Health Inequities Research Interest Group

1. Health Inequities Research Interest Group December 14, 2009

2. Political partisanship influences perception of biracial candidates' skin tone. • Eugene Caruso et al. (2009). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

3. Political partisanship influences people's visual representations of a biracial political candidate's skin tone. “We expected these biased visual representations to reflect nonconscious associations with skin tone, whereby White is associated with good and Black is associated with bad.” In three studies, participants rated the representativeness of photographs of a hypothetical (Study 1) or real (Barack Obama; Studies 2 and 3) biracial political candidate. Unbeknownst to participants, some of the photographs had been altered to make the candidate's skin tone either lighter or darker than it was in the original photograph.

4. Participants whose partisanship matched that of the candidate they were evaluating consistently rated the lightened photographs as more representative of the candidate than the darkened photographs, whereas participants whose partisanship did not match that of the candidate showed the opposite pattern.

6. For evaluations of Barack Obama, the extent to which people rated lightened photographs as representative of him was positively correlated with their stated voting intentions and reported voting behavior in the 2008 Presidential election. This effect persisted when controlling for political ideology and racial attitudes. These results suggest that people's visual representations of others are related to their own preexisting beliefs and to the decisions they make in a consequential context.

7. The study's result "goes along with sort of these cultural ideas that we have about things that are light versus things that are dark as being either good or bad, positive or negative," says Keith Maddox, a psychology researcher at Tufts University who has studied how people perceive skin tone.

8. Studies on the impact of skin color on health/healthcare White-Means, S. et al. Med Care Res Rev. 2009 Aug;66(4):436-55.. Cultural competency, race, and skin tone bias among pharmacy, nursing, and medical students: implications for addressing health disparities. Klonoff, EA et al. J Behav Med. 2000 Aug;23(4):329-38. Is skin color a marker for racial discrimination? Explaining the skin color-hypertension relationship.

9. Studies on the impact of skin color on health Borrell LN et al. Soc Sci Med. 2006 Sep;63(6):1415-27. Self-reported health, perceived racial discrimination, and skin color in African Americans in the CARDIA study. Kreiger, N e tal. Am J Public Health. 1998 Sep;88(9):1308-13. Racial discrimination and skin color in the CARDIA study: implications for public health research. Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults. Landale, NS et al. Soc Sci Med. 2005 Jul;61(2):379-91. What does skin color have to do with infant health? An analysis of low birth weight among mainland and island Puerto Ricans.

10. CDC Racism and Health Workgroup Objectives To identify or propose measures of racism that can be used in research and intervention on the impacts of racism on the health and well-being of the nation and world To identify the mechanisms by which racism operates and has its adverse impacts on health To promote the development of interventions to eliminate racism and prevent its adverse impacts on health, and To contribute to a national and global conversation regarding the impacts of racism on the health and well-being of the nation and world. Membership is open to ALL interested persons E-mail rahw@cdc.gov for more information

11. National Institutes of Health: Career Development Awards • NCI Mentored Research Scientist Development Award to Promote Diversity (K01) • To provide support and “protected time” (three, four, or five years) for an intensive, supervised career development experience in the biomedical, behavioral, or clinical sciences leading to research independence.

12. Eligibility Individuals from racial and ethnic groups that have been shown by the NSF to be underrepresented in health-related sciences on a national basis; Individuals with disabilities, which are defined as those with a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities; and Individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds

13. National Institutes of Health: Career Development Awards • NCI Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award to Promote Diversity (K23) • For career development of ethnically and racially diverse individuals with a health professional doctoral degree from groups that have been shown to be underrepresented in health-related science • To support the career development of investigators who have made a commitment to focus their research endeavors on patient-oriented cancer research

14. Patient-oriented research • Research conducted with human subjects (or on material of human origin such as tissues, specimens and cognitive phenomena for which an investigator directly interacts with human subjects).  • This area of research includes: • (1) mechanisms of human disease; • (2) therapeutic interventions; • (3) clinical trials; and • (4) the development of new technologies. 

15. National Institutes of Health: Career Development Awards • NCI Transition Career Development Award to Promote Diversity (K22) • To establish a unique pathway for recruiting and retaining both advanced postdoctoral students and new investigators from groups that are underrepresented in biomedical research who can conduct independent competitive cancer programs. • These biomedical research investigations are expected to address problems that are pertinent to cancer health disparities and the biology, etiology, pathogenesis, prevention, diagnosis, control, and/or treatment of human cancer. 

16. National Institutes of Health: Career Development Awards • NCI Mentored Clinical Scientist Research Career Development Award to Promote Diversity (K08) • Supports a mentored research experience that integrates didactic studies with biomedical, behavioral, or translational cancer research. • Translational research is defined as application of basic research discoveries toward the diagnosis, management, and prevention of disease.

17. National Institutes of Health: Career Development Awards • Promoting Careers in Aging and Health Disparities Research (K01) • Provides support for a sustained period of “protected time” for intensive research career development under the guidance of an experienced mentor, or sponsor, in the biomedical, behavioral or clinical sciences leading to research independence. • Research is critically needed to develop basic knowledge, innovative treatments, techniques and programs focused on challenges of reaching racial, ethnic, economic and educationally disadvantaged groups, and on understanding diseases that disproportionately affect the elderly members of these groups and provide appropriate care and treatment.

18. National Institutes of Health: Research Awards • The Effect of Racial and Ethnic Discrimination/Bias on Health Care Delivery (R01, R21, R03) • Descriptive and analytical studies that examine racial/ethnic discrimination as a risk factor for racial/ethnic disparities in disease incidence, treatment, and outcomes; • The development of data resources including the identification and/or development of new data collection modalities and the evaluation of existing data collection instruments/modalities; • Development of innovative methods of measuring racial/ethnic discriminatory behavior, perception of exposure to racial/ethnic discrimination and novel approaches to the analysis of quantitative and qualitative data for the purpose of describing discriminatory behavior and exposure to racial/ethnic discrimination;

19. National Institutes of Health: Research Awards • Examination of the prevalence of institutional racism in health care delivery systems or policies and its contribution to racial/ethnic health disparities; • The development and evaluation of interventions that enhance cross-cultural communication and reduce discriminatory behavior, the perception of exposure to racial/ethnic discrimination, and health-related consequences of racial/ethnic discrimination; and • Studies that examine bias/discriminatory attitudes, beliefs and behaviors that may influence/limit access to diagnostic technologies and therapies for racial/ethnic minorities, particularly in areas for which serious disparities exist such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, mental health, substance abuse, infectious diseases, and infant mortality.

20. National Institutes of Health: Research Awards • Reducing Health Disparities Among Minority and Underserved Children (R01, R21) • This initiative is designed to stimulate research that targets the reduction of health disparities among children. • Rather than a singular approach, interventions using a multilevel approach (individual, health system, community, societal) are encouraged. • In addition, basic studies designed to further delineate mechanisms/pathways of disparities that lead to the development of interventions are also encouraged. 

21. National Institutes of Health: Research Awards Specific targeted areas of research include biobehavioral studies that incorporate multiple factors that influence child health disparities such as biological (e.g., genetics, cellular, organ systems), lifestyle factors, environmental (physical and family environments) social (e.g. peer influences), economic, institutional, and cultural and family influences; Studies that target the specific health promotion needs of children with a known illness and/or disability; Studies that test and evaluate the cost effectiveness of health promotion interventions conducted in nontraditional settings. 

22. National Institutes of Health: Research Awards Health Promotion Among Racial and Ethnic Minority Males (R01) Toenhance our understanding of the numerous factors (e.g., sociodemographic, community, societal, personal) influencing the health promoting behaviors of racial and ethnic minority males and their subpopulations across the life cycle Solicit applications focusing on the development and testing of culturally and linguistically appropriate health-promoting interventions designed to reduce health disparities among racially and ethnically diverse males and their subpopulations age 21 and older.

23. National Institutes of Health: Research Awards • Behavioral and Social Science Research on Understanding and Reducing Health Disparities (R01, R21) • To encourage behavioral and social science research on the causes and solutions to health and disabilities disparities in the U. S. population. • Health disparities between, on the one hand, racial/ethnic populations, lower socioeconomic classes, and rural residents and, on the other hand, the overall U.S. population are major public health concerns. • Emphasis is placed on research in and among three broad areas of action: 1) Public policy, 2) health care, and 3) disease/disability prevention. Particular attention is given to reducing "health gaps" among groups. • -.

24. National Institutes of Health: Research Awards Proposals that utilize an interdisciplinary approach, investigate multiple levels of analysis, incorporate a life-course perspective, and/or employ innovative methods such as system science or community-based participatory research are particularly encouraged. This announcement encourages research on the causes of and solutions to the “health differences” between a focus-population group and a reference-population group (e.g., African Americans vs. European Americans or the US population as a whole).

25. National Institutes of Health: Research Awards Although improving the absolute level of a population group’s health is a laudable goal, it may not result in changing the group’s relative level of health: The reference population’s health might also improve, thereby maintaining or even widening the gap. The study of a single population group (in order to elucidate the circumstances that may contribute to health disparities or to test an intervention targeting a particular group) may be included under this announcement. However, the relevance to disparities must be addressed explicitly. Also of interest is research on the causes of disparities within a single population group (e.g., among African Americans).

26. National Institutes of Health: Research Awards • Community Participation Research Targeting the Medically Underserved (R01) • This FOA will use the R01 grant mechanism to encourage studies that specifically target medically underserved areas as well as underserved and underrepresented populations. • The FOA will ensure that the health issues of underserved communities and populations are addressed using CBPR research strategies.

27. National Institutes of Health: Research Awards • Medically Underserved Area (MUA) designation involves application of the Index of Medical Underservice (IMU) to data on a service area to obtain a score for the area. • Medically Underserved Population (MUP) designation involves application of the Index of Medical Underservice (IMU) to data on an underserved population group within an area of residence to obtain a score for the population group. • Population groups requested for MUP designation should be those with economic barriers (low-income or Medicaid-eligible populations), or cultural and/or linguistic access barriers to primary medical care services.

28. National Institutes of Health: Research Awards • Understanding and Promoting Health Literacy(R03)               • The sponsors offer support for empirical research on health literacy concepts, theory and interventions. • Health literacy is defined as the degree to whichindividuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions.

29. National Institutes of Health: Research Awards • Priority Program Areas: Lifespan and Cultural Differences • Explore the developmental precursors of low health literacy and the age-related changes in reading and other cognitive skills throughout the life course • Examine the role of social and cultural factors in the development of health literacy.  For example, how do children acquire health-related knowledge (e.g., through the media, family socialization) as they age, especially those children in households where their parents speak limited English and the children serve as interpreters?  • Examine the nature and impact of irrational health beliefs that resist scientific evidence, identify social and cultural factors that reinforce or refute those beliefs, and explore strategies to influence those beliefs and/or mitigate their impact.

30. National Institutes of Health: Research Awards • Seek, Test and Treat: Addressing HIV in the Criminal Justice System (R01)                            • Researchers are encouraged to develop, implement, and test strategies to increase HIV testing andthe provision of HAART to HIV seropositive individuals involved with the criminal justice system, with particular focus on continuity of HAART during and after community re-entry following incarceration.

31. National Institutes of Health: Research Awards • Targeted interventions intended to improve participation in HIV testing and enhance engagement and retention in HIV care among high risk populations such as illicit drug users, mentally ill, women, African Americans, and other minorities. • Strategies to link HIV seropositive individuals to community-based HIV care and sustain HAART treatment following the release from jail or prison. • Novel strategies to enhance retention and adherence to HAART among criminal justice populations with special emphasis on high risk groups including illicit drug users, mentally ill, women, African Americans, and other minorities. 

32. National Institutes of Health: Research Awards •  Health Disparities in NIDDK Diseases (R01) • The overall objective of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to understand and mitigate health disparities in the development, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases of high priority to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), National Institutes of Health NIH), • Diabetes, obesity, nutrition-related disorders, hepatitis C, gallbladder disease, H. Pylori infection, sickle cell disease, kidney diseases, and metabolic, gastrointestinal, hepatic, and renal complications from infection with HIV. • It is recognized that both biologic and non-biologic factors may be operating in these populations.

33. National Institutes of Health: Research Awards • Exploratory/Developmental Grants Program for Basic Cancer Research in Cancer Health Disparities (R21) • Invites grant applications from investigators interested in conducting basic research studies into the causes and mechanisms of cancer health disparities. • These awards will support pilot and feasibility studies, development and testing of new methodologies, secondary data analyses, and innovative mechanistic studies that investigate biological/genetic bases of cancer health disparities.

34. National Institutes of Health: Research Awards • Basic Cancer Research in Cancer Health Disparities (U01) • Through this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA), the Center to Reduce Cancer Health Disparities (CRCHD) and the Division of Cancer Biology (DCB), at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), invite cooperative agreement research (U01) grant applications from investigators interested in conducting basic research studies into the causes and mechanisms of cancer health disparities. • These awards will support pilot and feasibility studies, development and testing of new methodologies, secondary data analyses, and innovative mechanistic studies that investigate biological/genetic bases of cancer health disparities.

35. American Cancer Society