A new Washington University and Saint Louis University initiative that studies innovative ways to prevent chronic disease and improve health has received a five-year, $8 million grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The Prevention Research Center in St. Louis, one of 35 programs in 25 states, examines how people and their communities can avoid or counter the risks of chronic illnesses such as heart disease, asthma and diabetes.
The collaboration between the School of Medicine, the George Warren Brown School of Social Work and Saint Louis University School of Public Health is Missouri’s only CDC-funded Prevention Research Center.
The center has established partnerships with community-based coalitions, the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services and academic collaborators to reduce obesity and prevent chronic diseases in low-income, rural parts of the state.
Ross Brownson, Ph.D., professor of epidemiology at the School of Medicine and professor of social work at the Brown School, and Elizabeth Baker, Ph.D., professor of community health at Saint Louis University School of Public Health, are co-directors of the Prevention Research Center in St. Louis.
The Prevention Research Center is developing a new approach to collaboration, Brownson said.
“Our Prevention Research Center brings together the unique talents of faculty and staff at both universities, along with a wide variety of community partners,” he said. “We believe that our center will create a model of academic-community-practice partnership that will lead to improvements in population health.”
“Researchers have identified many evidence-based community interventions to help create the environments and policies to enable residents to make healthy choices, but little is known about what needs to be in place to facilitate local organizations working together to put proven strategies into action, especially in rural areas like the Bootheel and Ozark regions of Missouri,” Baker said.
Representatives of community groups in southeast Missouri will be invited to a free course to learn how to identify environmental and policy strategies appropriate for their area and encourage them to write proposals to fund them.
The Prevention Research Center in St. Louis will award mini-grants, serve as a resource for the projects and compile and share information so communities know what works to encourage a healthier lifestyle.
The main CDC grant of $4 million funds the core operations and research project of the center for the next five years. In addition, the CDC has awarded the Prevention Research Center funding for special interest projects:
• Cancer prevention: $1.5 million will fund continued research on communicating information to control cancer to those who are disadvantaged. Matthew Kreuter, Ph.D., professor at the Brown School who also holds an appointment at the School of Medicine, is project director.
• Policies and physical activity: $750,000 will fund studies on the impact of policies such as physical education standards in schools, relaxed dress codes that make it easier for employees to exercise, and zoning requirements for trails and sidewalks. Amy Eyler, Ph.D., research associate professor at the Brown School, is project director.
• Latin America: $1.75 million will fund a continuation of a public-health partnership with institutions in Latin America to share information worldwide about initiatives that have worked to increase physical activity levels. Brownson is project director.