The Health Disparities Interdisciplinary Concentration is now available to Master of Public Health (MPH) students at the University of Minnesota. Recently, the School of Public Health and the University of Minnesota Board of Regents approved this new interdisciplinary concentration area.
Achieving optimum health for all segments of society is a central goal of the federal health initiative Healthy People 2010 and also a concern in Minnesota. Despite Minnesota's ranking as one of the nation's healthiest states, it has some of the largest gaps among cultural and social groups in health indicators.
The Health Disparities Working Group maintains a list of research grants and faculty resources for its members and interested individuals.
Welcome to the Research Collaboration page of the HDWG website! The
goal is to advance disparities research by connecting motivated
researchers with one another and with community data. It is intended
to link faculty to faculty, students to faculty, community to
faculty and students.
Educational coordinators may use this to link
students to master's projects, internships and field experiences. We
welcome additional project descriptions — Kathleen (Co-Chair of HDWG; callx001@umn.edu)
1. Disparities in Minnesota Health Care Programs
The “Disparities in Minnesota Health Care Programs (MHCP)” study represents survey data collected in 2003 and 2008 from ethnically diverse samples of public health care program enrollees (e.g., Medicaid, MinnesotaCare and GAMC). The survey focused on experiences accessing health care, barriers faced in receiving services, perceptions of unfair treatment (due to race, ethnicity, nationality; ability to pay; enrollment in a MHCP), confidence and trust in providers, use of interpreter services and quality of services received. Both adults and children (collected via parent proxy) are represented in these data with data for over 4,000 enrollees each year. The data were collected through a community based participatory research partnership.
Source of Funding: The Minnesota Department of Human Services
For more information contact Dr. Call (callx001@umn.edu) or Dr. McAlpine (mcalp004@umn.edu).
2. Stress-Related Health Disparities among African American Youth: A Systemic Focus on Risk and Resiliency
Data collection for this project will begin in spring, 2009. Research will be conducted in two stages: focus groups and surveys of African American youth aged 8-12 years and their primary caregivers. During focus groups, small groups of children and caregivers will separately discuss what they perceive to be the most important issues affecting the well-being and future success of young people in the African American community. During surveys, children and caregivers will separately report on different life experiences, well-being, children’s performance in school, and children’s behavior. Research will yield both qualitative and quantitative data. Data will be available by fall, 2009.
For more information contact Dr. Brady (ssbrady@umn.edu).
Source of Funding: Program in Health Disparities Research Planning Grant, University of Minnesota Medical School
3. Psychosocial Factors and Stroke Risk in a Biracial Population
The primary objectives of this study are 1) to examine individual and neighborhood measures of psychosocial stress in relation to stroke incidence and mortality in an elderly cohort of African Americans and Caucasians; and 2) to examine whether psychosocial vulnerability contributes to black-white disparities in stroke risk. This study is based on data from the Chicago Health & Aging Project (CHAP), a population-based cohort study of Alzheimer’s Disease risk and chronic conditions related to aging among adults aged 65 years and older residing in three contiguous neighborhoods in Chicago, IL. Data analyses for this project are underway.
Source of Funding: NIH/NHLBI
For more information, contact Dr. Sue Everson-Rose (saer@umn.edu).
4. Depression, Adipocytokines and Metabolic Dysregulation in Black and White Women
The main goal of this study is to investigate cross-sectional and longitudinal associations of depression and depressive symptoms with adiponectin and leptin in a subset of African American and Caucasian women participating in the Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation. Newly funded, this project is scheduled to start in spring 2009.
Source of Funding: NIH/NHLBI
For more information, contact Dr. Sue Everson-Rose (saer@umn.edu).
5. Healthy Immigrant Families in Varied Environments (HIFIVE)
The primary goal of this project is to conduct focus groups to determine perceptions and knowledge of psychosocial and socio-environmental factors that may influence cardiovascular disease and diabetes among Mexican-American, Somali, and Hmong immigrant groups in the Twin Cities. The focus groups will be conducted in fall 2009.
Source of Funding: University of Minnesota Office for Equity & Diversity
For more information, contact Dr. Sue Everson-Rose (saer@umn.edu) or Dr. Sonya Brady (ssbrady@umn.edu).
6. Restricting High Alcohol Content Beverages
This study examines the adoption, implementation, and diffusion of policies
to restrict two troublesome beverages that are highly available and promoted
in minority and poor neighborhoods: malt liquor and fortified wine. The
study has three components: 1) a national survey of local officials and law
enforcement staff responsible for alcohol policy making; 2) a case study of
3 cities that have been successful in implementing the policies and 3 cities
that have been unsuccessful; and 3) a national data base on policies to
restrict malt liquor and fortified wine. The case study employs multiple
data collection strategies including
Funding: Center for Disease Control and Prevention
For more information contact: Rhonda Jones-Webb
Last modified on Thursday Jul 02, 2009