CDC grants $5.3 million to research

The Tulane Prevention Research Center, part of the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, recently received a renewal of its $5.3 million grant from the Center for Disease Control.

The PRC is a research organization consisting of Tulane graduate students and faculty along with its own staff that focuses on the effect environments have on obesity and public health within the New Orleans community at physical and social levels.  The grant is part of the national Prevention Research Centers Program, which funds a network of 35 centers across the country, all of which conduct research in a variety of disease prevention and control areas. The grant will support new research and communication aimed at providing access to healthier food options in local neighborhoods.

“Having a positive environmental change on the people of New Orleans makes it easier for people to live healthy lives,” said Lisa Hoffman, the communication and training coordinator at the PRC.

During the past five years, the center has worked to improve the environment to make it more suitable to physical activity in the city.

“I have been doing data collection and entry for the bicycling study, which the PRC is doing in conjunction with the University of New Orleans and the city of New Orleans,” said graduate student Isobel Healy, who is working with the center’s current CDC funding. 

Her research, which is one of the PRC’s many ongoing projects, may help the city decide how to best implement new bike paths in the future.

“Working at the PRC is an excellent opportunity… I recommend anyone interested in nutrition and health to look into getting involved at their time at Tulane,” said Kate Phillips, another graduate student working at the center.

The PRC plans to focus on nutritional health and needs of New Orleans citizens the next five years.

“We are in the formative research stages for the next five-year project, but we are definitely looking at an intervention focusing on the neighborhood food environment, looking at working with corner stores, changing the offering in these stores, and then promoting and educating people about these changes,” Hoffman said.

“We hope to involve the community to make it participatory,” said Jeanette Gustat, an associate professor of the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. “When we work with the community, we can create more sustainable programs for the future,”

The PRC first received funding in the form of a renewable grant in 1997 and will be eligible to renew its grant in another five years.  Hoffman said she believes Tulane is an appealing location for research like this in the future.

“The CDC has been very happy with the work we have done in the past, and now there’s a natural interest in the city of New Orleans,” Hoffman said. “There’s so much rebuilding that’s been happening. We’re looking at how we can take advantage of that and turn something really negative into something really positive”.