The University of Alabama at Birmingham, in partnership with other leading academic centers in Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, will establish the Deep South Center to Reduce Disparities in Chronic Diseases with a grant from the National Institutes of Health.
The National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities has awarded funds to UAB and 10 research institutions to establish and support regional comprehensive research centers on the prevention, treatment and management of comorbid chronic diseases that disproportionately affect populations with health disparities.
These Multiple Chronic Disease Centers received grants, totaling almost $205 million including funds committed over a five-year period, that will facilitate research on chronic diseases including obesity, diabetes, hypertension, coronary heart disease, congestive heart failure, chronic kidney disease, chronic liver disease, stroke and certain cancers.
The Deep South region has the highest rates of obesity, diabetes and hypertension in the nation. As a result, life expectancy in the Deep South is substantially lower than in other regions, and this discrepancy is even greater for Black Americans.
“Promoting health equity and eliminating disparities will require a precision public health approach,” said Andrea Cherrington, M.D., professor in the Division of Preventive Medicine in the Department of Medicine, UAB Marnix E. Heersink School of Medicine and the contact primary investigator for the Deep South Center to Reduce Disparities in Chronic Diseases. “This requires providing the right intervention to the right population at the right time to reduce the burden of cardiometabolic diseases on minority populations across the Deep South.”
Read More at UAB News.