Building on its original mission of Meeting Community Needs Across the Prevention Spectrum, the Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center remains committed to research pertaining to the primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention of chronic disease, with a particular emphasis on obesity prevention.
The specific aims of the Center are to: maintain and cultivate the requisite resources and infrastructure to support a thriving research agenda; sustain and grow a research agenda that corresponds with the PRC's mission; support a core research project that will serve as a model for the National PRC Network and communities nationwide; grow a network of collaborations and partnerships with local communities; support and facilitate relevant research by others; provide training and education to staff, students, collaborators, and the members of partnering organizations and communities; support a robust and dynamic evaluation program; engage in effective communication and dissemination; and maintain the requisite resources for these functions. The Y-G PRC's primary research agenda for the upcoming 5-year cycle is to address the CDC winnable battle area of nutrition, physical activity, and obesity by using a multisite translatioal community trial (mTCT)1 approach, wherein a standard research protocol and intervention are applied in multiple sites, with tailoring using CBPR principles to meet the needs of each community. The primary study, CHOOSE (Community Health Opportunities Organized with Schools at the Epicenter), an intervention research project, involves communities in CT, MO, and KS, and entails interventions commencing with school districts as epicenters, and expanding within and beyond schools into other portals throughout their respective communities. We plan to compare 4 levels of intervention (See Appendix J) using quasi- experimental methods, with outcomes encompassing behaviors, biometrics, and anthropometrics. A similar approach will be applied in New Haven, CT, but with a focus on patient/hospital-centered rather than school- centered programming. In each case, we plan to reach groups within partnering communities with tailored multidisciplinary interventions, and aggregate the total impact and reach over time. Study objectives are to improve diet and physical activity in school-aged children and adults alike; with secondary goals of improving cardiometabolic health in both children and adults, and academic performance in children, with each measure linked to a validated assessment method. An array of established partnerships used effectively over the past 15 years for dissemination and sustainability will be leveraged to maximize the impact of this work.
| Santilli, Alycia; Carroll-Scott, Amy; Ickovics, Jeannette R (2016) Applying Community Organizing Principles to Assess Health Needs in New Haven, Connecticut. Am J Public Health 106:841-7 |
| Demment, Margaret M; Peters, Karen; Dykens, J Andrew et al. (2015) Developing the Evidence Base to Inform Best Practice: A Scoping Study of Breast and Cervical Cancer Reviews in Low- and Middle-Income Countries. PLoS One 10:e0134618 |
