Evaluating Receipt of Optimal Medical Therapy Among Structurally Disadvantaged Groups Undergoing Amputation.

Background: Optimal medical therapy (OMT) for peripheral artery disease (PAD) is associated with decreased major amputation and mortality. OMT has several components, including antiplatelet and high-intensity statin therapy, blood pressure control, etc. While there are disparities in receipt of OMT among PAD patients, it is unknown if patients from disadvantaged neighborhoods, measured by the area deprivation index (ADI), are less likely to be on OMT.

Lessons Learned from Community Partnership During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Underserved communities have been disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Project Promoting Engagement and COVID-19 Testing for Health (PEACH) study was designed to understand the attitudes, beliefs, and infrastructure associated with COVID-19 risk, testing, and prevention behaviors in people living with, caring for, or at risk for type 2 diabetes. The purpose of this joint community-academic partnered manuscript is to share lessons learned for maintaining community partnerships through the challenging times of a pandemic.

Colorectal Cancer Knowledge and Screening Change in African Americans: Implementation Phase Results of the EPICS Cluster RCT.

Introduction: African Americans are disproportionately affected by mortality risk for colorectal cancer. This study aimed to determine the most effective educational approach of 4 study arms that enhances the likelihood of pursuing subsequent colorectal cancer screening, and to identify the associated factors.

Methods: Age-eligible adults (N=2,877) were recruited to participate in a cluster randomized control dissemination and intervention implementation trial titled Educational Program to Increase Colorectal Cancer Screening.

The community engagement course and action network: strengthening community and academic research partnerships to advance health equity.

Background: Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority Serving Institutions are uniquely positioned to implement community-campus research partnerships based on a history of service, the pursuit of community trustworthiness and student demographics often similar to surrounding marginalized communities. The Morehouse School of Medicine Prevention Research Center collaborates with members of Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Minority Serving Institutes, and community organizations on the Community Engaged Course and Action Network. This network is the first of its kind and aims to strengthen members' ability to implement Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) principles and partnerships.

Moving Morehouse School of Medicine Translation T Research through MDTTs-Multidisciplinary Translational Teams.

Morehouse School of Medicine (SOM) works to achieve its vision of advancing health equity through conducting transformational, translation science (T). T describes our translational research continuum, symbolizing a method and scientific philosophy that intentionally promotes and supports convergence of interdisciplinary approaches and scientists to stimulate exponential advances for the health of diverse communities. Morehouse SOM actualizes T through multidisciplinary translational teams (MDTTs).

An Open-Source Privacy-Preserving Large-Scale Mobile Framework for Cardiovascular Health Monitoring and Intervention Planning With an Urban African American Population of Young Adults: User-Centered Design Approach.

Background: Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the leading cause of death worldwide and are increasingly affecting younger populations, particularly African Americans in the southern United States. Access to preventive and therapeutic services, biological factors, and social determinants of health (ie, structural racism, resource limitation, residential segregation, and discriminatory practices) all combine to exacerbate health inequities and their resultant disparities in morbidity and mortality. These factors manifest early in life and have been shown to impact health trajectories into adulthood.

Exploring the Role of Community Health Workers in Improving the Collection of Family Health History: A Pilot Study.

Community health workers (CHWs) have been successful partners in addressing public health and health care challenges but have yet to be engaged in efforts to promote family health history (FHH) collection. FHH information is a key factor in determining disease risk and supporting screening and prevention across multiple diseases. The collection of FHH information could be facilitated by the existing cadre of CHWs already working alongside clients and families.

Preventing Cardiovascular Disease Among Urban African Americans With a Mobile Health App (the MOYO App): Protocol for a Usability Study.

Background: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) disparities are a particularly devastating manifestation of health inequity. Despite advancements in prevention and treatment, CVD is still the leading cause of death in the United States. Additionally, research indicates that African American (AA) and other ethnic-minority populations are affected by CVD at earlier ages than white Americans.

A Community-Based Participatory Approach to the Development and Implementation of an HIV Health Behavior Intervention: Lessons Learned in Navigating Research and Practice Systems from Project HAPPY.

African American young adults continue to be disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS. The Southern United States has been particularly affected by HIV/AIDS, accounting for 52% of the new HIV diagnoses. Efforts to reduce the burden of HIV among young African Americans are still needed.

The Research Centers in Minority Institutions (RCMI) Translational Research Network: Building and Sustaining Capacity for Multi-Site Basic Biomedical, Clinical and Behavioral Research.

The Research Centers in Minority Institutions (RCMI) program was established by the US Congress to support the development of biomedical research infrastructure at minority-serving institutions granting doctoral degrees in the health professions or in a health-related science. RCMI institutions also conduct research on diseases that disproportionately affect racial and ethnic minorities (ie, African Americans/Blacks, American Indians and Alaska Natives, Hispanics, Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders), those of low socioeconomic status, and rural persons. Quantitative metrics, including the numbers of doctoral science degrees granted to underrepresented students, NIH peer-reviewed research funding, peer-reviewed publications, and numbers of racial and ethnic minorities participating in sponsored research, demonstrate that RCMI grantee institutions have made substantial progress toward the intent of the Congressional legislation, as well as the NIH/NIMHD-linked goals of addressing workforce diversity and health disparities.

A Pipeline Program to Address the South African Crisis in Human Resources for Health.

Background: The WHO Africa Region faces a shortage of health workers due to inadequate production of health workers and emigration of physicians and nurses to wealthier countries. South Africa and the United States share a history of discriminatory policies and practices resulting in groups that are under-represented amongst health professionals. One US response is the Area Health Education Centers Program (AHEC), a pipeline program to recruit members of under-represented groups into the health professions.

Processes and Outcomes of a Community-Based Participatory Research-Driven Health Needs Assessment: A Tool for Moving Health Disparity Reporting to Evidence-Based Action.

Background: The community-based participatory research (CBPR)-driven health needs assessment was a tool used to inform community-led, -implemented, and -sustained research and prevention strategies.

Methods: The Morehouse School of Medicine Prevention Research Center (MSM PRC) research and prevention initiatives are implemented in direct response to priorities identified through this process and tool. Led by a community-majority coalition board, the assessment coupled state and city secondary data with primary survey data collected by and from community residents.

Neighborhood Environmental Health and Premature Death From Cardiovascular Disease.

Introduction: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in the United States and disproportionately affects racial/ethnic minority groups. Healthy neighborhood conditions are associated with increased uptake of health behaviors that reduce CVD risk, but minority neighborhoods often have poor food access and poor walkability. This study tested the community-driven hypothesis that poor access to food at the neighborhood level and poor neighborhood walkability are associated with racial disparities in premature deaths from CVD.

HPV vaccine awareness and the association of trust in cancer information from physicians among males.

Introduction: Black and Hispanic men are diagnosed with more HPV-related cancers and at later stages compared to other racial/ethnic groups. Physician communication with men about HPV vaccination may be beneficial to increasing HPV vaccinations and decreasing HPV transmission. The purpose of this study was to examine HPV and HPV vaccine awareness among men by race, and the association between trust in cancer information from physicians and ever hearing about HPV and the HPV vaccine.

Reducing Disparities by way of a Cancer Disparities Research Training Program.

Background: For minority populations, there is a continuing disparity in the burden of death and illness from cancer. Research to address this disparity should be conducted by investigators who can best understand and address the needs of culturally diverse communities. However, minorities are under-represented in health-related research.

Context matters: A community-based study of urban minority parents' views on child health.

Background: Among children, there are substantial ethno-racial minority disparities across a broad range of health-related behaviors, experiences, and outcomes. Addressing these disparities is important, as childhood and adolescence establish health trajectories that extend throughout life.

Methods: The current study employed a community-based participatory research approach to gain community insight on child health priorities and to frame an intervention aimed at improving the health of minority children.

Lessons Learned from Three Models that Use Small Grants for Building Academic-Community Partnerships for Research.

Despite the direct contribution of community-engaged research towards effective translation, establishing strong and sustained community academic research partnerships remains a challenge. The Atlanta Clinical and Translational Science Institute's Community Engagement Research Program (CERP) has developed and implemented three models for using small grants to seed new community academic partnerships for research: 1) community-initiated health projects with faculty partners, 2) dissemination of discoveries to community partners, and 3) building collaborative research capacity. In this paper, we describe each model in terms of its purpose, funding level, funding period, proposal requirements, selection criteria and faculty involvement.

Assessing the Oral Health Needs of African American Men in Low-Income, Urban Communities.

Despite improvements in oral health status in the United States, pronounced racial/ethnic disparities exist. Black men are less likely to visit the dentist, are twice as likely to experience tooth decay, and have a significantly lower 5-year oral cancer survival rate when compared to White men. The Minority Men's Oral Health Dental Access Program employed a community-based participatory research approach to examine the oral health barriers and opportunities for intervention among Black men in a low-income, urban neighborhood.

An academic-public health department partnership for education, research, practice, and governance.

Public health departments and medical schools are often disconnected, yet each has much to offer the other. There are 4 areas in which the 2 entities can partner; in Atlanta, Georgia, the Morehouse School of Medicine (particularly its Prevention Research Center or PRC) and the Fulton County Department of Health and Wellness have demonstrated partnership in each area. With respect to teaching, the 2 have collaborated on clerkships for medical students and rotations for preventive medicine residents.

The SUCCEED Legacy Grant program: enhancing community capacity to implement evidence-based interventions in breast and cervical cancer.

The Southeastern U.S. Collaborative Center of Excellence in the Elimination of Disparities Legacy Grant Program provides funding to increase community-based organizations' capacity to implement evidence-based breast and cervical cancer interventions for African American women.

Using evaluability assessment and evaluation capacity-building to strengthen community-based prevention initiatives.

Objectives: To examine the process of community-campus engagement in an initiative developed to build evaluation capacities of community-based organizations (CBOs).

Methods: Evaluability assessment, capacity-building, self administered surveys and semi-structured interviews were conducted from 2004 to 2007 and analyzed through transcript assessment and SPSS to identify trends, relationships and capacity changes over time.

Results: Evaluability assessment identified CBO strengths in program planning and implementation and challenges in measurable objective development, systematic use of mixed methods, data management and analysis.

Applications in bridging the gap: a community-campus partnership to address sexual health disparities among African-American youth in the south.

Risky sexual behavior among African-American youth increases risks for sexually transmitted diseases and unintended pregnancy. This article describes a community-academic partnership to assess The 2 HYPE Abstinence Club, a program combining abstinence education with stress management and creative arts promotion for African-American youth ages 12-18. Bi-directional learning and communication systems were established to facilitate culturally relevant evaluation approaches, quality assurance in data collection, and action-based protocols for on-going improvement.

Enhancing community-based organizations' capacity for HIV/AIDS education and prevention.

The catalytic potential of community-based organizations to promote health, prevent disease, and address racial, ethnic, and socio-economic disparities in local communities is well recognized. However, many CBOs, particularly, small- to medium-size organizations, lack the capacity to plan, implement, and evaluate their successes. Moreover, little assistance has been provided to enhance their capacity and the effectiveness of technical assistance to enhance capacity is likewise limited.

Community-based organizations' capacity to plan, implement, and evaluate success.

Community-based organizations (CBOs) have the potential to promote and sustain health, prevent disease, and address health disparities, but many lack the capacity to do so. An assessment of the 20 CBOs receiving supplemental grant funding from the Pfizer Foundation Southern HIV/AIDS Prevention Initiative indicated a high level of knowledge for developing goals and objectives (mean score=3.08 on a scale of 0 (none) to 4 (extensive)) and high self-assessed abilities to conduct six of 20 specific intervention activities, including the development of community relationships and coalitions.