The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA

Abstract #50463

Patricia A Fraser, MD, Brigham & Women's, 75 francis street, boston, MA 02115, (617) 732-5348, fraser@cbr.med.harvard.edu

Systemic lupus erythematosus is an inflammatory connective tissue disease that preferentially afflicts African-American women. There are three African-American women with lupus for every Caucasian woman with lupus. Lupus develops at an earlier age in African-American women and adolescents. African-American women are more likely to develop end stage renal disease as a complication of their lupus nephritis. African-American women experience three-fold greater mortality from lupus when compared to mortality rates in Caucasian women. Predisposition to lupus is inherited as a complex genetic trait that is modulated by multiple genes. Evidence is emerging that implicates environmental exposure to organic solvents in predisposition to lupus and related conditions. Thus, African-American women residing in communities suffering environmental pollution may confront genetic and environmental risks for lupus. Eradication of hazardous waste exposures is likely to proceed more rapidly than the development of biologic treatment such as gene therapies, and may prevent lupus in populations at high risk to develop this disease.

There are many challenges to the investigation of how environmental exposures combine with the inherited tendencies in high risk groups to trigger lupus. The research study design must be developed with community participation to ensure culturally relevant and sensitive research tools and to provide a forum for the articulation of a community’s concern about research.

Learning Objectives:

• 1. The participant will be able to list gender and ethnic risks associated with systemic lupus erethryametosus (SLE), as well as symptoms of this complex autoimmune disorder.
• 2. The participant will be able to discuss anecdotal evidence linking SLE incidence in environmentally overburdened communities with specific chemical exposures.
• 3. The participant will be able to recognize the utility of community-based participatory research (CBPR) approaches in the conduct of lupus screening, genetic screening, exposure assessments and etiological studies.

Keywords: Community-Based Partnership, Lupus

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.