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

Abstract #114847

John M. Flack, MD, MPH¹, Richard Severson², Nancy T. Artinian, PhD, RN, FAHA³, Judith Abrams, PhD⁴, Zora Djuric, PhD⁵, Melissa M. Franks, PhD⁶, Randall J. Gretebeck, PhD⁷, Janet R. Hankin, PhD⁸, Susan J. Land, PhD⁹, Peter A. Lichtenberg, PhD⁶, Dorothy Nelson, PhD¹, Amy Mehraban Pienta, PhD¹⁰, and David D. Womble, PhD⁹. (1) Department of Internal Medicine, Wayne State University, 4201 St. Antoine, Detroit, MI 48201, 313-966-9687, adudley@med.wayne.edu, (2) Family Medicine/Medicine, Wayne State University, 4201 St. Antoine, University Health Center, Detroit, MI 48201, (3) College of Nursing, Wayne State University, 5557 Cass Avenue, Room 132 Cohn Building, Detroit, MI 48202, (4) Karmanos Cancer Institute, Wayne State University, Hudson-Weber Cancer Research, 4201 St. Antoine, Detroit, MI 48201, (5) Family Medicine, University of Michigan, Williams St., Ann Arbor, MI 48103, (6) Institute of Gerontology, Wayne State University, 226 Knapp Bldg, University Health Center, Detroit, MI 48201, (7) Physical Education, Wayne State University, 261 Matthaei Physical Education, Detroit, MI 48201, (8) Department of Sociology, Wayne State University, 656 W. Kirby, Detroit, MI 48202, (9) Center Molecular Medicine/Genetics, Wayne State University, 3248 Scott Hall, Detroit, MI 48201, (10) ICPSR, University of Michigan, Williams St., Ann Arbor, MI 48103

The Wayne State University (WSU) Center for Urban and African American Health consists of five Cores and three Projects with participation of 29 investigators from 14 different disciplines. The five Cores represent specialized areas of expertise and services required across all research projects. These Cores form the foundation of our application. The Cores are: 1) Administration; 2) Psychosocial and Community Measures; 3) Recruitment and Clinical Measures; 4) Biostatistics and Research Database; and 5) Genomics. African Americans were selected as the primary study population for the Center because of their high burden of obesity-related disease such as breast cancer and cardiovascular diseases (hypertension, heart failure, diabetes mellitus, and coronary heart disease). The three Projects are: 1) Project 1: Obesity, Nitric Oxide, Oxidative Stress and Salt Sensitivity, 2) Project 2: Weight Loss in Breast Cancer Survivors, and 3) Project 3: A Dyadic Intervention for Cardiac Rehabilitation Patients. These Projects are thematically linked through obesity, diet and other lifestyle factors including physical activity, and obesity-related cardiovascular disease and cancer. Our research efforts are focused on understanding the mechanisms operating at multiple levels (environment, lifestyle, physiology, genetics) mediating known disparate chronic conditions and their precursors. We also seek to identify preventive strategies and therapeutic approaches that might alleviate the disproportionate burden of disease. Primary as well as interactive effects of environmental exposures (household and community-level) and psychobehavioral characteristics with physiological measures (e.g., 24-hour BP burden and oxidative stress), genes, and body composition will be explored in relation to their impact on study outcomes.

Learning Objectives:

By the end of the presentation, the participant will be able to (
• identify obesity as a mediator of excess risk of CVD and cancer.

Keywords: African American, Cancer

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.

Recorded presentation