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Social
Policy
• The
Impact of the Oregon Health Plan on TANF Leavers Ability to Care for their
Families' Health
• Karen Seccombe, Heather Hartley, Jason Newsom
• Funding from The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality 9/1/01-8/31/04
This project will
examine the effects of welfare reform on access to health insurance and
use of health services among former welfare recipients and their children
in Oregon. The study will determine how families leaving welfare for employment
plan for and cope with the expiration of their one-year transitional Oregon
Health Plan/Medicaid coverage, and what happens to them after losing their
eligibility for the single year of transitional coverage. Preliminary
research findings suggest that former welfare recipients are not necessarily
gaining coverage from their employers, while at the same time they are
losing their Medicaid benefits. The objective of the project is to contribute
to sound public policy by providing an empirical basis for understanding
the health needs of families transitioning off welfare.
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• Robert Wood Johnson
Foundation Innovator Award
• Lawrence Wallack
• Funding by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
In 2000, Dr. Wallack was selected by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
as an Innovator Combating Substance Abuse. This was the inaugural year
of what will be an annual award recognizing the outstanding contributions
of five people to the field of substance abuse. Dr. Wallack received his
award for his work relating to research regarding prevention, media advocacy,
and social policy. The $300,000 award runs from January 2001 through December
2003. Dr. Wallack is using a portion of this research award to conduct
a study of the Million Mom March, which is an organization attempting
to mobilize grassroots efforts to develop sensible and responsible gun
laws (see below).
• Million Mom March:
Building blocks of a New Movement for a New Century
• Lawrence Wallack, Liana Winett, and Linda Nettekoven
• Funding from Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Researchers in this study conducted key informant interviews, analyzed
procedural documentation, and reviewed national print news coverage of
the May 2000 Million Mom March. The goal of this project was to gather
the lessons learned in setting a gun policy agenda, making use of the
Internet as an organizing tool, engaging the mass media, and promoting
widespread mobilization of private citizens. The study further discusses
the implications of the strategies used in the formation and advancement
of the Million Mom March for the prevention of violence and promotion
of sensible gun laws.
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• The
California Wellness Foundation Violence Prevention Initiative: Policy
and Public Education Program Evaluation
• Lawrence Wallack, Liana Winett, Karen Seccombe, Yvonne Michael
• Funding from California Wellness Foundation
This project evaluates the development and use of social capital among
grantees (current and former) of The California Wellness Foundation Violence
Prevention Initiative (VPI). Measures of social capital are used as indicators
of enhanced capacity to effect social change and to document accomplishments
of VPI grantees. The project will construct case studies of various VPI-sponsored
policy efforts to prevent violence in California using a combination of
media and document analysis, and semi-structured interviews with grantees,
policy makers, and other key people from the violence prevention arena.
In addition to evaluating the policy grantees, this project will develop
an evaluation model to gauge a wide range of community and policy oriented
projects.
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• Tri-County
Health Needs Assessment of 4 Oregon Asian Pacific Islander Communities
• Yvonne Michael,
Margaret Neal
The project involves a health needs assessment to better understand and
serve the needs of specific Asian communities of immigrants and refugees
in Oregon. The project will survey members of theVietnamese, Chinese,
Filipino, and Laotian communities on health and health services. This
health needs assessment is scheduled to be completed in June 2002 and
represents a tri-county collaboration between IRCO/Asian Family Center,
Multnomah County Health Department, Clackamas Public Health Division,
Washington County Department of Health and Human Services, Kaiser Center
for Health Research, Oregon Department of Human Services-Health Division,
and Portland State University, School of Community Health.
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Media
Analysis
• Frame Analysis of News About Juvenile Substance Abuse: A
Project of the Northwest Communication Research Group
• Regina Lawrence
• Funding from Reclaiming Futures and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
This project analyzed national print media coverage of juvenile substance
abuse in order to identify the ways that issue is commonly framed in the
news. Key findiings include the fact that news coverage of juvenile substance
abuse generally lacks depth and context and that the predominant angle
on substance abuse in the news is prevention: How to keep "good"
kids from going "bad". Intervention to help young people who
have already developed a drug or alcohol problem is a less prominent topic,
and delinquent youth with substance abuse problems are largely absent
from newspaper coverage.
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• Starting
a New Conversation: Environment, Health, and Interconnectedness, A Project
of the Northwest Communication Research Group
• Lawrence Wallack, Regina Lawrence
• Funding from Nathan Cummings Foundation
This analysis for the Nathan Cummings Foundation explored the basis in
news, public opinion, and academic research for expanding public discourse
about the interconnectedness among human, animal, and environmental health.
The study noted that substantive coverage of the interconnections between
health and the environment were infrequently seen in news contexts. The
study concluded that the issue of antibiotic resistance promised fertile
ground for the efforts of the Nathan Cummings Foundation and other groups
to enrich public discourse about human-animal-environment interconnectedness.
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• An Analysis
of Recent News Coverage of Antibiotic Resistance, A Project of the Northwest
Communication Research Group
• Regina Lawrence
This study offered a summary of news coverage of antibiotic resistance
(ABR) in selected newspapers. The study concluded that ABR entered the
news mainly through four kinds of news events: governmental activities;
academic research; the release of new drugs; and the efforts of nongovernmental
groups such as the Union of Concerned Scientists. While the problem of
antibiotic overuse in livestock did receive some media attention, certain
facts about the nature and scope of the problem were not clearly conveyed
in the news, and news coverage focused more on the problem of antibiotics
and livestock than on potential solutions.
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• Breast
Cancer in the News/Media Advocacy in Cancer Prevention and Control, A
Project of the Northwest Communication Research Group
• Lawrence Wallack, Liana Winett, Ralph Catalano
This three-year project assesses many aspects of cancer coverage in the
news. The project is currently examining portrayals of breast and cervical
cancer in five nationally recognized newspapers and on evening network
television news. It has completed an analysis of data from a survey of
journalists who report on breast and cervical cancer to determine decision
making processes, selection of sources, audience response, and social
utility of topic. The survey was conducted by the University of Missouri
School of Journalism. The objective of this project is to assess the range
and content of coverage of these diseases, as well as to provide information
that will serve as the basis for improving the ways these cancers are
covered in the future. Findings have implications for health reporters
as well as those working to prevent, or provide services for people with
breast and cervical cancer. Public health professionals, by understanding
how news media cover health issues, can communicate more effectively with
journalists and can respond to concerns the general public might have
as a result of this coverage. A separate part of the research developed
a model for assessing the impact of large scale campaigns to increase
mammograms. Using time series analysis the study assessed rates of in-situ
breast cancer in the months following a national breast cancer awareness
campaign.
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• Reclaiming
Futures: Building Community Solutions to Substance Abuse and Delinquency,
A Project of the Northwest Communication Research Group
• Regina Lawrence, Liana Winett
This project provides an objective and comprehensive assessment of how
substance abuse and treatment among juvenile offenders is covered in national
print news. Research determined how prominently the problem of substance
abuse and treatment among juveniles is covered in the news media and assessed
prominence of news stories with measures of their length and placement.
The study first analyzed whether the issue of juvenile offender substance
abuse and treatment is primarily defined in the news as a criminal justice
problem or a health problem. The study also analyzed the sources that
journalists call on to explain and comment on the problem. Finally, the
study examined how responsibility for addressing the problem is apportioned
in the news.
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• Reading
Between the Lines on Measure 7, A Project of the Northwest Communication
Research Group
• Liana Winett, Regina Lawrence, Gerald Sussman
This project identified a range of arguments that were made for and against
Oregon's Measure 7 in The Oregonian newspaper from August 2000 through
February 2001. After identifying the breadth of arguments presented, the
project folded them into categories according to the themes they emphasize,
such as economic costs, quality of life, of the relationship between rights
and public obligation. This project examines the underlying values that
propel proponents' and opponents' arguments, the different methods the
two sides employ in making their respective cases, and the types of appeals
and information each side could provide in order to speak more directly
to each other, and to the public.
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Cancer
Research
• Determinants of the Spatial Distribution of Leukemia in
Oregon
• Jan Semenza
• Funding by Medical Research Foundation of Oregon
This project aims to determine the spatio-temporal distribution of leukemia
in Oregon and correlate the occurrence of leukemia to environmental exposures
such as motor vehicle exhaust, tobacco smoke, and industrial emissions.
Geographic Information System (GIS) will be used to map out leukemia cases
along with other potential risk factors for leukemia such as demographic,
occupational, and societal factors. This method is designed to reveal
potential leukemia clusters in the state, but also highlight associations
with specific risk factors that could have contributed to unusual clustering
of leukemia cases. The Oregon State Cancer Registry (OSCaR) has collected
cancer surveillance data since 1996 and this project will utilize these
data for a novel and promising approach to cancer prevention and control
in Oregon.
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• Estrogen and Breast
Cancer Susceptibility
• Jan Semenza
• Funding by Oregon Cancer Center
This study aims to determine genetic susceptibility to breast cancer by
analyzing genetic polymorphisms influencing estrogen metabolism, an important
risk factor for breast cancer. Cumulative lifetime exposure to estrogen
has been identified as a risk factor for breast cancer, and is known to
play a role in the carcinogenic process. The means by which estrogen could
increase the risk of breast cancer in some individuals but not in others
remains to be determined. This research explores the possibility that
genetic variability in genes coding for enzymes that metabolize estrogen
alters the risk for breast cancer.
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• Genetic Susceptibility
to Kidney Cancer
• Jan Semenza
• Funding by National Kidney Foundation and American Cancer Society,
Oregon Chapter
This study attempts to elucidate the role that certain environmental exposures,
such as smoking, medications, and dietary factors play in the development
of kidney cancer. This research investigates the genetic underpinning
of increased environmental susceptibility by assessing genetic alterations
in genes that are involved in the metabolism of toxic substances. Kidney
cancer patients and cancer-free subjects from the Portland Metropolitan
Area will complete a detailed epidemiologic risk factor questionnaire.
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• The Oregon Health
Survey
• Jan Semenza
• Funding by Northwest Health Foundation
This project aims to build an infrastructure in Oregon for establishing
research on cancer prevention and etiology. Although cancer affects every
segment of the population, certain individuals are more at risk than others.
Individuals with certain environmental exposures such as smoking, UV irradiation,
and dietary carcinogens are also at increased risk for cancer. It is likely
that genetic risk factors modify the cancer risk in response to environmental
factors. The project is designed to complement the recently initiated
Oregon State Cancer Registry (OSCaR) and to enhance its usefulness by
identifying and characterizing a complementary cancer-free control population.
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Aging
• Depression and Health
Behavior in Late Life
• Mark Kaplan, Jason Newsom
• Funding by National Institute for Mental Health
The overall purpose of this study is to expand the health behavior-health
status model to include depressive symptoms and related psychosocial factors
as factors in the health of older adults. An understanding of these interactive
and dynamic relationships between psychosocial resources, depression,
and health behavior may lay the foundation for developing more effective
public health interventions. The specific goals of this research are:
(1 ) to assess the effects of depression and psychological distress on
health behaiors among older adults, (2) to examine the role of depression
and depressive symptoms (including their psychosocial antecedents) among
older men and women who engage in behaviors which are harmful to their
health, and (3) to initiate a longitudinal study to identify and assess
the directionality of the causal relationships between general risk factors
(including deficits in psychological and social resources and life event-related
stress), depression, and health behaviors. The proposed study will utilize
cross-sectional and panel data derived from the Canadian National Population
Health Survey (NPHS).
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• Impact of Negative
Social Exchanges in Later Life, A Project of the Institute on Aging
• Jason Newsom, Karen Rook
• Funding by National Institute on Aging
This project investigates the psychological and health consequences of
positive social support and negative social interactions. Evidence has
accumulated in recent years that indicates that older adult's negative
exchanges with members of the social networks may be more consequential
for well-being than their positive exchanges with network members. This
project will interview 800 noninstitutionalized older adults every six
months for 30 months. The study aims to compare the prevalence and impact
of positive versus negative social exchanges, using an assessment strategy
designed to produce comprehensive and maximally comparable measures of
these two kinds of exchanges. The study will also investigate the role
of social network characteristics, stressful life events, and personality
characteristics as predictors of older adults' exposure and reactivity
to negative social exchanges.
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• Longitudinal Study
of Alcohol Use and Medical Care Utilization Among Older Adults, A Project
of the Institute on Aging
• Jason Newsom, Mark Kaplan
• Funding by Alcoholic Beverage Medical Research Foundation
This longitudinal study will examine relationships between alcohol consumption
and utilization of health care services. The study takes advantage of
the Canadian National Population Health Survey involving some 17,626 individuals
surveyed at baseline in 1994 and every other year thereafter. The study
aims to examine the cross-sectional relationships between alcohol use
and medical care utilization in the baseline survey; determine relationships
between baseline alcohol use and subsequent medical care utilization in
the longitudinal study; to describe changes in alcohol use patterns; to
examine relationships between changes in alcohol consumption patterns
and utilization of medical care over time; and compare result from the
Canadian project with analogous information from the ongoing Health And
Retirement Study in the United States. Results of this study will be of
interest to health care managers and providers looking for ways to improve
health status while minimizing utilization of scarce medical care resources.
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• Neighborhood Social
Capital, Health, and Aging
• Yvonne Michael
• Funding by National Institute on Aging
Dr. Michael collaborated with John Fischer at Oregon Research Institute
to collect data of neighborhood social capital in neighborhoods in Portland,
Oregon. This data collection is coordinated with a large NIA-funded intervention
trial. This study is also contributing to a manuscript on the importance
of neighborhood connectivity for health and health behaviors among seniors.
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• Neighborhood Social
Capital and Aging: Characteristics of Seniors Living in Urban Baltimore
• Yvonne Michael, Matthew Schirmer
This study utilized data from a prior health and participation survey
and 1990 Census data to study levels of social capital among older adults.
The study's objectives were to describe the level of social capital within
18 contiguous urban neighborhoods in Baltimore, MD, and describe the individual
and neighborhood characteristics by level of social capital. The study
concluded that levels of social capital were significantly influenced
by individual socioeconomic status, health, and other demographic characteristics.
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Physical
Activity
• Pedometer Use in
Physical Activity
• Gary Brodowicz
Dr. Brodowicz' current research involves the use of pedometers in the
study of physical activity. The study collected data to investigate the
validity and reliability of pedometer use under a variety of conditions.
Plans are currently being developed to study the behavioral impact of
pedometer use among active and inactive individuals. Brodowicz' past measurement-related
research includes an examination of the efficacy of using accelerated
plethysmography for evaluating peripheral circulation, and an attempt
to develop equipment that improves the measurement of abdominal muscular
endurance.
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Women
and Youth
• The Push for a "Female
Viagra": An Analysis of the Role of the Pharmaceutical Industry
• Heather Hartley
This project examines the current medicalization of female sexual dysfunction
(FSD). Largely defined and understood as a physiologically-based disease,
researchers and pharmaceutical companies are more recently turning attention
to developing medical treatments for FSD. Using a qualitative case study
design, this study answers the question: Are evolving relationships between
the pharmaceutical industry and researchers studying FSD promoting the
medicalization of FSD? In so doing, the project assesses who is studying
FSD, what they think they are studying (i.e., how they understand the
phenomenon), what methods they are using, why they are studying it, and
what sources of funding they have for the research.
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• Preventing Noise-induced
Hearing Loss for School-age Youth
• Judy Sobel
Dr. Sobel is working with Dr. Mary Meikle at the Oregon Hearing Research
Center and the Department of Otolaryngology at OHSU on a large campaign
to prevent noise-induced hearing loss in school age youth. Project components
include, generating public awareness of the issue; targeting youth in
school to alter risk-reducing behaviors; and developing resources for
school teachers. Hearing loss prevention is an underrepresented content
area in the health literature, and as such, there are many opportunities
for
multidisciplinary scholarship.
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Community-based
Participatory Research
• Poder
es Salud/Power for Health
• Larry Wallack, Stepahie Farquhar, Yvonne Michael
• Funding by the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for 3 years at $1.5 million 10/01/02
- 9/30/05
Portland State
University School of Community Health, in partnership with Multnomah County
Health Department, Oregon Health & Science University, the Sankofaa
Institute of Cultural Learning, the Latino Network, and the Urban League
of Portland is conducting a research project on community involvement
in promoting health. The project goals are to increase the capacity of
members of the African American and Latino communities in Multnomah County,
Oregon, to identify health issues and address health promotion and disease
prevention, through the intervention of Community Health Workers (CHWs)
who use Popular Education.
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