Office of Public Relations — Newsroom
News Release
The US Department of Health and Human Services Awards a $4.5 Million, 5-Year Grant to UCD's Rocky Mountain Prevention Research Center
DENVER (November 2, 2004) — Secretary Tommy G. Thompson of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, recently announced that the University of Colorado Denver's Rocky Mountain Prevention Research Center will receive $720,000 this year, the first installment of a grant to study how to advance healthy lifestyles in underserved Rocky Mountain communities. The 5-year grant is expected to amount to more than $4.5 million over the course of five years, pending annual appropriations from Congress.
The grant is part of HHS' Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's growing efforts to promote prevention research that focuses on the underlying contributors to diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and obesity. Thompson said that heart disease, diabetes and obesity were chosen as targets because of their rapidly increasing prevalence in the United States and the ability for individuals to control and even prevent these diseases through exercise, diet and other strategies.
The UCD's Rocky Mountain Prevention Research Center was chosen because of its work to better the advancement of healthy lifestyles and prevention of chronic diseases among residents of underserved communities in Colorado. The RMPRC's long-term goals include reducing the incidence of obesity, Type 2 diabetes, and their complications through increased physical activity and improved nutrition among rural and high risk populations. RMPRC's current partnering communities are located in the San Luis Valley in southern Colorado. The area is predominantly Hispanic - 47 percent - and medically underserved. It also is home to the counties with the lowest per capita income levels in Colorado.
"Serious chronic diseases like diabetes cannot continue to be treated just in doctors' offices and clinics," said Julie Marshall, PhD, director of the RMPRC and associate professor, Preventive Medicine and Biometrics, UCDHSC. "We must do the work to help people prevent these types of diseases from even occurring in the first place.
"Grants like this from the Department of Health and Human Services make it possible to make a real impact. This allows us to do the research we need to understand the behavior choices as well as environmental and social factors that influence the overall health of an individual or of a group of individuals in a community. We want to find the answers and put the research to work to help people reduce their risk for disease," Marshall added.
For more information about UCD's Rocky Mountain Prevention Research Center, visit www.uchsc.edu/rmprc.
The University of Colorado Denver is one of three campuses in the University of Colorado system. Located in Denver and Aurora, Colo., the center includes schools of medicine, nursing, pharmacy, and dentistry, a graduate school and a teaching hospital. For more information, visit the Web site at www.uchsc.edu.