Basic, Clinical and Community Approaches to Solving Obesity Health Disparities

University Of North Texas Hlth Sci Ctr, Fort Worth TX

Investigators

Abstract

? DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The University of North Texas Health Science Center established the Texas Center for Health Disparities to conduct education, research and outreach activities to eliminate health disparities. As part of its education and outreach activitis, the Center has organized very successful annual health disparity conferences for the past nine years supported and funded in part by the National Institutes for Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) focusing on different areas of health disparities. The Tenth Annual Conference on Health Disparities will be held June 11-12, 2015 at the University of North Texas Health Science Center. The overall theme for the conference is Basic, Clinical and Community Approaches to Solving Obesity. Although there has been documented progress in halting the dramatic increase in obesity over the past three decades, these improvements are not shared by all ethnic and racial groups. We are at a critical juncture of ensuring that improvements in obesity and related chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, benefit diverse and underrepresented minority populations. Thus, this conference will bring together leaders in clinical, community, and basic science in order to inform and develop solutions to address obesity and related chronic diseases in communities experiencing health disparities. We chose the theme based on input and feedback from our Community Advisory Board in order to meet the needs of our community. Educational and interactive presentations, panel discussions and questions/ answer sessions will identify the challenges and bring conference attendees closer to developing a prospectus for the future. The Specific Aims of this application are: 1) Enhance health disparity knowledge of the health care practitioners and policy makers, and 2) Serve as a resource for the minority communities to disseminate health information, promote community participation in health education and research, and to implement disease prevention activities. The expected outcome will be increased participation of health care practitioners in minority communities and awareness of policy makers in the existing health disparities related to obesity and associated chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes.