AUSTIN, Texas—The Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Research (CHPR) in The University of Texas at Austin School of Nursing has received a five-year, $2.3 million grant, which will allow researchers to continue trying to improve the health of the underserved.
This is the center’s second five-year grant from the National Institute of Nursing Research of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
“This funding will allow us to continue to support the development of innovative research to improve the health of persons rarely included in health promotion research,” said Dr. Alexa Stuifbergen, associate dean for research and director of the CHPR. “Acquiring the second five-year grant is a significant accomplishment.”
CHPR, an NIH core center, has funded 22 interdisciplinary pilot studies with more than 1,200 participants since it was established five years ago. Areas of research include diabetes, caregiving, adolescent drug abuse prevention, hormone therapy, women with mobility impairment and health promotion for women with HIV and other chronic conditions.
In addition to the pilot studies, the center has sponsored colloquia, summer research institutes, summer internships for minority students and has provided consultation to other researchers in the southwest United States.
A collaborative partnership between the CHPR and the nursing department at New Mexico State University ultimately led to the creation of the Southwest Partnership Center for Nursing Research on Health Disparities, an exploratory center also funded by the NIH. This partnership has great potential to address the need for more studies that focus on minority health and health disparities, and the need to prepare more nurse researchers who are themselves members of minority racial or ethnic populations, said Dr. Lynn Rew, university professor of nursing and director of the Southwest Partnership Center.
NIH funding at the School of Nursing at The University of Texas at Austin has doubled in the last several years, and the school is now ranked No. 7 in the country in NIH funding.
For more information contact: Nancy Neff, School of Nursing, 512-471-6504.
