MUSC, SC State combat health disparities
A health and economic crisis facing African American South Carolinians is being addressed by a joint project of South Carolina State University in Orangeburg and MUSC.The schools will launch a multi-pronged attack on metabolic syndrome, a cluster of conditions that include overweight, elevated blood pressure and lipid abnormalities. Individuals with metabolic syndrome are at risk for diabetes, heart disease, stroke, kidney failure and some cancers. The syndrome is growing in epidemic proportions nationally and particularly in South Carolina and its African American communities.
Funded by the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities, two five-year grants, totaling $5.9 million to the two institutions, will support Project EXPORT (Center of Excellence in Partnership for Community Outreach, Research on Health Disparities and Training).
Dr.
Sabra Slaughter
“As the state’s leading academic health center and the top minority-serving institution, together, we have unique capabilities and special strengths to provide innovative programs to address this crisis,” said MUSC’s Sabra Slaughter, Ph.D., principal investigator.
“The metabolic syndrome is not easy to treat medically,” said Brent Egan, M.D., center co-director. “It is best treated by lifestyle changes and prevention of obesity in the first place.” Egan calls the metabolic syndrome a problem of “access to excess.” The metabolic syndrome is rampant in cultures that have access to excess calories and where sedentary lifestyle is the norm.
An article in the Journal of the American Medical Association published just last month stated that 40 percent of African American women are obese, and more than 80 percent are overweight. In addition numerous recent studies have shown that being overweight is affecting children and teens in growing numbers.
Dr.
Brent Egan
It is estimated that 47 million Americans have the metabolic syndrome, according to Egan. And it increases as a function of age. It is being seen earlier in life, as more children are becoming obese. “We’re now seeing diabetes and hypertension in teenagers,” said Egan.
The health impact of the obesity epidemic will not be fully felt for the next 10 or 20 years, as there is a lag time from the development of metabolic syndrome until the development of the related medical conditions such as diabetes or hypertension. “The magnitude of the problem will be overwhelming if nothing is done about it,” said Egan. “The mean age in the US is increasing rapidly, with an expected addition of about 35 million people over the age of 60 in 20 years and 2 million fewer people ages 30 to 50 to pay the taxes to support the health problems of the older groups. It is not just a serious health issue, but a major economic time bomb.”
Project EXPORT will foster a grass roots approach to health promotion and disease prevention through emphasis on establishing healthy lifestyles earlier in life. The outreach core of the project will design community centered educational programs that promote healthy lifestyle changes and primary prevention strategies by encouraging citizens to disseminate as well as receive health information. It will concentrate on a 16-county region of central South Carolina where SC State already has an affiliated group of extension offices in each county to assist with project. Programs will be taken to churches, beauty and barbershops, local boys’ and girls’ clubs, 4-H clubs, senior centers and other places where citizens congregate.
The research core of the program will be centered at the new Clinical Research Unit at South Carolina State. Nutritional intervention research will be emphasized with students and faculty from SC State’s nursing school conducting the research protocols. MUSC faculty will assist in the initiation, design and evaluation of the research projects. The new Research Unit at SC State will provide important opportunities for training students and faculty in clinical research. Moreover, new discoveries on nutrition and health from research at SC State can be shared with communities in the 16-county region through the Outreach Core.
“The training and education cores of the program will be responsible for designing and implementing strategies to increase the number of African American health professionals engaged in health disparities research,” said Slaughter. There will be integration with several existing successful training programs. Additionally existing MUSC NIH grants are eligible for 70 or more supplements to support research training for minority investigators ranging from high school and undergraduate students to pre- and post-doctoral students and faculty at both institutions. These have been severely underutilized, and the project will open up a variety of training opportunities through the supplemental awards for minority high school and college students, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and faculty. The EXPORT plan is to more fully utilize these supplements and produce a cadre of future scientists interested in research into disparities in health care.
SC State and MUSC are among 26 institutions nationally who were awarded Project EXPORT awards out of 95 applications for FY 2002. The National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NCMHD) awarded a total of $18.8 million to support these centers of excellence training and education in the field of health disparities. Many of the other awardees were also planned partnerships between applicant institutions.
The NCMHD is the newest center at the National Institutes of Health. It was designated by Congress to lead coordinate, support and assess the NIH research effort to reduce and ultimately eliminate health disparities as it affects racial and ethnic communities and medically underserved individuals.
MUSC Core Leaders
Sabra Slaughter, Ph.D., Principal Investigator
Brent Egan, M.D., Center Co-Director
W. Timothy Garvey, M.D., Core Director, Pilot Project Core
Marilyn Laken, Ph.D., Core Director, Administrative Core
David Rivers, MUSC Coordinator, Outreach Core
William Robinson, Core Director, Education Core
Alberto Santos, M.D., Core Director, Training Core
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