NEWS

For immediate use

Oct. 25, 2002

Three campuses receive $1.5 million to create joint health disparities research center

Local angles: Chapel Hill, Durham, Winston-Salem

CHAPEL HILL -- Researchers from three North Carolina universities have received grants totaling $1.5 million from the National Institute of Nursing Research to create a Center for Innovation in Health Disparities Research.

The National Institutes of Health agency funded three related grants to support the new center, which will begin operation this fall with offices and directors at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, N.C. Central University and Winston-Salem State University.

The center’s goal is to develop nurse researchers who will generate the knowledge to deliver culturally competent care to a diverse and rapidly changing U.S. population.

"This grant will allow the universities to collectively research and collaborate on strategies for advancing the quality of health care while reducing health disparities among patients from diverse cultures," said Dr. Sylvia Flack, dean of Winston-Salem State’s School of Health Sciences and center director.

Disparity, both in the availability and quality of patient care and among care providers, is a major concern in the health-care field. Research that explores health within the context of culture is more urgently needed now than ever, center researchers said.

They cite statistics from the Center for Health Information and Statistics showing that Latinos are more than 3.2 times as likely and blacks are more than 10 times as likely to die from AIDS than whites in North Carolina.

In addition, they said, North Carolina's blacks are more than two times as likely to die of diabetes while its Mexican-American adults are two to three times more likely to acquire the disease than the state's whites. Homicide rates reflect health disparities within the state as well: blacks are more than four times as likely and Latinos are nearly five times as likely to die due to homicide compared with whites.

"Health care is not the same for all segments of the population in the U.S.," said Dr. Betty Dennis, chair of N.C. Central’s department of nursing and a center director. "As a result, health-care outcomes are strikingly different among population groups. Rates of disease, injury and death are higher among some groups. This disparity presents a critically important health care problem."

Center strategies for reducing health disparities will include facilitating the cultural competence of students and faculty, mentoring faculty and doctoral students, funding pilot studies, providing mentored research experiences for undergraduate and graduate students and collaborating with minority communities to develop research partnerships.

"The partnership among the universities is one of the center’s greatest strengths," said Dr. Chris McQuiston, UNC School of Nursing associate professor and a center director. "We all bring a different type of expertise to the center and will learn from and teach one another as we share the common vision of reducing health disparities and promoting social change."

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Note: UNC center director Dr. Chris McQuiston can be reached at (919) 966-5365 or chris_mcquiston@unc.edu. N.C. Central center director Dr. Betty Dennis can be reached at (919) 530-5336 or bpdennis@wpo.nccu.edu. Winston-Salem State center director Dr. Sylvia Flack can be reached at (336) 750-2570 or flacks@wssu.edu.

UNC School of Nursing contact: Sunny Smith Nelson at (919) 966-1412

NCCU Office of Public Relations contact: Sharon Saunders at (919) 530-6295

WSSU Office of Media Relations contact: Roger Kirkman at (336) 750-2150