Health Disparities and Health Equity

As described by HHS, Health Disparities Research is the study of significant differences between one population and another in health-related areas, such as the overall rate of disease incidence, prevalence, morbidity, mortality or survival rates that may have a disproportionate and adverse impact on minority populations.  The special emphasis is to reduce chronic disease incidence, morbidity and mortality including cancer, and improve outcomes, within underserved populations.  The program also provides research training for graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and junior faculty.  Faculty members are actively involved in behavioral intervention studies, prevention trials, observational and outcomes studies, cancer surveillance, and community-based research. Social Determinants of Health are the economic, physical, cultural, and social factors that affect our health.  They make some health-related actions easier and others more difficult.  In many ways SDH are at the heart of health disparities and health equity research, as they are strongly correlated with differences in health status and outcomes among different populations.  Research within the DOPM seeks to elucidate the connections among SDH, health status, and health outcomes and discover ways to address the ways in which SDH may lead to poor health while reinforcing ways that SDH can promote better health.

Community-Based/Behavioral

Community-Engaged Research is key to the success of the DOPM research enterprise.  Our successful research enterprise relies on long-lasting, trusting academic-community partnerships in which community members and organizations are equal partners in research. Relationships are maintained over time, not developed just in response to a particular project.  Through the Minority Health & Health Equity Research Center, the DOPM maintains a robust network of partnerships across the state of Alabama, providing a ready resource for community-based research and participant recruitment.

Quantitative Data Science Unit

This unit includes biostatisticians and bioinformaticians who both work on methodology issues and provide methodological support for the Division. This unit also houses the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center (O’Neal) at UAB Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Shared Facility (BBSF), which provides state-of-the-art biostatistical and bioinformatics support to O’Neal investigators, as well as biostatistics and bioinformatics core support for various research projects.  This support includes: the design of studies; assistance with writing grant proposals; development of clinical trial protocols; participation in developing manuscripts and abstracts; the design, management, and quality control of databases; and production of web-based user interfaces for study management.  In addition, the BBSF acts as the data management and data coordinating center for various phase multi-institutional clinical trials.

Dissemination and Implementation Science

As much of the research within DOPM has involved and continues to involve multi-level interventions to improve health behaviors, health status, and health outcomes, we are keenly aware of the need to understand how successful interventions can be implemented and sustained in the real world, i.e, by non-academic partners in communities and healthcare settings.  In this research, we work with community organizations, school systems, and healthcare providers and healthcare systems to implement, adapt, sustain, and evaluate interventions throughout the Deep South, across the United States, and around the world.