PRC Research Projects

Overview

Each PRC focuses on a priority chronic disease topic. In the 2024–2029 funding cycle, PRCs are working to bridge the gap between research and practice to improve health outcomes for multiple chronic conditions.

• PRCs focus on the differences between how interventions work in a study and how they work in real-world settings. These differences are called intervention implementation gaps.
• To meet their objectives, PRCs are conducting dissemination and implementation (D&I) science.

PRC dissemination and implementation (D&I) science

PRCs are conducting D&I science to support the translation and use of interventions in communities that can most benefit. D&I science:

• Studies the processes and factors associated with successful integration of evidence-based interventions (EBIs) in different settings.
• Examines how best to share and implement EBIs to achieve the most impact.
• Aims to remove barriers that prevent effective implementation of existing interventions rather than creating or designing new interventions.

Learn how PRC core research projects are reaching populations with interventions tailored to address pressing health needs.

PRC Core Research Projects

Arizona Prevention Research Center

Goal. The center's core research project, Together Across Generations, seeks to lower social isolation and loneliness through connection across generations.

Approach. Using community health workers in Hispanic/Latino and American Indian communities, the project will explore and expand current social connection services.

• The project will partner with community organizations, local health departments, and tribal nations to carry out evidence-based programs that support connections across generations.
• Partners will work with the PRC to address social isolation and loneliness in adults living in rural, border, or tribal communities.

Principal Investigators: Scott Carvajal, PhD and Ada Wilkinson-Lee, PhD

Arkansas Center for Women’s Health

Goal. The center's core research project aims to reduce risk for high blood pressure, high blood pressure during pregnancy, and pregnancy-related deaths.

Approach. Focusing on groups of women in rural and medically underserved areas, the PRC will apply a self-measured blood pressure monitoring intervention. This project aligns with the statewide Healthy Active Arkansas initiative to reduce high blood pressure in groups across the state.

Principal Investigators: Wendy Nembhard, PhD and Carol Cornell, PhD

Emory Prevention Research Center

Goal. The center's core research project seeks to improve the nutritional quality of food provided through school-based food rescue and food pantry programs.

Approach. The center is partnering with the established Helping Hands Ending Hunger program to address childhood food insecurity. It will promote the use of federal Food Service Guidelines in the food programs of selected schools in rural Southwest Georgia.

Principal Investigator: Michelle Kegler, DrPH

Georgia State University Prevention Research Center

Goal. The center's core research project seeks to address low social connection and social isolation and loneliness.

Approach. The project focuses on adults and older adults in Clarkston, GA, a diverse, high-density community that includes refugee, immigrant, migrant, and African American residents. It will use a multi-session, evidence-based intervention that incorporates mindfulness and other techniques to address social isolation and loneliness.

Principal Investigators: Michael Eriksen, ScD and Rodney Lyn, PhD

Morehouse School of Medicine Prevention Research Center

Goal. The center's core research project will use a family diabetes self-management education and support curriculum to support families in areas with limited resources.

Approach. The project serves parents with type 2 diabetes who are members of a racial or ethnic minority group and have at least one child aged 8 to 15 years. Community health workers will host sessions with families at community sites in Atlanta and Dalton, GA.

Principal Investigators: Tabia Henry-Akintobi, PhD, MPH, Rhonda Holliday, PhD, MA, and Rakale Quarells, PhD

Mountain West Prevention Research Center

Goal. The center's core research project aims to address childhood obesity in rural and small communities with lower incomes across five states.

Approach. The Building Healthy Families intervention is a family healthy weight program that provides nutrition education and promotes healthy eating and physical activity.

• The project will serve families with children aged 6–12 with lower incomes in Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming.
• Partners include Federally Qualified Health Centers.

Principal Investigators: Paul Estabrooks, PhD, Guilherme Del Fiol, MD, PhD, David Wetter, PhD, and Kola Okuyemi, MPH

New York University & City University of New York Prevention Research Center

Goal. The center’s core research project will use a multipart intervention to support Latino and Asian immigrant adults with type 2 diabetes who have low incomes.

Approach. The project will use a community health worker linkage program with a diabetes self-management education and support intervention. Partners include Federally Qualified Health Centers and community organizations in New York City.

Principal Investigators: Nadia Islam, PhD, Lorna Thorpe, PhD, MPH, and Terry Huang, PhD, MBA, MPH

Prevention Research Center of Michigan

Goal. The center’s core research project focuses on changing empty lots and abandoned housing areas into spaces that encourage physical activity.

Approach. The project will partner with local health departments to address differences in physical activity participation among African American and Latino adults. Working in Flint, Michigan, the project will use a Vacant to Active program approach to improve spaces that promote physical activity.

Principal Investigators: Marc Zimmerman, PhD and Roshanak Mehdipanah, PhD

Prevention Research Center on Nutrition and Physical Activity at Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health

Goal. The center’s core research project examines ways to improve healthy eating and physical activity behaviors among children aged 0–5 years in early care and education (ECE) settings.

Approach. The project will work with ECE providers in Boston and across Massachusetts to use proven healthy eating and physical activity interventions. It will include health equity strategies to better support ECE settings with fewer resources.

Principal Investigators: Steven Gortmaker, PhD and Angie Cradock, ScD

Prevention Research Center for Rural Health at University of Iowa

Goal. The center's core research project aims to enhance tobacco quitline use and reduce tobacco use among rural, LGBTQIA+ young adults aged 18–29.

Approach. The center's project will promote Quitline Iowa use in rural communities across Iowa with 10,000 to 50,000 residents. The PRC will partner with state and local health departments and organizations that serve adolescents and young adults, LGBTQIA+ people, and various Iowa communities.

Principal Investigators: Rima Afifi, PhD, Mark Vander Weg, PhD, and Aaron Seaman, PhD

Prevention Research Center at UMass Chan Medical School

Goal. The center's core research project will explore how community design can increase physical activity participation.

Approach. The project will use a strategy called Neighborhood Connect to improve transportation and land use systems to better support physical activity. It will partner with the local health department to serve adults aged 18 and older in eight neighborhoods in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Principal Investigators: Stephenie Lemon, PhD, MS and Milagros Rosal, PhD

Rochester Prevention Research Center: National Center for Deaf Health Research at the University of Rochester Medical Center, New York

Goal. The center's core research project will use the Deaf Weight Wise intervention to support healthy lifestyles among older adults with hearing loss or who are Deaf and use American Sign Language (ASL).

Approach. Efforts focus on Deaf ASL-user communities beyond those in Western and Central New York State. Partners include a Deaf-led community agency and former Deaf Weight Wise participants.

Principal Investigator: Steven Barnett, MD

San Diego State University Prevention Research Center

Goal. The center's core research project focuses on reducing the negative effects of extreme heat and too much ultraviolet (UV) exposure.

Approach. Using the Heat Action Planning Guide for Neighborhoods, the project serves rural, Latino residents with lower incomes in Imperial County, California. Project partners include Comité Civico del Valle and the Imperial County Public Health Department.

Principal Investigators: Eyal Oren, PhD, MS and Miguel Perez-Zavala, PhD, MS

University of California, San Francisco Prevention Research Center

Goal. The center’s core research project will serve LGBTQ+ older adults to address loneliness and social isolation.

Approach. The project will use the Peer Outreach Program to address the needs of socially isolated older adults aged 55 and older. Partners SAGE and the Foundation for Social Connection will support implementation of this peer-run intervention.

Principal Investigators: Jesus Ramirez-Valles, PhD and Greg Rebchook, PhD

University of Minnesota Prevention Research Center

Goal. The center's core research project will use the Now Everybody Together for Amazing and Healthful Kids (NET-Works) intervention to promote healthy eating, physical activity, and healthy weight among preschool-aged children with overweight or obesity.

Approach. The project will serve children and families from historically underserved communities, including those with lower incomes and those identifying as Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). The project will adapt NET-Works for implementation in six Federally Qualified Health Centers, at the University of Minnesota Extension, and at local public health provider sites.

Principal Investigators: Melissa Laska, PhD, RD and Nancy Sherwood, PhD

University of North Carolina Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention

Goal. The center's core research project seeks to address the influence of diabetes among rural North Carolinians. It focuses on people with diabetes, people with low incomes, and American Indian, African American, and Hispanic or Latino people.

Approach. Community health workers will deliver a diabetes self-management education and support intervention across 12 health department and primary care sites. Partners include tribal organizations and Federally Qualified Health Centers.

Principal Investigators: Alice Ammerman, DrPH, Carmen Samuel-Hodge, PhD, and Adam Zolotor, DrPH, MD, MPH

University of Pennsylvania Prevention Research Center

Goal. The center’s core research project aims to improve patient-provider communication to manage early-stage cancer in older adults with early-stage breast, colorectal, and lung cancer in Philadelphia.

Approach. The project will use a comprehensive geriatric assessment, combined with a shared decision-making intervention for cancer called BEACON. Partners include the UPenn Health System, Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center, and Philadelphia Communities Conquering Cancer program.

Principal Investigators: Karen Glanz, PhD, MPH, Meghan Lane-Fall, MD, MSHP, and Oluwadamilola (Lola) Fayanju, MD, MA, MPHS

University of Pittsburgh Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Research Center

Goal. The center's core research project seeks to improve diabetes care and management for Black and rural community members.

Approach. Through a diabetes self-management education and support intervention, the project will partner with family medicine practices to reach participants in medically underserved communities across Pennsylvania and southern New York. They will use a Getting to Outcomes/Implementation approach.

Principal Investigators: Shari Rogal, MD, MPH, Joie Acosta, PhD, Matthew Chinman, PhD, and Charles Jonassaint, PhD

University of South Carolina Prevention Research Center

Goal. The center's core research project will address physical activity needs among older African American adults.

Approach. African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Churches in Charleston and Columbia will use two interventions with their older adult members. The Walk Your Heart to Health and Faith, Activity, and Nutrition interventions are intended to build, strengthen, and maintain social networks for physical activity. Project partners include AME churches, the state health department, Allen University, and not-for-profit organizations.

Principal Investigator: Sara Wilcox, PhD, MA

University of Wisconsin-Madison Prevention Research Center

Goal. The center's core research project aims to promote safe blood pressure during pregnancy and after giving birth.

Approach. The project will modify the Staying Healthy After (Around) Childbirth intervention for pregnant Black women and birthing people at risk for and with high blood pressure. Partners include community-based organizations led by and serving Black women, a remote patient monitoring vendor, and a telehealth servicer.

Principal Investigators: Jill Denson, PhD, MSW, Kara Hoppe, DO, MS, and Andy Garbacz, PhD, MA

Resources

Dissemination & Implementation | Prevention Research | ODP (nih.gov)