DIRECTOR
Alexa Stuifbergen
PhD, RN, FAAN, Dolores Sands Chair in Nursing Research,
Associate Dean for Research, School of Nursing

ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR
Lorraine Walker
EdD, RN, FAAN, Luci B. Johnson Centennial Professor of Nursing,
Assistant Dean for Graduate Programs, School of Nursing

OVERVIEW

• This Center is funded for five years by the National Institute of Nursing Research/National Institutes of Health to promote health promotion and disease prevention research endeavors in   underserved populations. This Center thus addresses a major goal of Healthy People 2010:to reduce disparities in health.
  

PURPOSES

• To improve the health of underserved people through theory driven, efficient and culturally competent health promotion/disease prevention research based interventions.
• To develop and refine interventions and analytic methods along the continuum of health promotion/disease prevention to meet the needs of underserved populations (e.g., minorities, women, those with chronic disabling conditions, children/adolescents, elderly).  
• To develop interdisciplinary investigative teams studying health promotion and/or disease prevention.
• To disseminate methods and findings on health promotion and disease prevention in underserved populations to scientists, clinicians, policymakers and consumers with the use of advanced technology.
  

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

• The University of Texas at Austin is located in an area of the country with a diverse population, rural and urban conditions and a wide range of health needs.
• Unhealthy lifestyle patterns have been identified as the actual cause of nearly half the deaths that occurred in 1990 in the United States.
• Health-promoting lifestyle patterns (e.g., good nutrition, adequate physical activity) are increasingly recognized as a means of preventing premature death and disability and of enhancing quality of life.
• Access to health promotion activities/programs reduces the amount of disability in the 7th and 8th decades of life by 25 to 50%.
• Projected increases in many of the "less favored" groups, especially minorities and the elderly, will exacerbate health disparities in the future.