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NYU Center for the Study of Asian American Health Awarded a grant from the National Institutes of Health to conduct intervention research on CARDIOVASCULAR health in the filipino community

The Center for the Study of Asian American Health (CSAAH) at the NYU School of Medicine was recently awarded a 3-year planning grant for Community Participation in Health Disparities Intervention Research from the NIH, National Center on Minority Health Disparities Research (NCMHD). The grant will allow for CSAAH to carry out Project AsPIRE (Asian American Partnerships in Research and Empowerment) in partnership with Kalusugan Coalition, a multidisciplinary collaboration dedicated to creating a unified voice to improve the health of the Filipino American community in the New York/New Jersey area. Kalusugan Coalition consists of staff from Filipino and Asian American organizations as well as Filipino artists, students, youth, immigrant advocates, communitiy organizers, health professionals, and academic researchers. Other Project AsPIRE partners include NYU Center for Immigrant Health and Johns Hopkins University.

The overall goal of this planning grant is to improve health access and status for cardiovascular disease (CVD) in Filipino Americans living in New York City and New Jersey through the use of patient navigators. The specific aims of the grant are (1) to create an infrastructure that facilitates the conduct of community-based participatory research (CBPR), (2) to examine the Filipino American community’s knowledge, health practices, health access, and risk factors for CVD, (3) to assess the efficacy of an intensive patient navigator intervention in improving health access and hypertension control among Filipino Americans, and (4) to evaluate CBPR as an approach for addressing and eliminating health disparities.

This grant is timely and significant for the Filipino community. Filipino Americans exhibit high rates of hypertension and are therefore at high risk for cardiovascular disease and stroke. Studies have demonstrated consistently higher rates of hypertension among Filipino Americans compared to other Asian subgroups, Whites, and African Americans. Other studies suggest that disease management is poor among hypertensive Filipinos due to several factors, including the need for culturally and linguistically appropriate screening and educational materials, limited knowledge of health care systems, and lack of health insurance. Unfortunately, there are very few interventions that have been developed and implemented for this population to address these concerns.

Under this grant, a patient navigator intervention will be developed in partnership with community members to ensure its cultural and linguistic appropriateness. Using patient navigators is increasingly being viewed as a low-cost approach for improving community health and well being, reducing health disparities, and bridging the cultural and social barriers between underserved communities and the health care system. The patient navigators, who are representative of the target community, will assist Filipino Americans to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and stroke by connecting them to the health care system and helping them control their blood pressure.