North Carolina Researchers to Investigate Racial Differences in Health

CHAPEL HILL, N.C.
Differences in treatment and outcomes between Blacks and Whites in North Carolina will be the focus of a new program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The program, based at the school's Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research, will combine efforts of researchers at North Carolina Central and Shaw universities.
The U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has granted $1.27 million to create the Center of Excellence on Overcoming Racial Health Disparities. The Glaxo Wellcome Foundation and UNC-CH's Program on Health Outcomes and School of Public Health will provide additional funding.
Researchers will focus on eliminating health disparities between Blacks and Whites by concentrating on Black North Carolina adults who suffer from prostate cancer, high blood pressure and sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV.
"There are many complex factors involved in the treatment and outcomes for these and other diseases," says Dr. Paul Godley, associate professor of medicine at UNC-CH School of Medicine and co-principal investigator. "We want to single out the factors that disproportionately affect Blacks and find ways to reverse them."
Godley will lead a team of researchers studying prostate cancer rates and outcomes for Blacks and Whites in eastern and central North Carolina. They hope to determine whether Black men receive less aggressive treatment, have less frequent PSA screenings and less access to care. They also plan to learn whether knowledge, attitudes and beliefs about testing and treatment differ between Blacks and Whites.