Research Center is to address health promotion and chronic disease prevention needs of tribal and other underserved regional communities through community-engaged research, and through training, dissemination, and evaluation activities. Our six goals are: 1. Leverage collaborative research partnerships with community, voluntary, and government organizations, as well as with sister universities in the region to strengthen research partnerships; 2. Enhance research capacity and build infrastructure for chronic disease prevention through training programs, mentoring of researchers, and provision of technical assistance to communities and research partners; 3. Conduct high-quality, community-driven prevention research that will inform translation of research into policy or practice in the target communities; 4. Reduce the burden of chronic diseases determined by our partner communities to be of highest priority; 5. Maintain our Center as a regional resource for prevention research conducted by public health agencies at the tribal, state, county, and local levels; 6. Foster population health sciences and prevention sciences within OHSU as a major research agenda through offering seminars, lectures, and conferences focused on community health. Research thrust: We will collaborate with the Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board (NPAIHB) to disseminate, implement and evaluate a school- and community-based youth development program based on Native STAND (Students Together Against Negative Decisions).The Center and NPAIHB have extensive experience in the delivery and evaluation of this validated and comprehensive healthy decision-making curriculum. Furthermore, the program addresses several of CDC's 'winnable battles'.
The specific aims for our core research project, focused on dissemination and implementation research, include: 1. Train and support AI/AN health educators in the use and delivery of the Native STAND program to their home communities and organizations; 2. Measure and evaluate the adoption, fidelity, and impact of the program in AI/AN organizations, at passive and active levels of technical assistance; and 3. Evaluate effectiveness of the intervention using a cluster-randomized controlled trial to compare changes in key healthy behavior indicators (condom use, STI testing, bullying and interpersonal violence) between youth in tribes who receive the active vs. passive levels of technical assistance. We are excited to continue and expand upon our long-term collaborations with the NPAIHB and its member tribes, as well as with other tribal communities nationwide.
The OHSU Center for Healthy Communities works with regional tribes on a variety of chronic disease prevention programs. In collaboration with the Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board, our Center works toward eliminating the many health disparities for tribal people, particularly tribal youth. Our proposed research program addresses disparities in STI's, HIV, substance abuse, tobacco use, and teen pregnancies in a culturally-appropriate curriculum, Native STAND, that we will disseminate, implement, and evaluate.
