The PRC Core Demonstration Project - Quit & Fit: Improving health among rural teens

Principle Investigator: Kimberly Horn (khorn@hsc.wvu.edu)
Start Date: October 2004
End Date: September 2009
Funding Source: CDC
Yearly Amount: $215,873

The primary goal of the core research project is to reduce smoking among youth using the Not On Tobacco program with the addition of a new physical activity module (Quit & Fit). A two-pronged secondary goal is to (a) increase participants’ physical activity by supplementing the intervention with the Quit & Fit module and (b) assess the mediating/moderating impact of physical activity on cessation outcomes. This project will focus on tobacco use, particularly smoking, and sedentary lifestyle in rural communities. It is related to ongoing efforts with youth smoking cessation and the N-O-T program. N-O-T is the American Lung Association’s smoking cessation program for teens, developed by WVU's PRC. It contains ten 50-minute sessions that occur once a week for approximately ten consecutive weeks. N-O-T is delivered in same gender groups, comprised of no more than 12 youth, by same gender facilitators. All groups are administered in private settings. All facilitators receive standardized training from the ALA. The Quit & Fit physical activity module will be added to the N-O-T curriculum. This curriculum is being developed using input from students, community members, parents, teachers, and trained N-O-T facilitators. Approximately 45 schools across the state will participate during the course of the research. It is anticipated that the addition of the physical activity module will lead to higher levels of smoking cessation/reduction than previously found in the N-O-T program as well as improvement in physical activity.
For more information about the N-O-T program, please visit: http://www.hsc.wvu.edu/mbrcc/T2R2/projHighlights.asp

SIP 13 - Rural Healthy Aging Network

Principle Investigator: R. Turner Goins (rgoins@hsc.wvu.edu)
Start Date: September 2004
End Date: September 2009
Funding Source: CDC, National Council on Aging
Yearly Amount: $49,999; $9,000

The Rural Healthy Aging Network is part of the Healthy Aging Research Network - a collaboration of 9 Prevention Research Centers, the Health Care and Aging Studies Branch of the CDC, and national affiliates, under the direction of the Coordinating Center, the University of Washington Health Promotion Research Center. HAN was created to help develop partnerships and define a research agenda that promotes healthy aging at individual, organizational, environmental, and policy levels. Participating Centers bring their expertise in aging research to work together and in collaboration with their communities and other partners. These linkages create opportunities to develop and implement health promotion interventions for older adults at the individual, organizational, environmental, and policy levels. As a Participating Center of the HAN, we will work with our Network colleagues over the five year grant period (2004-2009) in efforts to achieve an equitable distribution of optimal physical, mental, and social functioning among all older adults. This will be accomplished through the individual adoption of health promoting behavioral skills; social, community, and environmental benefits; translation and uptake of optimal health promotion policies, and systems integration.
For more information about RHAN, please visit: http://www.hsc.wvu.edu/coa/rhan

SIP 9 - Cardiovascular Health Intervention Research and Translation Network (CHIRTN)

Principle Investigator: William M Neal (wneal@hsc.wvu.edu)
Start Date: July 2005
End Date: June 2009
Funding Source: CDC
Yearly Amount: $75,000
The West Virginia Prevention Research Center is one of six PRCs that make up the CDC funded CHIRTN network. The purpose of CHIRTN is to synthesize scientific evidence on interventions to promote cardiovascular health, develop a cardiovascular health research agenda to address gaps in knowledge, conduct research projects to fill targeted gaps in existing knowledge, and translate efficacious interventions in order to develop resources to promote cardiovascular health in communities and nationwide. The network will disseminate network findings and tools widely to encourage and assist other organizations working to promote cardiovascular health.

Evaluation Oversight and Coordinating Unit: Evaluation for the Division of Tobacco Prevention

Principle Investigator: Kimberly Horn (khorn@hsc.wvu.edu)
Start Date: July 2000
End Date: March 2010
Funding Source: WV Bureau for Public Health
Yearly Amount: $303,101

The primary focus of the EOCU is to provide evaluation strategies for all WV Bureau for Public Health-funded tobacco prevention and reduction projects and to offer evaluation-related technical assistance to applicants and grantees. The EOCU provides evaluation monitoring for state and community-based projects. A key mission of the EOCU is to help grantees’ projects succeed and to document the value of tobacco prevention efforts. The EOCU has provided the following services: Developed, in conjunction with WV-DTP, the Request for Grantee Applications (RGA) documents for State Tobacco Prevention and Reduction Projects; developed and delivered Grant Training Workshops in conjunction with WV-DTP; developed tools to facilitate and standardize the grant proposal review process; reviewed and scored each tobacco prevention and reduction proposal submitted to WVBPH in response to the RGA; provided WV-DTP grant recipients with evaluation monitoring forms to complete at the end of their projects’ funding cycle; provided evaluation feedback and consultation to WV-DTP; provided feedback on data collection instruments to grantees; offered evaluation oversight for all WV-DTP funded projects; and provided on-going technical assistance to the WV-DTP and its subcontractors

WV Healthy Start/HAPI Project

Principle Investigator: M. Y Dawood
Start Date: June 2005
End Date: May 2009
Funding Source: Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA)
Yearly Amount: $700,000

This project is designed to help low-income pregnant women to have better birth outcomes. Assistance is provided during pre-natal care and up to 2 years post-partum. We will also be measuring the effects of an aggressive dental hygiene intervention on birth outcomes.

FAX to QUIT: Smoking Cessation Among Pregnant Women

Principle Investigator: Kimberly Horn
Start Date: October 2008
End Date: September 2009
Funding Source: USDHHS Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Yearly Amount: $99,073

FAX to Quit is a method of referring patients who smoke to appropriate cessation services. If a patient agrees to receive intervention, a provider faxes a patient agreement for to a telephone quitline immediately following a patient clinic visit. The Fax to Quit program is geared toward healthcare providers and is intended to be brief. The program is based on the principles of the 5 A’s as developed by the US Public Health Service (AHRQ clinical guidelines) for treating tobacco use and dependence.

For additional PRC tobacco related research activities, visit the Translational Tobacco Reduction Research (T2R2) Program at: http://www.hsc.wvu.edu/mbrcc/T2R2/activeResearch/index.asp