DP24-004, PRC Core: UCSF Prevention Research Center: Reducing social isolation among older LGBTQ+ adults

University Of California, San Francisco, San Francisco CA

Investigators

Abstract

To respond to the epidemic of loneliness and social isolation among LGBTQ+ adults, we propose a Prevention Research Center (PRC) at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) that facilitates significant and innovative health science research through partnerships with public health colleagues that ultimately improves community health. Improving social connectedness among older adults is an important health problem prioritized in the PRC funding announcement RFA-DP-24-004 and for which, we have significant capacity to address. Certain communities continue to be disproportionately impacted by loneliness and isolation, including LGBTQ+ (lesbian, bisexual, gay, transgender, queer/questioning, and other sexual and gender minority) older adults. Older LGBT+ adults often experience worse health than their heterosexual/ cisgender peers, and, although evidence-based interventions to improve social connectedness among older LGBTQ+ adults have been tested in research environments, their scale up is urgently needed in community settings. The UCSF PRC is uniquely positioned to improve social connectedness among older LGBTQ+ adults because we have an experienced, innovative, and multi-disciplinary team of world-renowned geriatricians who have developed, implemented, and evaluated evidenced-based, peer-support interventions for older adults and who have existing relationships with community groups who can do the work of adapting and replicating these interventions in broad and diverse community settings. Our overall aims are to: (1) Maintain the multi-disciplinary, productive, vibrant, and innovative UCSF PRC to further catalyze high-quality applied prevention research; (2) Collaborate with partners to disseminate and translate research findings into practice, especially within the LGBTQ+ community; (3) Leverage the work of our community partnerships, dissemination and translation efforts, and evaluation cores to reduce health disparities and strengthen public health programs and practice; (4) Conduct a dissemination and implementation core research project, using a community engaged approach, to improve social connectedness among older LGBTQ+ adults; and (5) Participate in the PRC network to (a) inform our core research project and center activities; (b) advance the network's collective impact; (c) serve as a resource to other PRCs; and (d) adapt, implement, evaluate, disseminate, and translate evidence-based public health interventions. The PRC will include an administrative infrastructure, a community engagement core, a dissemination and translation core, and an evaluation core. The work of the cores will be leveraged to increase health equity among LGBT+ older adults and strengthen public health programs and practice.