Active and Recent Research Projects
TITLE: Practicing Safety to Prevent Child Abuse
Principal Investigator: Diane J. Abatemarco, PhD
Funding Agency: Academy of American Pediatrics
Funding Period: Ongoing
Project Description: To help build capacity in pediatric practices, introduce and train the practices on the use of new prevention tools as well as having the practice participants in a comprehensive qualitative and quantitative evaluation that is designed to feed back them.
TITLE: Depression and End-of-Life Care in Amyothropic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS)
Principal Investigator: Steven M. Albert, PhD
Funding Agency: National Institute of Mental Health
Funding Period: 01/01/07-12/31/07
Project Description: To monitor patients diagnosed with definite or probable amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) who face a likelihood of death by monthly in-home assessments. The primary family caregiver will be interviewed on the same schedule as their ALS patients and once after the patient's death. In addition, a survey will be conducted of medical providers' influence on end-of-life decisions.
TITLE: Center for Healthy Environments and Communities
Principal Investigator: Robbie Ali, MD
Funding Agency: Heinz Endowments
Funding Period: Ongoing
Project Description: To establish a Center for Healthy Environments and Communities explicitly to improving environmental health in local communities. The Center seeks to improve local environmental health by forming a central resource for information, expertise and collaboration, by working with partner organizations to improve weaknesses in available environmental health data and by increasing public awareness and relevance of environmental health in local communities.
TITLE: State Training in Recent Advances in Statistical Analysis Applied to Health
Principal Investigator: Jessica G. Burke, PhD
Funding Agency: St. Michael's Hospital, Toronoto (HRSA)
Funding Period: Completed 2007
Project Description: To conduct multilevel modeling analyses exploring the relationship between neighborhood context and racial disparities in pregnancy related health outcomes (e.g. preterm birth and low birth weight). Analysis results will be disseminated through peer-reviewed manuscripts and presentations at professional meetings.
TITLE: Center for Maternal and Child Health Leadership in Public Health Social Work (formerly: Joint Public Health Social Work Training)
Principal Investigator: Kenneth J. Jaros, PhD
Co-Principal Investigator(s)/Investigator(s)/Other Faculty: V. Carr-Copeland
Funding Agency: DHHS/HRSA
Funding Period: Ongoing
Project Description: The goal of the training project is to increase the quantity and improve the quality of social services in maternal and child health. The project trains qualified social workers for leadership positions as administrators, consultants, and practitioners in public health social work, with particular emphasis on programs servicing mothers and children. The project also provides short-term training for social workers in the Department of Health and Human Services Regions I, II, III, and V.
TITLE: University, Community Leaders, and Individuals with Disabilities (UCLID)
Principal Investigator: Kenneth J. Jaros, PhD
Funding Agency: DHHS/HRSA (Children's Hospital)
Funding Period: 07/01/04–06/30/09
Project Description: This project supports an interdisciplinary leadership education program for health professionals who care for children with disabilities.
TITLE: Early Head Start - Longitudinal Study
Principal Investigator: Kenneth J. Jaros, PhD
Funding Agency: DHHS/ACYF
Funding Period: Ongoing
Project Description: The longitudinal Early Head Start Study focuses on the effects of participation in Early Head Start, Head Start, and other early childhood programs on school readiness. As a follow-up to current research with the Family Foundations EHS Program, the study will examine the ways in which participation in early childhood programs helps children get ready for school and also helps parents support their children in this important transition and be involved in their learning. The study will explore conceptions of school readiness among low-income families, key pathways to both child and parent school readiness that may be affected by program participation, and community and policy factors that may either facilitate or inhibit school readiness. Designed as a mixed methods study, the research will employ a number of quantitative and qualitative methods.
TITLE: Pittsburgh Early Head Start: Continuous Program Improvement; Pittsburgh Early Head Start: Community Assessment Update
Principal Investigator: Kenneth J. Jaros, PhD
Funding Agency: Mon Valley Educational Consortium
Funding Period: Ongoing
Project Description: Employing a largely qualitative methodology in the framework of process evaluation, the aim of this work is to develop an in-depth understanding of the relationship of risks, strategies, and outcomes with the goal of strengthening and improving program practice as well as providing a foundation for more extensive measurement of risks and outcomes in future years. The assessment component will include a demographic statistical record for the recruitment of Early Head Start families.
TITLE: Effects of Managed Care Growth on Charity Care: The Changing Role of Health Departments and Physicians
Principal Investigator: Christopher R. Keane, ScD
Co-Principal Investigator(s)/Investigator(s)/Other Faculty: E. Ricci, J. Lave, G. Marsh, J. Marx, S. Thomas
Funding Agency: AHRQ/DHHS
Funding Period: 05/01/03–04/30/08
Project Description: The proposed research agenda is to study several mechanisms through which increases in managed care may have affected provision of care for the uninsured by local health departments (LHDs) and physicians. Christopher R. Keane will examine the extent to which increases in managed care have: (a) diverted Medicaid revenues away from LHDs, reducing their cross-subsidization and provision of care for the uninsured; and (b) decreased the Medicaid revenue and overall revenue of physicians, leading to a decrease in their provision of charity care. The investigator also will examine the extent to which increases in managed care have: (a) decreased physicians' autonomy (indicated by decreased ownership, decreased perceived clinical freedom, and increased size of practice), leading to decreased charity care, and (b) increased discontinuation and privatization of LHD services resulting in a decrease in LHDs' ability to assure access of the uninsured. This research will aid development of strategies for improving access to health services among the uninsured.
TITLE: Fayette County Healthy Start Evaluation Study
Principal Investigator: Christine E. Ley, PhD
Funding Agency: Healthy Start Inc.
Funding Period: Ongoing
Project Description: The purpose of this project is to implement an evaluation plan for a collaborative project that seeks to reduce infant mortality in Fayette County, Pa. The project uses a community-based infrastructure model based on the Healthy Start community model used by projects such as the Pittsburgh/Allegheny County Healthy Start, which serves as a partner.
TITLE: Pittsburgh/Allegheny County Healthy Start Evaluation Study
Principal Investigator: Christine E. Ley, PhD
Funding Agency: Allegheny County Health Department
Funding Period: Ongoing
Project Description: The purpose of this project is to determine the effectiveness of Healthy Start Project interventions for the postpartum and inter conceptual care, including improving the health of high-risk women and their infants and the avoidance of future adverse pregnancy outcomes. The goal of the Pittsburgh/Allegheny County Healthy Start Project is to eliminate infant mortality in Pittsburgh/Allegheny County by using community-based strategies and a collaborative community-based health-human services model.
TITLE: Evaluation of Children with Special Health Care Needs
Principal Investigator: Edmund M. Ricci, PhD
Funding Agency: Highmark Blue Cross/Blue Shield
Funding Period: Completed 2007
Project Description: Design and conduct an evaluation study of an initiative of the Highmark Caring Foundation titled, "Caring Program for Children with Special Health Needs (CPCSHN)". The primary goal of the evaluation study is to determine the impact of CPCSHN on the quality of life of children with special health care needs enrolled in the program and on the quality of life of their families.
TITLE: Allegheny County Tobacco Evaluation
Principal Investigator: Ravi K. Sharma, PhD
Co-Principal Investigator(s)/Investigator(s)/Other Faculty: K. Jaros, E. Ricci, R. Sharma, J. Trauth
Funding Agency: Tobacco Free Allegheny
Funding Period: Completed 2007
Project Description: To assess and monitor the burden of tobacco in Allegheny County using administrative data and prospective survey data, and evaluate individual program effectiveness using state mandated web-based reporting system and required program evaluation data. In addition, to monitor funded programs' capacity to implement tobacco prevention and cessation programs, identifying strengths and weaknesses of each program quality and effectiveness.
TITLE: Process of Self-Care: Comparison of African Americans and Whites
Principal Investigator: Myrna A. Silverman, PhD
Co-Principal Investigator(s)/Investigator(s)/Other Faculty: D. Musa, H. Degenholtz, S. Thomas, L. Siminoff
Funding Agency: NIH/NIA
Funding Period: 09/01/00–08/31/04
Project Description: This research study explores the differing patterns of healthcare responses to chronic illness of older African Americans and Whites residing in Allegheny County, Pa., who have at least one of two chronic illnesses prevalent in this population: osteoarthritis and ischemic heart disease. Specifically, the study describes the process by which self care behaviors are adopted, maintained and changed by conducting a longitudinal investigation of stability and change in self care behaviors among older adults with chronic illnesses. The Project will study how decisions are affected by a variety of factors including the characteristics of the individual, characteristics of the disease, and characteristics of the environment. The study will also describe and analyze the effects of self care behaviors on an individual's assessment and satisfaction with their illness care and the effects of this care on their health-related quality of life, disease symptoms, depression and anxiety level and sense of control and efficacy; and document and describe the differences in the self-care process and effects between African Americans and Whites.
TITLE: HIV Serosorting Among Men Who Have Sex With Men
Principal Investigator: Ron Stall, Ph.D.
Funding Agency: San Francisco Department of Public Health
Funding Period: 01/01/07-12/31/07
Project Description: To obtain cross-sectional and longitudinal data on "HIV serosorting" among men who have sex with men in San Francisco to measure true prevalence, gauge its potential causal role in current epidemic trends and help guide future prevention efforts.
TITLE: Long Term Health Effects of Methamphetamine Use in the MACS
Principal Investigator: Ron Stall, Ph.D.
Funding Agency: National Institute of Health
Funding Period: 09/01/07-08/31/08
Description: To identify the precursors of meth use and/or abuse among men having sex with men (MSM), to identify the development of co-morbidities among MSM meth users, to test whether substance use drives HIV risk among minority men, to test whether meth use hastens disease progression among HIV-positive men and to test whether cessation of meth use raises health levels.
TITLE: Office Barriers and Facilitators to Overcoming Disparities in Elderly
Principal Investigator: Martha A. Terry, PhD
Funding Agency: Center for Disease Control
Funding Period: 09/01/05-09/14/07
Project Description: To investigate the extent to which practice-level differences in handling of adult immunizations and the attributes of the medical practice contribute to racial disparities at the population level. Use of proactive immunization strategies such as standing orders and express vaccination clinics will be assessed.
TITLE: (Various research projects headed by Stephen B. Thomas)
Principal Investigator: Stephen B. Thomas, PhD
Stephen B. Thomas holds a primary appointment in the Department of Behavioral and Community Health Sciences. His sponsored projects, while administered through the Center for Minority Health, are closely interrelated with the research and teaching mission of the department. Please access the Center for Minority Health Web site at www.cmh.pitt.edu for additional information.
TITLE: Coordinated Endoscopic Colorectal Cancer Screening Principal Investigator: Jeannette M. Trauth, PhD
Funding Agency: ASPH (UPCI; J. Weissfeld)
Funding Period: 10/01/01–09/30/04
Project Description: Project investigators aim to develop, implement, and evaluate a centralized service for delivering high-quality screening flexible sigmoidoscopy.
TITLE: Integrating Cancer and Aging at Pitt
Principal Investigator: Jeanette M. Trauth, PhD
Co-Principal Investigator(s)/Investigator(s)/Other Faculty: Jan C. Jernigan, PhD
Funding Agency: NIH (UPCI)
Funding Period: 10/01/03–09/30/04
Project Description: In order to be able to begin thinking about how to design effective clinical trial recruitment strategies for the elderly, one must first understand the range of knowledge, attitude, beliefs, and motivations regarding cancer treatment and participation in medical research held by cancer patients in this population. In addition, one must also understand the perspectives of elderly cancer patient caregivers regarding participation of their loved ones in cancer clinical trials. Finally, in order to increase participation of the elderly in cancer treatment trials, it is also imperative that the opinions of primary care clinicians/geriatricians regarding appropriate cancer care for their elderly cancer patients be understood.
TITLE: Diabetes Prevention and Treatment Program
Principal Investigator: Jeanette M. Trauth, PhD
Funding Agency: Department of Defense (UPMC)
Funding Period: 09/20/07-05/31/09
Project Description: To develop and implement a qualitative evaluation of the DELPHI System into four communities in Western Pennsylvania (Johnstown, Indiana, Uniontown and Connellsville); to develop and implement a qualitative evaluation of the application of the Chronic Care Model into the same four communities; act as project facilitators in the application of the Chronic Care Model in the four communities; participate on the Diabetes Institute's planning team and help to organize state-wide priorities for diabetes prevention and treatment.