Substantial and well-documented disparities exist in the health and well being of minority children in the District of Columbia, notably including infant mortality but extending to a broad range of other conditions. In addition to adversely affecting morbidity and mortality in children themselves, such disparities also have important implications for adult health. For example, obesity established in childhood increases the risk of Type II diabetes and its complications in adulthood. There is also evidence that psychological distress and victimization in childhood have long-term sequelae in the psychological functioning of those affected. Similarly, cigarette smoking imposes risks both for adults who smoke and the children in their care. In response to concerns about child health disparities, the National Institutes of Health has undertaken longstanding, collaborative investigations with academic medical centers in the District of Columbia. These have addressed the important problem of infant mortality and forged an effective, multi-institutional, multidisciplinary, and multicultural collaboration in the District of Columbia. Current efforts are directed to implementing and evaluating an intervention to improve prenatal care for minority women exposed to cigarette smoke (active and/or passive smoking) or psychosocial risk (depression and/or partner violence). Using rigorous randomized trial methods, this collaborative effort has demonstrated success in screening, recruiting, intervening with, and obtaining data from pregnant minority women attending diverse DC prenatal sites. The overall goal of research proposed here as a competing renewal is to extend this research collaboration to a broader range of health conditions, and thus to improve the health of minority children in the District of Columbia. Specific projects are designed to develop effective interventions to decrease childhood obesity, bullying, and passive exposure to cigarette smoke. Each of these would be addressed through rigorous research in collaboration with other participating institutions, NICHD, and RTI.
| Park, Jung-Jun; Berggren, Jason R; Hulver, Matthew W et al. (2006) GRB14, GPD1, and GDF8 as potential network collaborators in weight loss-induced improvements in insulin action in human skeletal muscle. Physiol Genomics 27:114-21 |
