Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #111783

Barbara K. Wingrove, MPH, Center to Reduce Cancer Health Disparities, National Cancer Institute, 6116 Executive Boulevard, Suite 602, Bethesda, MD 20892, 301 451 8269, B.Wingrove@nih.gov

The reduction and ultimate eliminations of health disparities has been a national goal for decades, as evidenced by the US Department of Health and Human Services Healthy People 2000 and Healthy People 2010. The Federal government has increased its funding for research to understand the determinants of these disparities, and develop and test interventions to reduce excess mortality. Federal, state, and local governments and private foundations have also funded health related programs. But the disconnect between what we know through research, i.e. evidence-based practices, and what services are provide to all people remains. Minority and underserved populations continue to bear an unequal burden of disease. The incorporation of Health Policy into research can help bridge the gap between what we have learned through research and what we sustain in communities of greatest need.

The National Cancer Institute's (NCI) Center to Reduce Cancer Health Disparities (CRCHD) created a Health Policy Branch committed to eliminating cancer health disparities by promoting and supporting health policy research and related activities to address the unequal burden of cancer. The CRCHD, through its national network of grantee sites, is using Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) strategies to engage decision and policy makers as partners from planning and initiation stages of programs so that evidence-based practices can be sustained through policy changes. This presentation will introduce the concept of incorporating health policy in a research agenda, describe the benefits of adapting and adopting evidence-based practices through health policy changes, and give examples of successful programs.

Learning Objectives: