University of Pennsylvania, through the Schools of Medicine, Nursing, Social Work, and Arts and Sciences proposes, over a five year period, to develop and implement an EXPORT Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in partnership with Cheyney University of Pennsylvania. This Penn-Cheney Export Center (PCEC) will create an infrastructure for the conduct and promotion of research and education on health disparities and the development of a new cadre of investigators and educators. The overall mission of the EXPORT Center (PCEC) will be to build partnerships that will facilitate reduction in health disparities through research, teaching, training, education, and community outreach, with an emphasis on African-Americans and Latinos. As a University wide effort with full support of the highest administration levels at both institutions, this EXPORT Center will be prominently positioned on the participating campuses and surrounding communities. The proposed EXPORT Center will build upon existing institutional strengths and directly in line with the respective missions, visions, and current strategic directions of both institutions. The Center will provide a clear focal point and mandate for disparities related initiatives within the Philadelphia area.

The overall goals of the proposed EXPORT Center are to identify and implement innovative, interdisciplinary strategies to ameliorate the social, environmental, and health services contexts that lead to and perpetuate health problems in minority communities and, within such improved contexts, to facilitate positive changes in health behaviors related to lifestyle and health care utilization.

As the specific focus of our activities, we propose to examine the determinants and ramifications of obesity and obesity related diseases, an area of health risk where disparities have already been documented for both African American and Latino populations. This focus incorporates both eating patterns and physical activity, and, therefore, modifiable lifestyle risks of cross cutting relevance to disparities in chronic diseases. Moreover, obesity is linked directly to some of the most serious health outcomes in African American and Latino communities, including diabetes, cardiovascular disease, some cancers, asthma and other respiratory problems, and osteoarthritis. An underlying theme of the proposed EXPORT Center is "Bridging Disciplines to Reduce Disparities" The intent is to draw together a range of disciplines whose joint contributions may be synergistic. This interdisciplinary approach is particularly appropriate for our focus on obesity related disparities. The indicated disparities involve multiple interrelated facets. This approach will permit us to address the various aspects as one complex condition with multiple aspects rather than as a set of separate conditions. This integrated focus is also consonant with the needs of the local African American and Latino communities in that obesity related disparities occur simultaneously, not separately, in communities and families and should be addressed through coordinated strategies.

(c) 2003 center for clinical epidemiology and biostatistics · export-study@cceb.med.upenn.edu