Over the past decade there has been a heightened awareness of the disproportionate impact of asthma morbidity and mortality among African Americans and persons of lower social economic status. The causes underlying this disparity have not been fully elucidated. However, there is strong evidence that the levels of social stress imposed by this condition and the degree of coping and self-management skills present are factors that may be particularly important in explaining these disparities. The purpose of this project is to develop a collaborative research program between Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and Cook County Hospital to fully characterize the relationship of social stress, coping, and self-regulatory health behaviors in the context of asthma disparities among African American and low income populations. Once characterized, the project will then develop and test an intervention strategy to reduce asthma disparities in high-risk populations based on evidence-based models that have demonstrated success in social work, nursing, and community interventions. There are four research aims for this proposed Center of Excellence. (1) To develop and validate culturally appropriate psychosocial instruments related to the underlying causes of disparity in asthma morbidity (2) To identify the structural relationships of psychosocial factors to other known influential factors related to disparities in asthma outcomes. (3) To study the changes in structural relationship among influential factors in asthma disparity over time as related to changes in health status. (4) To develop, pilot test, and field test a community-based asthma team (peer coach, asthma nurse, and social worker) intervention to enhance individuals ability to cope with chronic illness and improve asthma-related behaviors. A second major goal of this Center will be to train and mentor new clinical investigators and social scientists to be able to conduct research in this field of interest.
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| Cho, Seong; Kang, Joseph; Lyttle, Christopher et al. (2011) Association of elevated plasminogen activator inhibitor 1 levels with diminished lung function in patients with asthma. Ann Allergy Asthma Immunol 106:371-7 |
| Gupta, Ruchi S; Zhang, Xingyou; Springston, Elizabeth E et al. (2010) The association between community crime and childhood asthma prevalence in Chicago. Ann Allergy Asthma Immunol 104:299-306 |
| Sharp, Lisa K; Curtis, Laura M; Mosnaim, Giselle et al. (2009) The influence of caregiver's psychosocial status on childhood asthma and obesity. Ann Allergy Asthma Immunol 103:386-94 |
| Martin, Molly A; Catrambone, Catherine D; Kee, Romina A et al. (2009) Improving asthma self-efficacy: developing and testing a pilot community-based asthma intervention for African American adults. J Allergy Clin Immunol 123:153-159.e3 |
| Seibold, Max A; Reese, Tiffany A; Choudhry, Shweta et al. (2009) Differential enzymatic activity of common haplotypic versions of the human acidic Mammalian chitinase protein. J Biol Chem 284:19650-8 |
| Gupta, Ruchi S; Zhang, Xingyou; Sharp, Lisa K et al. (2009) The protective effect of community factors on childhood asthma. J Allergy Clin Immunol 123:1297-304.e2 |
| Seibold, Max A; Wang, Bin; Eng, Celeste et al. (2008) An african-specific functional polymorphism in KCNMB1 shows sex-specific association with asthma severity. Hum Mol Genet 17:2681-90 |
| Gupta, Ruchi S; Zhang, Xingyou; Sharp, Lisa K et al. (2008) Geographic variability in childhood asthma prevalence in Chicago. J Allergy Clin Immunol 121:639-645.e1 |
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