UAMS Gets $3.75 Million Grant To Help Fight Chronic Disease
by February 26, 2015 4:35 pm 95 views
The Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences was awarded a $3.75 million federal grant that will help to continue research activities first established by the state academic health center nearly five years ago.
The five-year grant, from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, will provide continued funding for the Arkansas Prevention Research Center at the College of Public Health. It follows a $1.7 million grant awarded by the CDC in 2009 to establish the research center five years ago to help address the burden of chronic disease in Arkansas, officials said.
“The continued funding for the ARPRC furthers the college’s mission of improving the health of all Arkansans by helping us provide model programs in collaboration with our partners at the Arkansas Department of Health and in Arkansas communities,” said Jim Raczynski, Ph.D., dean of the College of Public Health and director for the center.
According to UAMS officials, the additional funding will enable the research center to implement and evaluate the cost-effectiveness of a program to identify individuals with uncontrolled hypertension and help them adhere to medical recommendations to lower their blood pressure, using a “stepped-care” approach.
Over the grant period, individuals whose hypertension is not brought under control by early efforts to help them lower their blood pressure will receive more intensive but more costly care, officials said. The study will be able to show the effectiveness of each step, or level, of care, as well as the associated costs.
The ultimate goal, Raczynski said, is to develop a model of care that minimizes costs while effectively helping Arkansans with uncontrolled hypertension control the disease.
“Hypertension is a huge problem in Arkansas with data showing that almost 1 out of every 3 adults have uncontrolled hypertension,” Raczynski said. “We are excited about testing the stepped-care approach to controlling hypertension, and to my knowledge, are the first to test such an approach.”
When the research center was founded, researchers and communities in 19 counties in the Delta region came together to lay the groundwork for programs to improve public health practice and reduce risk for chronic disease, particularly in vulnerable populations. It is one of 26 academic institutions in 25 states to be selected for continued funding. The initial funding period allowed for 37 such centers.
In its first five years, the center, in partnership with the UAMS Arkansas Center for Health Disparities, the UAMS Translational Research Institute, and the Arkansas Minority Health Commission, created the “Public Health in Arkansas’ Communities Search” website, a county-level, statewide database for health-related information.
It also established a program to assist state and local agencies in evaluating the effectiveness of health initiatives, as well as worked with its 19 county partners in evaluating their food and nutritional systems. The center also partnered in building a track and playground in Hamburg and established a program in Dumas to encourage parents and their pre-school age children to be more active.