Psychologist Wins Grant To Reduce Risky Sexual Behavior Among African American Girls

Developing and evaluating a faith-based, HIV-prevention program for African-American mothers and their daughters is the focus of Dr. Chisina Kapungu’s $795,000 career development grant from the National Institute of Mental Health.

Kapungu, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Illinois at Chicago, is a clinical psychologist who has worked on HIV prevention programs, conducted research on the multi-systemic factors of HIV risk in African-American adolescents, and counseled HIV-infected women and kids.

Her proposed research project will work with two Chicago churches to pilot a faith-based HIV prevention program for community-based educators to administer to women and their daughters, ages 13 to 16.

The project, while still in the development stage, is “going to be very collaborative, very much based on principles of community-based participatory research, with shared decision-making throughout the process,” said Kapungu, who developed the project while completing a post-doctoral fellowship at UIC’s Institute for Health Research and Policy.

The intervention is based on two existing HIV prevention programs — one developed by the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice in Washington, and the other an evidenced-based program, Sisters Informing, Healing, Living, and Empowering, recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and proven effective among African-American women and girls.

Kapungu plans to integrate the two programs and customize the curriculum based on the needs of the community, to include information about parental monitoring, assertive communication, and negotiating safe sexual practices.

“The goal of the intervention is to decrease sexual possibility situations and delay the onset of sexual debut,” said Kapungu, who describes the intervention as not focused on condom usage.

Research has shown that family factors such as parental monitoring, communication, and parental attachment are associated with delays in sexual intercourse among adolescents, Kapungu said. “There really hasn’t been empirical work in implementing faith- and family-based HIV interventions.”

Although African Americans are 13 percent of the U.S. population, they experience 59 percent of the HIV/AIDS cases in the country, according to the CDC.

“The church has been an untapped resource within the HIV prevention field and can have a potentially important role in educating young people about sexuality and HIV,” Kapungu said. “Worldwide, faith-based organizations have focused on secondary prevention, counseling and support for infected individuals and peer education groups, but less on primary prevention.”

UIC ranks among the nation’s leading research universities and is Chicago’s largest university with 26,000 students, 12,000 faculty and staff, 15 colleges and the state’s major public medical center. A hallmark of the campus is the Great Cities Commitment, through which UIC faculty, students and staff engage with community, corporate, foundation and government partners in hundreds of programs to improve the quality of life in metropolitan areas around the world.

For more information, visit www.uic.edu

HIV Preventive Gel Begins Testing With $350,000 Grant

 A gel designed to protect heterosexuals from the transmission of HIV will be tested for safety at the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute (LA BioMed), at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, funded by a $350,000 grant.

The grant will be used for 180 volunteers, women age 18-40, to participate in a 12-week evaluation of the gel’s absorption and safety of absorption into women’s tissue. The study will be conducted at LA BioMed and an additional four sites.

The grant is supported by the International Partnership for Microbicides (IPM) a nonprofit global initiative to develop products for the reduction of HIV transmission and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

“IPM is committed to providing women with an affordable and self-initiating HIV-prevention strategy. The organization’s goal is to reduce the cycle of infection that has led to the deaths of more than 25 million people worldwide and orphaned more than 15 million children since 1981,” Dr. Susan Ballagh said, as she begun her recruitment of volunteers for LA BioMed’s study.

“If this gel is found to be safe, further testing will be undertaken to determine its effectiveness in preventing the transmission of HIV,” she concluded.

For more information on the study or how to become a part of it, visit: www.labiomed.com or call (310) 222-3840.

$25,000 Available For Reproductive Health In Free Student-Clinics

The Reproductive Health Access Project (RHAP) is requesting proposals for student-run free clinics to serve the uninsured and underserved women of the community.

RHAP’s Women’s Health Free Clinic Project: Expanding Access and Education will award up to five grants, at a maximum of $5,000; deadline for applications is May 30, 2010.

“Free clinics play an important role in providing medical care to Americans. Many free clinics are associated with a medical school and are staffed by its medical students … Fewer than 5 percent of US medical schools include contraception and family planning in their curriculum. This partnership provides students with a rich educational experience,” said RHAP.

“Integrating comprehensive reproductive healthcare into student-run free clinics would fill an educational gap in our country’s medical education system. Furthermore, this arrangement would also provide important services to a needy population,” RHAP continued.

RHAP offers grants to established student-run health centers to fund the start-up expenses associated with introducing a reproductive health curriculum.

Priority will be given to proposals including: Cervical cancer screening; Contraceptive education, counseling and dispensing, including emergency contraception IUD/Implanon insertion and Depo-Provera injections; Pregnancy testing, early pregnancy ultrasound and options counseling for unintended pregnancy; Medication abortion.

Besides being a student-run facility, services should be provided at a nominal or no cost to the patient, and have a partnership with a physician whom can educate and supervise reproductive health services administered.

“An additional key criterion in the selection process will be the free clinic’s commitment to sustaining the added training for medical students and services for patients after the incentive grant ends,” said RHAP.

Applications can be submitted by mail or e-mail. The full RFP, along with a guide on integrating reproductive health, can be accessed here: www.reproductiveaccess.org/freeclinic.html.

Grant Funds Research Of Immunologic Factors In Breast Cancer

Christine Ambrosone, PhD, Chair of Cancer Prevention and Control and Kelvin Lee, MD, Chair of Immunology at Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI), have received a grant for $165,000 from the Breast Cancer Research Foundation to study the possible link between adaptation to endemic infectious disease and the possibility of being diagnosed with aggressive breast cancers among women of African ancestry.

African-American women are more likely than European-Americans or Asians to be diagnosed with aggressive breast cancers and to have poor survival rates, the researchers said. It is hypothesized that robust immune/inflammatory responses evolved over many generations among Africans in response to endemic infectious diseases such as malaria.

As a result, over the years the immune system in these women has been programmed to best protect the woman throughout her reproductive years. After that, a hyper-inflammatory immune system may result in the development of more aggressive breast cancers among African-American women.

The study will use data and samples from the Women’s Circle of Health Study, an on-going case-control study of breast cancer in African-American and European-American women. The researchers hope that results of this study would open new areas for investigation regarding the basic biology of the relationship between immune factors and aggressive breast cancer.

“To date, we really do not know why African-American women are more likely to get these aggressive breast cancers. Results from this study could lead to targeted prevention or treatment strategies, reducing mortality from this disease,” said Ambrosone.

For more inforamtion, visit: http://www.roswellpark.org.

Study Finds: Women Less Likely To Receive Major Career Research Funding

The University of Michigan (U-M) Health System conducted a five year study to determine if the rate of women versus men awarded career development grants by NIH; results indicated women were less likely to receive funding.

A quarter of all researchers who received a major early career award went on to get further federal funding within five years, another study conclusion.

The study looked at 2,783 researchers who received early career awards called K08 or K23. The grant covers not only the researcher’s time, but a mentorship program is included to foster the researcher.

The lead researcher Dr. Reshma Jagsi then compared the number of K08 and K23 awardees to how many of them continued research through a R01 federal grant.

The researchers found that within the five years of receiving the K08 or K23 award only 23 percent of all researchers had attained a R01 grant.

The study found a total of 25 percent of the men and 19 percent of the women were awarded an R01. After 10 years, fewer than half of all K awardees received an R01-36 percent of women and 46 percent of men.

“It’s concerning that the whole group is not succeeding at a higher rate, and it is especially concerning that the women are doing even worse than the men,” Jagsi, assistant professor of radiation oncology at U-M, said.

“The K08 and K23 grants are highly competitive, prestigious awards that are supposed to help young scientists become independent investigators. People who get these awards are expected to be the best and brightest, and they are expected to succeed. They not only have the aptitude for and commitment to research, but the grant is supposed to give them the resources they need – protected time and mentorship,” Jagsi said.

The researchers drew conclusions as to why women were less likely to receive R01 funding.

“One contributing factor may be that women’s K awards are on average smaller than those of their male peers, and thus women may be at a disadvantage from the outset. Throughout the past 15 years, female grant recipients have received on average approximately 80 cents for each dollar received by male grant recipients—the average of career awards to women in 2007 was $145,795, whereas the average of career awards to men in 2007 was $165,081. Of note, the inverse trend is apparent in recent R01 funding—the average of R01 grants to women in 2007 was $371,142, compared with $360,291 for men. Thus, focusing attention on the causes of leakage in the early pipeline seems appropriate,” the study authors wrote.

Other conclusions by authors focused on possible family demands, such as childbirth, that could pull women scientists from continuing research. Women may also prefer teaching or clinical work rather than research; or perhaps less successful at negotiating with their department chairs for adequate time to devote to research.

“Research takes time and energy and when young researchers are trying to balance work and family, the major breakthroughs might have to wait a few extra years. New researchers not only need time, they need mentorship. And they need department chairs who understand that scientific success does not require researchers committing every aspect of their lives to their science,” said Dr. Peter Ubel, senior study author and professor of internal medicine and director of the Center for Behavioral and Decision Sciences in medicine at the U-M Medical School.

The study was supported by a Joan F. Giambalvo Memorial Fund from the American Medical Association Women Physicians Congress; and printed in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

For more information visit: www.umich.edu.

University Receives NIH Grant To Study Obesity Characteristics Of Hispanic Women

The University of Texas at El Paso’s (UTEP) College of Health Science has received $99,000 from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study characteristics of metabolically obese but normal weight Hispanic women.

Assistant Professor of Kinesiology Chantal Vella, Ph.D., is conducting the study on young women who may be predisposed to diabetes, cardiovascular disease and other serious health problems.

On the outside, these Hispanic women appear to be the picture of health—they are young and of normal weight. It’s what is happening inside their bodies that concerns Vella.

“With these kinds of metabolic disorders, studies usually examine obese, older populations,” Vella said. “Nobody has really focused on young women, particularly young Hispanic women, and why many of them are at risk of developing diabetes and cardiovascular disease.”

It’s a critical issue to study because cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in women, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Among Hispanic women, heart disease accounts for 24 percent of all deaths.

Identifying at-risk women and treating them early, Vella noted, “would have a tremendous impact on quality of life, severity of disease at diagnosis and overall public health.”

Vella’s three-year study, “Characteristics of Metabolically Obese but Normal Weight Hispanic Women,” will add to the body of knowledge being gathered by UTEP’s Hispanic Health Disparities Research Center.

The funds supplement an earlier NIH grant of $333,000.

For more information, visit: http://chs.utep.edu/.

HIV/AIDS Prevention Grants Offered To Community Organizations

The National AIDS Fund (NAF) and Johnson and Johnson partnered to offer grants to community based organizations (CBO) to reduce the burden of HIV/AIDS among women and families.

The GENERATIONS Initiative for its third round (GEN III) will focus on strengthening women and families affected by HIV/AIDS through prevention techniques.

The deadline to apply is Nov. 2, 2009. An estimated 6-8 grants are available totaling to a possible $160,000 over three phases.

The grant award process for GEN III will consist of three distinct, but linked phases: a four month Formative Phase, a four-month Pilot Phase and a 20-month Implementation Phase, the partnership said.

Selected grantees will be awarded a preliminary Formative Phase grant of $10,000. Upon successful completion of the Formative Phase, grantees will be awarded a Pilot Phase grant of $25,000; upon successful completion of the Pilot Phase, grantees will be awarded the first installment of the Implementation Phase grant totaling $125,000, the partnership said.

“Only applicants initially selected as GEN III grantees and awarded a Formative Phase grant are eligible for subsequent grants. While receipt of a formative phase grant does not automatically guarantee receipt of a pilot phase or implementation phase grant, our intent in selecting GEN III grantees is to fully support them through the entire 28-month period, provided they meet pre-determined grant and programmatic requirements,” the partnership pointed out.

The first two phases last for four months each, beginning March 1, 2010. The implementation phase will last for 20 months, starting Nov. 1, 2010.

Two types of proposals will be considered:

* Seeking to adapt previously tested evidence-based HIV prevention interventions; or

* Seeking to implement innovative or emerging HIV prevention interventions that are grounded in established theories of behavior change or based on scientific evidence and can be evaluated and replicated in other communities.

Eligible organizations must have a proven track record of its delivery of HIV/AIDS prevention programs, services, tools and previous commitment. Priority will be given to applicants in New York, New Jersey, Florida, Puerto Rico, California, Michigan, Illinois, Washington, D.C., Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, and South Carolina, but all states are encouraged to apply.

Aside from the money the grantees will be awarded, technical assistance (TA), program evaluation and community building support will be offered by the partnership to develop the prevention intervention program.

TA is a range of outside support services meant to assist:

* organizations in their assessment of the specific needs of their target population;

* the design components of their proposed HIV prevention intervention;

* the development of educational materials, presentations and other program curricula; and

* other aspects of project design and implementation.

The NAF is responsible for covering the costs of the TA as well as selecting and pairing them with the grantees. Participation for this part of the grant is mandatory.

“A second core component of GEN III is the provision of independent evaluators who will work with grantee program staff to design an evaluation plan, create evaluation tools and protocols, analyze process and outcome data, and review evaluation results and their implications for programmatic design, implementation, and quality assurance,” NAF said.

The NAF will cover the costs of the evaluator as well as help each CBO select the appropriate match to the project.

Finally, each grantee will become a part of a learning community where they can converse, share experiences and learn from each other. This learning community will be fostered in a number of ways:

* At least four national convenings held during the grant period. Grantees are required to be present at each convening. Travel and accommodations for convening attendees will be supported by NAF. The first convening will occur in March 2010, shortly after the GEN III grant period begins.

*Quarterly conference calls. Grantees are required to meet via conference call at least on a quarterly basis to share progress and updates and discuss relevant topics.

For complete proposal details: http://www.aidsfund.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/gen-iii-request-for-proposals.pdf.

To complete and submit the application: https://www.grantrequest.com/SID_352/Default.asp?CT=CT&SA=SNA&FID=35019.

For more information, visit: www.aidsfund.org.

NY Offers $60 Million To Integrate HIT

The New York Department of Health (NY DOH) has made $60 million available for grants to support adoption of health information technology (HIT) and integration with patient center medical home (PCMH) practices.

The Health Efficiency and Affordability Law for NY (HEAL NY) capital grant program, established in 2004, is accepting applications for HEAL NY Phase 10 HIT Grant Program; deadline for applications is June 15, 2009.

“HEAL 10 seeks applications for projects to improve care coordination and management through a PCMH supported by Interoperable Health Information Infrastructure. This infrastructure includes the technological building blocks, clinical capacity and policy solutions necessary to transition healthcare from today’s largely paper-based system to an electronic, interconnected healthcare system,” according to the NY DOH.

Lead applicants should be:

• A designated stakeholder participant in a PCMH that has an active role in the care of the target patient population and is an active participant in a state recognized RHIO; or
• A Community Health Information Technology Adoption Collaboration (CHITA) — a health IT adoption and services organization to promote the adoption and effective use of interoperable EHRs and other health IT tools to support quality improvement — on behalf of one or more PCMHs.

Applications will be scored and the higher ranking projects will be awarded the grants. To increase points awarded, applications should include at least 50 percent of providers and caregivers involved in the PCMH, but more names will result in a higher ranking.

Health plan participation will also benefit the application’s ranking, said NY DOH.

“A critical component is the ability to share clinical information across all providers involved in a patient’s care to improve the coordination of care. Coordination of care among providers as a patient moves between care settings has been shown to be critically important in decreasing medical errors and their associated costs by reducing the duplication of services and providing information at the point of care,” said the NY DOH.

A maximum of $7 million may be requested and matching funds are required. Grants will be awarded by regions, they are:

• Western: Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Erie, Genesee, Livingston, Monroe, Niagara, Ontario, Orleans, Schuyler, Seneca, Steuben, Wayne, Wyoming, Yates
• Central: Broome, Cayuga, Chemung, Chenango, Cortland,Delaware, Herkimer, Jefferson, Lewis, Madison,Oneida, Onondaga, Oswego, Otsego, Tioga, Tompkins
• Northern: Albany, Clinton, Columbia, Essex, Franklin, Fulton, Greene, Hamilton, Montgomery, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Schenectady, Schoharie, St. Lawrence, Warren, Washington
• Hudson Valley: Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Sullivan, Ulster, Westchester
• New York City: Bronx, Kings, New York, Queens, Richmond
• Long Island: Nassau, Suffolk

A minimum of one grant will be awarded to each region and a maximum of two grants will be awarded if funds allow. The NY DOH said if there is still money available after the initial 12 grants other high ranking applications may receive funding.

Any questions should be submitted to the NY DOH by May 11.

For more information, please visit: www.health.state.ny.us.

---

March Of Dimes Awards $126,000 To Community Women Healthcare Programs

The Washington chapter of March of Dimes awarded a total of $125,580 to seven organizations improving the health of women.

“Our grants provide funds for grass-roots organizations that help women who are often unable to access the health care system or appropriate social services due to financial, language or other barriers,” said Lisa Talbott, MPH, March of Dimes Program and Public Affairs Director.

“We’re grateful that our successful fundraising efforts, such as March for Babies, make it possible for us to support new community-based efforts to help more babies to be born healthy,” she said.

Last year in Washington state, 9,190 babies were born prematurely; and each day, the March of Dimes was there to help them win. The March of Dimes carries out its mission of preventing birth defects, premature birth and infant mortality through programs of research, community services, education and advocacy.

For example, in 2008, the March of Dimes successfully worked to add 15 additional disorders that are tested at birth. Washington state now screens for 27 conditions. All of these disorders have lifesaving treatments available which enable the baby to live a normal, healthy life.

Through research over the past three years, Washington Chapter of the March of Dimes invested $6,331,803 in research programs in Washington state at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle Children’s Hospital, Swedish Medical Center and the University of Washington. In addition, from 2006 to 2008, the Washington Chapter allocated $570,579 to help thousands of Washington families get the support and direct services they need before and during pregnancy.

Klickitat County Health Department
The Klickitat County Health Department will encourage first trimester visits as well as provide education and vitamins to women of child bearing age and to those who are pregnant. The outreach will benefit 700-plus pregnant women and women of childbearing age. Funding: $2,000.

University of Washington
The University of Washington provides counseling and diagnostic services to women from all over Washington state who have delivered preterm infants to help reduce risk for a future preterm birth. The services will assist about 150 women who have delivered a baby at less than 34 weeks gestation. Funding: $46,054 (Second of multi-year grant for total of $93,010.)

Franciscan Health System in partnership with Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc.
Franciscan Health System in partnership with Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. will implement a pilot Stork’s Nest program in Pierce County. Stork’s Nest is a community-based, prenatal health promotion program for low-income women that is designed to encourage prenatal care participation and healthy behaviors during pregnancy through incentives and education. The program will assist about 120 low-income women the first year. Funding: $20,594.

Family Planning of Clallam County
The Family Planning of Clallam County will provide folic acid education, preconception and prenatal education and referral services to women of childbearing age, with an emphasis on low-income, rural, Native American and Latina women. The outreach will also focus on at-risk youth ages 13-24 with limited resources. Funding: $20,000.

Refugee Women’s Alliance
Refugee Women’s Alliance will provide assistance for prenatal education and support to Southeast Asian and East African refugees and immigrants in order to improve maternal and infant health in the greater Puget Sound Area. Through its VitalEd Program, the group focuses on increasing folic acid and multivitamin use, increasing access to maternal health information and services, and improving behaviors for healthy pregnancies. The outreach will serve about 140 women. Funding: $13,682.

Benton Franklin Health District in Kennewick
The Benton Franklin Health District has been awarded a grant to enhance prenatal education and support services for its MOM (Mother’s Oral health Matters) program. All participants in the MOM program will receive education and oral health supplies to encourage and enable improvement in oral care at home. The program also teaches public health nurses to screen pregnant women for periodontal disease and then refers patients for professional dental care. The program plans to reach out to about 400 Tri-Cities area low-income, pregnant women. Funding: $12,500.

First Step Family Support Center in Port Angeles
The First Step Family Support Center will provide monthly celebrations in English- and Spanish-speaking women to increase services and build social support systems. In addition, information about folic acid and multivitamins will be presented. The program plans to serve about 75 pregnant women. Funding: $10,750.

For more information, please visit: www:marchofdimes.com/washington/.

---

Awards Available To Better Understand Women’s Mental Health

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) will be funding two separate research projects to understand the mental health of women.

The first grant opportunity, Women’s Mental Health in Pregnancy and the Postpartum Period, will grant a maximum of $200,000 to an applicant. The applicant may request up to a total of $250,000 over two years. It is undecided the total amount of funding available.

Projects should be focused on researching perinatal mood in four separate areas: clinical course, epidemiology and risk factors; basic and clinical neuroscience; interventions; and services.

The next grant available, Women’s Mental Health and Sex/Gender Differences Research, will award lifespan research to pinpoint difference between men and women.

“There are difference in both the prevalence and clinical course of mental disorders between men and women. Starting in childhood, girls have higher rates of anxiety disorders than boys. Boys have higher rates of autism and attention deficit disorder. After puberty, women have higher rates than men of depression, eating disorders and anxiety disorders, including post-traumatic stress disorder. Men are more likely to suffer from substance abuse disorder,” said NIH.

“This pattern of disparities in the epidemiology of mental disorders in males and females provides indirect evidence of genetic, hormonal, biological, social, cultural and developmental factors in etiology and coursed,” the agency said.

NIH plans to add more disorders to the known list with funding, “to increase the understanding of the significance of sex/gender difference in mental health outcomes and to assess their significance for mental health prevention, treatment and services.”

Both grants will determine the total awards based upon the amount and quality of applicants. Deadline for submission is May 7, 2009.

For more information, please visit: http://nih.gov.