PREVENTION RESEARCH CENTERS
Building the Scientific Research Base with Community Partners
At A Glance
2010
What is the Prevention Research Centers Program?
In 1984, Congress authorized the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services (HHS) to create a network of academic health centers to conduct
applied public health research. CDC was selected to administer the
Prevention Research Centers (PRC) Program and to provide leadership,
technical assistance, and oversight.
Today, CDC supports 35 centers associated with schools of public health
or medicine throughout the country. Each center conducts at least one core
research project with an underserved population that has a
disproportionately large burden of disease and disability. In addition to
conducting core research, the centers work with partners on special interest
projects (defined by CDC and other HHS agencies) and on projects funded by
other sources. As a result, the PRCs’ portfolio includes hundreds of
projects each year.
The PRCs involve community members, academic researchers, and public
health agencies in finding innovative ways to promote health and prevent
disease. The partners design, test, and disseminate strategies—often as new
policies or recommended public health practices.
All centers share a common goal of addressing behaviors and environmental
factors that contribute to chronic diseases such as cancer, heart disease,
and diabetes. Several PRCs also address injury, infectious disease, mental
health, oral health, and global health.
Some centers work with distinct populations, such as African Americans
and Latinos in inner cities, Mexican Americans along the U.S.–Mexico border,
American Indians in New Mexico and Oregon, residents in rural communities
who live below the poverty level, and people with hearing disabilities.
Other PRCs focus on youth or older adults. The PRC Program reaches 41
million people in 66 partner communities.
In the Fiscal Year 2010–2014 funding cycle, five developmental centers
are funded to strengthen community connections and develop infrastructure.
Thirty comprehensive centers have developed infrastructure, established
relationships, and put plans in place for core research. Through scientific
rigor, collaborative partnerships, practical application, and community
acceptance, the PRCs continue to find new ways to improve the nation’s
quality of life.
How Does CDC Work with PRCs to Improve
the Nation’s Health?
Networking for Knowledge
PRCs encourage interaction among faculty from different disciplines, thus
bringing an array of expertise to each project. This blending of expertise
is essential to solving complex health and psychosocial problems.
Departments of education, social work, psychology, anthropology, and many
others work with the schools of public health and medicine.
The PRC network also fosters collaboration among the centers. Groups of
PRCs collaborate in thematic networks that address cancer prevention and
control research, healthy aging, physical activity policy research, Latino
health, and cardiovascular health research and translation. Because each
center in a network offers a unique geographic location and community
relationship, researchers can simultaneously test strategies in different
settings.
The PRCs also work closely with state and local health departments, the
private sector, state education agencies, and national and community
organizations. Through these partnerships, promising research findings are
translated into practical, cost-effective prevention programs in
communities.
Gaining and Sustaining Community Trust
To encourage trust, the academic institutions and community partners that
constitute the PRCs make long-term commitments and take time to build solid
working relationships. Researchers strive to respect the dignity of project
participants and the values of the community. As a result, communities are
able to make the needed changes and sustain them over time.
These principles also are applied at the national level. A representative
from each PRC community is appointed to the National Community Committee, a
group of motivated and dedicated individuals who make recommendations to the
PRC Program about how to ensure community collaboration. The program now
offers the Partnership Trust Tool, a survey and discussion guide that helps
spark dialogue and align partners’ perceptions of each other.
Training Leaders in Public Health Research
In collaboration with the Association of Schools of Public Health (ASPH),
the PRCs offer 2-year fellowships for doctoral-level students of racial or
ethnic minority origin. Thirty-eight fellows have gained hands-on experience
with projects directed by the centers and their partners. The PRCs also
offer extensive continuing education for health practitioners, public health
professionals, and aspiring leaders seeking challenge and growth.
PRC training includes an evidence-based public health course, a physical
activity and public health course, a social marketing education program,
institutes on several health topics, and workshops requested by state health
departments for their staff. PRCs also offer training in selected Latin
American countries.
Future Directions
The PRC Program continues to promote dissemination of interventions. It
is testing the feasibility of a Web-based dissemination tool to help
practitioners put proven interventions into use.
The PRC Program continues to collaborate with other CDC divisions and
public health partners such as medical institutions funded by the National
Institutes of Health’s Clinical and Translational Science Awards to
translate research into practice and advance the field of dissemination
research. The PRCs also will work across organizational lines to cosponsor
forums and other discussions of crosscutting research and research designs
for complex interventions.
In 2008, CDC and an external evaluation team completed a 5-year
evaluation of PRCs’ community-based participatory research; organizational
structure; types and goals of research; and the diversity of its training,
technical assistance, and mentoring. An ASPH Blue Ribbon Panel, also
convened in 2008, analyzed the program and made recommendations for its
future. Findings from these assessments are being applied to enhance the
rigor of PRC research and ensure accountability to stakeholders.
Prevention Research Centers: Core Projects
Developmental Centers
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
Bringing schools and families together to reduce childhood obesity in the
Mississippi Delta.
Dartmouth College
Improving the cardiovascular health of vulnerable populations in New
Hampshire.
University of Maryland
Preventing sexually transmitted disease among adults in Prince George’s
County, Maryland.
University of Massachusetts Medical School
Improving diabetes self-management among Latinos in Worcester,
Massachusetts.
Ohio State University
Helping parents prevent obesity in preschool-aged children in Columbus,
Ohio.
Comprehensive Centers
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Reducing the health risks of adolescents in Birmingham’s underserved,
predominantly African-American communities.
University of Arizona
Advocating for changes to prevent and control chronic disease in
communities along the Arizona-Mexico border.
Boston University
Improving the health and well-being of Boston’s public housing
residents.
University of California at Berkeley
Enhancing an online program to help Korean Americans reduce their
tobacco use.
University of California at Los Angeles
Helping parents promote the health and well-being of their children.
Case Western Reserve University
Increasing access to healthy foods in Cleveland, Ohio.
University of Colorado Denver
Changing school policies to promote healthy behaviors among children in
the Rocky Mountain region of Colorado.
Columbia University
Reducing hypertension among African-American adults living in Harlem.
Emory University
Increasing physical activity and improving nutrition in rural southwest
Georgia.
Harvard University
Reducing obesity among young people by improving nutrition and physical
activity.
Johns Hopkins University
Helping youths living in Baltimore avoid depression and become healthy
and
productive adults.
University of Kentucky
Preventing and controlling cervical cancer among residents in rural
Appalachian
Kentucky.
University of Michigan
Preventing sexually transmitted disease and HIV/AIDS among underserved
African-
American young adults.
University of Minnesota
Promoting healthy adolescent development in the Twin Cities.
Morehouse School of Medicine
Preventing sexually transmitted disease and HIV/AIDS among African-American
males in prison.
University of New Mexico
Promoting physical activity among Hispanics and American Indians living in
Cuba,
New Mexico.
New York University School of Medicine
Reducing diabetes among recent Asian-American immigrants in New York City.
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Reducing the risk for obesity among rural, low-income, minority women
by empowering them to make life changes.
Oregon Health and Science University
Reducing hearing loss among American Indians in the Pacific Northwest.
University of Rochester
Reducing obesity among people in Rochester, New York, who are deaf and use
American Sign Language.
Saint Louis University (with Washington University)
Increasing the adoption of evidence-based physical activity and healthy
eating programs in Missouri.
San Diego State University (with University of California
at San Diego)
Increasing physical activity and improving health among Latinos in San
Diego.
University of South Carolina
Promoting physical activity among African Americans in Sumter County, South
Carolina.
University of South Florida
Using community-based prevention marketing to improve health in Hillsborough
County, Florida.
Texas A&M Health Science Center
Increasing access to healthy foods in east-central Texas and on the
Texas-Mexico border.
University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
Promoting healthy adolescent development in Houston, Texas.
Tulane University
Increasing access to healthy foods in neighborhoods in New Orleans,
Louisiana.
University of Washington
Promoting healthy aging by disseminating proven programs.
West Virginia University
Expanding a proven teen smoking cessation program to achieve statewide
dissemination.
Yale University
Preventing or reducing diabetes among residents of Connecticut’s
economically disadvantaged cities.
Maine-Harvard Prevention Research Center
Clinicians in Maine Address Overweight in Youth
From the 1970s to the early years of 2000, the prevalence of
overweight more than quadrupled among children aged 6–11 years and nearly
tripled among adolescents aged 12–19 years.
In 2004, the Maine Bureau of Health, the Maine Center for
Public Health, and the Harvard University PRC formed the Maine Youth
Overweight Collaborative. The collaborative partnered with the Maine Chapter
of the American Academy of Pediatrics to use the physician’s office to
address overweight in children. They developed a set of simple, low-cost
tools to make it easy for clinicians to talk about excess weight with
children and adolescents. The tools include weight charts, communication
guidelines, and suggestions for motivating patients and their families.
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The
slogan “5-2-1-0” was used to promote health messages:
- Eat 5 fruits and
vegetables a day.
- Limit screen
time (television and computer use) to 2 hours per day.
- Get 1 hour of
physical activity every day.
- Do not drink
sugar-sweetened beverages.
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Over 18 months, 12 practice teams took part in surveys and training in
monitoring children’s weight and counseling children and their families
using brief, focused negotiation. After the intervention, progress was
assessed through chart review, surveys of practice teams and parents or
caretakers, and a telephone interview of providers.
In comparing data from before and after the intervention, large and
statistically significant improvements were seen in chart documentation of
children’s body mass index (BMI), BMI percentile, and classification of
overweight. Surveys also showed improvements in physicians’ knowledge about
ideal weight, ability to identify children at risk of becoming overweight,
and recognition of the importance of medically evaluating overweight
children. New practice teams have been trained and the possibility of
on-site training has been explored to minimize the time and cost associated
with this useful training.
University of Washington Health Promotion Research Center
PEARLS (Program to Encourage Active, Rewarding Lives for Seniors) Helps
Older Adults Beat Depression
Depression affects 15%–20% of older adults and is known to profoundly
compromise health and quality of life. People who are socially isolated and
in frail health are especially at risk for depression. Doctors and their
older patients often incorrectly assume that depression is an unavoidable
consequence of aging, and many depressed older adults do not receive
treatment.
The University of Washington Health Promotion Research Center
(PRC) worked with the City of Seattle’s Aging and Disability Services and
Senior Services (a local nonprofit group) to develop and test a program to
reduce depressive symptoms among homebound, chronically ill, and frail,
low-income older adults.
PEARLS helps older adults define the factors contributing to their
depression and develop their own solutions. It also helps them plan
pleasurable events and schedule social and physical activities. In the study
phase of PEARLS, 43% of seniors who participated in the program reported
less depression, and more than 33% of participants reported that they were
no longer depressed.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration includes
PEARLS on its National Registry of Evidence-Based Programs and Practices.
Researchers are working to expand PEARLS’ reach and to ensure that the
intervention retains the key components of the original study.
The PRC has developed a free, online implementation tool kit. Researchers
at the PRC are evaluating a version of PEARLS that has been adapted for use
with adults who have epilepsy.
University of California at Los Angeles: UCLA/RAND Center for Adolescent
Health Promotion
Work Site Parenting Program Promotes Communication About Sexual Health
Between Parents and Their Adolescents
Parents can affect the sexual health of their adolescent children. Many
parents, however, report feeling embarrassed, believing that they are
inadequately informed, or being unsure of what to say or how to begin when
talking with adolescents, especially younger adolescents, about sexual
topics.
The UCLA/RAND Center for Adolescent Health Promotion (PRC), explored
bringing a health intervention to parents at their workplaces. The center
developed “Talking Parents, Healthy Teens” to help parents improve
communication with their adolescent children, promote healthy adolescent
sexual development, and reduce adolescent sexual risk behaviors.
The intervention consists of eight, weekly lunch-hour sessions delivered
at the work site to groups of about 15 parents of children in 6th–10th
grades. Following formative research and three pilot tests, the center
developed a curriculum to influence parents’ communication and monitoring
skills, intention to talk about and monitor adolescents’ sexual behavior,
and perceptions of barriers and facilitators that influence talking about
sexuality. The program teaches skills, facts, and options, and offers advice
on how and when to talk with children; it does not dictate to parents what their values should be or how they should feel.
At 13 work sites in southern California, 569 parents completed baseline
surveys, gave permission for surveys to be administered to their adolescent
children, and were randomly assigned to intervention or control groups. The
average number of new sexual topics that parents and adolescents reported
discussing differed significantly between intervention and control groups.
Both parents and adolescents in the intervention group reported greater
ability to communicate with each other about sex and more openness in
communication about sex. Results have shown that public and private
employers—large and small—are enthusiastic about helping parents of
adolescents.
West Virginia University Prevention Research Center
N-O-T (Not On Tobacco) Program Spurs Innovative Web-Based Dissemination
Tool
Public health professionals are demanding cost-effective ways to find and
deliver health promotion and disease prevention programs. The PRC Program is
testing the feasibility of a Web-based tool that will help public health
practitioners effectively implement evidence-based programs. CDC chose to
pilot this implementation tool with Not on Tobacco (N-O-T), an
evidence-based youth tobacco cessation program. N-O-T was developed at the
West Virginia University PRC and is packaged and disseminated by the
American Lung Association. A rigorous evaluation of the N-O-T program showed
that 15% of N-O-T participants quit smoking, compared with 8% of those who
received a brief intervention (15 minutes of advice to quit). A Web-based
tool that helps practitioners implement N-O-T could greatly expand the
application and impact of this effective program.
The tool, developed by representatives from academia and the public,
private, and nonprofit sectors, follows best-practice guidelines. Usability
testing is being conducted to ensure that it serves all audience types.
Users include potential and existing facilitators and public health
professionals.
The tool has two components. A public section explains the history of the
program, the evidence behind it, benefits of implementing it, and how to
start it. A password-protected section for facilitators contains technical
assistance tools, implementation tips, discussion areas, and online
evaluation forms.
If the tool proves effective and useful, other programs could benefit
from a comparable Web-based dissemination tool.
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For more information please contact
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
4770 Buford Highway NE, Mail Stop K–45, Atlanta, GA 30341-3717
Telephone: 770-488-5395 • E-mail: cdcinfo@cdc.gov • Web: http://www.cdc.gov/prc
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Page last reviewed: March 6, 2009
Page last modified: October 6, 2009
Content source: National Center for
Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
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