Rutgers-NYU Center to Focus on Asian Health Promotion and Equity
New Jersey-based Rutgers University is collaborating with New York University to develop the Rutgers-NYU Center for Asian Health Promotion and Equity (CAHPE).
Rutgers’ Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research has received $11.6 million in funding from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities to create the center, which will serve as a regional hub for researchers to conduct studies on cardiometabolic disease and mental health issues in Asians throughout the New Jersey-New York area.
The Rutgers-NYU Center for Asian Health Promotion and Equity will have the following aims:
- Create infrastructure to support high-quality research on “Heart-Mind” connection through cardiometabolic (including cardiovascular disease, stroke, and diabetes) and mental health.
- Provide annual funding for six pilot research projects.
- Conduct interdisciplinary projects focusing on nutritional, emotional, and dementia caregiving interventions to target diverse Asian population at high risk.
- Disseminate study findings to the local, regional, and national levels to inform future prevention and intervention research strategies.
XinQi Dong, director of the Rutgers Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research and the inaugural Henry Rutgers Distinguished Professor of Population Health Sciences, and Bei Wu, inaugural co-director of the Aging Incubator at New York University, Dean’s Professor in Global Health, and Director of Global Health and Aging Research at NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing, will serve as principal investigators for the new center.
“Building on two decades of health equity research in minority populations, we have leveraged strong partnerships across multiple academic and community institutions to build a center designed to foster the next generation of diverse researchers focused on cardiometabolic and mental health outcomes in US Asians,” said Dong, in a statement.
The researchers noted that Asians are the fastest growing yet most understudied US minority group at 23 million people, having grown 26 percent from 2010-2019. Yet less than one percent of research funding from the National Institutes for Health in the last 10 years was focused on US Asian populations. Currently, there are significant disparities in the Asian community’s relationship to heart health and mental health. The Rutgers-NYU Center for Asian Health Promotion and Equity intends to focus on cardiometabolic disease and mental health research to inform both practice and policy at community, regional, and national levels.
Health disparities in the Asian community are perpetuated by the “Asian Paradox.” US Asians are, on average, the highest income earners and the most highly educated, but more older Asian adults live below the poverty line, are less likely to participate in biomedical research, and suffer disproportional health disparities compared to White Americans.
“These health inequities are further complicated by the heterogeneity of these immigrant populations, especially with respect to culture, religion, language, sexual identity, and trauma exposure, many of which challenge our assumptions about the ‘model minority’ stereotype around Asian-Americans,” said Wu in a statement.
The purpose of the NIH funding opportunity is to support regional comprehensive centers on the prevention, treatment, and management of chronic diseases associated with health disparities.