School of Medicine

News and Publications

For immediate release
Friday, Feb. 10, 2006
Contact: Jennifer Day
(313) 577-1058
jday@med.wayne.edu

Natalie DiGiovanni
(313) 577-8560
ndigiova@med.wayne.edu

WSU Center for Urban & African-American Health to host community event Feb. 28

Sample some healthy – and delicious – soul food at a community event sponsored by the WSU Center for Urban & African-American Health Tuesday, Feb. 28, at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African-American History. The day’s activities, which run from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., also include discussion about the past, present and future of African-American research.

The day will also provide an opportunity to learn more about how to participate in groundbreaking new studies about African-American Health.

"African Americans comprise one of the largest minority groups in the United States, and they suffer excessively from a wide range of obesity and lifestyle-related health conditions," said John Flack, M.D., M.P.H., interim chair of the WSU Department of Internal Medicine and principal investigator for the Center for Urban & African-American Health. "We hope to alleviate the disproportionate burden of disease through better understanding of the precursors, and how their interactions cause disease. We can only do that with the help and participation of the community here in Detroit.”

The Center for Urban & African-American Health was one of eight centers established in the United States by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences to study population health and health disparities

Dr. Flack, who has published extensively on African Americans' salt sensitivity and predisposition to hypertension, understands the unique health needs of the population to which he refers and belongs. As a professor of internal medicine and community medicine, he sees the immediate link between a person's individualized health concerns and those they are automatically subjected to by virtue of their geographic location, gender, age, race or ethnicity.

To help understand these concerns, the center is working on several studies, including two that are seeking people from metro Detroit to participate in non-invasive activities to determine how various lifestyle factors impact health.

The first study seeks to understand social and physical factors in African Americans to provide insight into prevalent health issues. Participants must be African American, 45 years or older, 60 to 100 pounds overweight and without blood pressure or diabetes.

The second study seeks to evaluate the possible health benefits of weight loss in African-American women who have had stage I or II breast cancer. Participation in this study aids in research on the prevention of breast cancer recurrence. Women who are African American, 18 to 70 years of age and have had stage I or II breast cancer diagnosed within the past three years are needed. Participants must have finished all chemo or radiation therapy at least three months prior to enrolling in the study and must be 30 to 100 pounds overweight and willing to follow a weight-loss plan for 24 months.

More information about these studies as well as talks by Mary “Toni” Flowers, R.N., director of MPRO; Linda Herskovitz, WSU community outreach and education liaison; and Marilyn Anderson, R.D., a dietician and diabetes educator, will be available at the community event Feb. 28. In addition, cooking demonstrations on how to prepare healthy, delicious soul food will be available. “Mother’s Love Catering” will be providing food for the event.

Members of the public who are interested in receiving more information on this event or current studies underway at the center, please call Donna Ford at (313) 745-5774.

With more than 1,000 medical students, the WSU School of Medicine is among the nation’s largest institutions of its kind. Together with its clinical partner, the Wayne State University Physician Group, the school is a leader in patient care and medical research in a number of areas, including cancer, genetics, neuroscience and women’s and children’s health.

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