UAH Nursing researcher to study cardiometabolic disease among Black women in the Deep South

A researcher at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) has been awarded a $179,000 subcontract to explore community-based strategies for reducing high-burden chronic disease like obesity, diabetes, heart disease and cancer as part of an overall award totaling $4.2 million. The funding is being provided by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD). Dr. Jennifer Bail, an assistant professor in the College of Nursing at UAH, a part of the University of Alabama System, will be the subcontract principle investigator (PI) in support of an overall grant study titled, Community-Based Strategies to Reduce Cardiometabolic Diseases in the Deep South. Nearly three out of four adults in the United States are overweight or living with obesity, with the highest rates among Black people, rural residents and lower socioeconomic groups. “Over the past decade, obesity trends have been generally stable for men, but have increased significantly among women,” Dr. Bail says. “This is particularly true among Black women who have an obesity prevalence of 57%, compared to 40% in white women. Black women living in rural settings also have higher rates of obesity compared to their same race/sex peers in urban settings.” Evidence-based interventions that promote weight loss,...