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National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion Chronic Disease Prevention Home | Contact Us |
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"We must elevate prevention from a concept into public policy and standard practice nationwide." John R. Seffrin, PhD, Addressing Health Disparities and Other Priority Health ProblemsIn 1984, Congress authorized the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to create a network of academic health centers to conduct applied public health research. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was selected to administer the Prevention Research Centers network and to provide leadership, technical assistance, and oversight. Today, with fiscal year 2004 appropriations of $26.7 million, CDC supports 28 centers associated with schools of public health, medicine, or osteopathy throughout the country. Each center conducts at least one core research project with an underserved population that has a disproportionately large burden of disease and disability. By involving community members, academic researchers, and public health agencies, the Prevention Research Centers find innovative ways to promote health and prevent disease. Together the partners design, test, and disseminate strategies — often as new policies or recommended public health practices. In addition to conducting core research, the centers work with partners on special interest projects defined by CDC and other HHS agencies. As a result, the Prevention Research Centers’ portfolio now includes nearly 500 core, special interest, and other-funded research projects a year. The prevention researchers help people reduce a variety of risk factors in their individual lives or in their communities. For example, some centers work with distinct populations, such as African Americans and Latinos in Harlem, Mexican Americans on the border, American Indians in New Mexico, below-poverty-level residents in rural Missouri and Alabama, and women in blue-collar jobs in North Carolina. Others focus on organizations that serve youth or seniors. While all centers share a common goal of addressing behaviors and environmental factors that cause chronic diseases such as cancer, heart disease, and diabetes, a few Prevention Research Centers have broadened their programs to address injury, infectious disease, and mental health. Through scientific rigor, community acceptance, and practical application, the centers are finding ways to improve the nation’s quality of life.
Merging Research and PracticeThe Prevention Research Centers serve as a national resource for developing and applying effective prevention strategies at the community level, as the following examples illustrate. Studying Healthy Development Long-term, community-based research can shed light on ways in which children’s health behaviors—including physical activity, eating habits, and substance abuse — put them at risk for disease as adults. Through Healthy Passages, Prevention Research Centers at the University of Texas Health Science Center, the University of Alabama, and the University of California at Los Angeles are studying more than 5,000 white, African American, and Hispanic children from different socioeconomic strata to assess the influence of environment, cultural values, and other factors on health. Helping Seniors Stay Healthy and Active In 1993, the University of Washington Health Promotion Research Center collaborated with the Group Health Cooperative of Puget Sound and Senior Services of Seattle/King County to develop a physical activity program to help seniors increase their endurance, strength, balance, and flexibility. The pilot study showed that participants improved significantly in almost every area tested — from physical and social functioning to levels of pain and depression — and significantly reduced their health care costs. The program is now being offered at 64 community sites in six states. Sharing Expertise Nationwide Grants provided to the Association of State and Territorial Chronic Disease Program Directors and the Association of State and Territorial Directors of Health Promotion and Public Health Education are promoting collaboration between five Prevention Research Centers and state health departments. In one example of these collaborations, the Harvard Prevention Research Center on Nutrition and Physical Activity has worked with the Maine Bureau of Health, the Maine Center for Public Health, and the Maine Department of Education since October 2000 to promote healthy behaviors through knowledge dissemination, policy development, surveillance, and new community research. The partners have organized conferences on television viewing, sugar-sweetened beverages, portion size, and physical education in schools that have launched successful statewide legislative initiatives. In another of these collaborations, the University of South Florida is helping the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services integrate social marketing concepts and methods into health promotion programs. Examining Contributions to Public Health The prevention centers at the University of New Mexico and the University of North Carolina are collaborating with CDC to review and summarize the scientific literature on the process of putting prevention research findings into practice. These two centers and those at the University of Washington and Saint Louis University are also conducting in-depth case studies of completed research projects. Qualitative data are being gathered from prevention researchers and community partners to document their experiences with disseminating promising results and overcoming barriers to improving policy and practice. These lessons learned will help shape future community research efforts. Capitalizing on Unique Opportunities for Research and Collaboration
Range of Disciplines Each Prevention Research Center encourages interaction among faculty from different disciplines, thus bringing an array of expertise to each project. This blending of expertise is essential to solving complex health and psychosocial problems. Departments of education, social work, psychology, nursing, and many others work with the schools of public health and medicine. In addition, CDC’s prevention centers network allows centers to collaborate with each other. Wealth of Partners The prevention centers work closely with state and local health departments, managed care alliances and health maintenance organizations, state education agencies, and national and community-based organizations. Through these partnerships, promising research findings are translated into practical, cost-effective prevention programs and applied at the community level. Knowledge of Community Needs Long-standing relationships between academic institutions and their communities bring public health researchers close to the people they serve. Because of ties to surrounding communities, researchers can design and introduce prevention strategies tailored to these communities. By understanding community attitudes and beliefs and by making the most of community resources, researchers can simultaneously address multiple health risk factors. Resource for Training In collaboration with the Association of Schools of Public Health, the Prevention Research Centers program established a 2-year fellowship for doctoral-level students of racial or ethnic minority origin. Eight fellows are now gaining hands-on experience with projects directed by the centers and their community partners. This fellowship increases the number of public health professionals qualified to work with racial and ethnic minority groups. Future Directions The Prevention Research Centers’ future will be shaped by the results from Project DEFINE (Developing an Evaluation Framework: Insuring National Excellence). The project’s evaluation strategies, developed by CDC in collaboration with the Prevention Research Centers’ faculty and staff, partners, and community members, will ensure that each center can promote community health and contribute to the national program. Because all centers will report on performance indicators, outcomes can be consistently tracked over time, and data captured electronically can be disseminated to stakeholders to address accountability requirements. The performance indicators are already helping external peer reviewers assess proposals from applicants for the program’s next 5-year funding period. The performance indicators are built into the request for proposals so that applicants describe their plans for achieving the program’s unique requirements, including maintaining a community committee that participates in all stages of research. In addition, all centers are expected to define strategies for disseminating research results and for providing technical assistance to their partners. With these measures in place, the future promises that sound results and practices will be widely replicated and that expertise will continue to be shared nationwide.
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Policy | Accessibility This page last reviewed August 10, 2004 United
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