Community-Based Health Equity Research Program

The Community-Based Health Equity Research Program includes a group of behavioral and implementation scientists and staff who focus on the development, implementation, and sustainability of effective obesity- and cancer-related interventions within rural communities.  This program is strategically focused on engaging stakeholders and patients and building research capacity across rural Virginia.  Most research efforts are currently focused in Southwest and Southside Virginia. Current research projects are being conducted in partnership with numerous rural healthcare, education and community-based organizations, such as Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), Virginia Department of Health districts, Parks and Recreation Departments, and rural middle schools and Head Starts.   In affiliation with the UVA Cancer Center, this program is housed in a satellite office in Christiansburg, Virginia ‘UVA Cancer Center Research and Outreach Office’ as well as on the main campus in Charlottesville.

• weSurvive: Improving Quality of Life and Health Behaviors of Rural Cancer Survivors (Funding: American Cancer Society, Contact PI Porter)
• A novel sugar-sweetened beverage reduction intervention for Native American men (Funding: R01 National Institutes of Health/National Institutes of Nursing Research, Contact PI Zoellner)
• iSIPsmarter: An RCT to evaluate the efficacy, reach, and engagement of a technology-based behavioral and health literacy intervention to reduce sugary beverages among rural Appalachian adults (Funding: R01 National Institutes of Health/National Institutes of Minority Health and Health Disparities, Contact PI Zoellner)
• Kids SIPsmartER: A multi-level behavioral and health literacy intervention to reduce sugar-sweetened beverages among Appalachian middle-school students (Funding: R01 National Institutes of Health/National Institutes of Minority Health and Health Disparities, Contact PI Zoellner)
• Moms Fit to Fight: A RCT comparing a gestational weight gain intervention, a postpartum weight loss intervention, or a combination of the two interventions among TRICARE beneficiaries (Funding: R01 National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, Contact PI Krukowski)
• Fit & Quit: A RCT determining whether a weight stability intervention, a weight loss intervention, or a self-guided weight management condition followed by a smoking cessation intervention are more efficacious for reducing post-cessation weight gain (Funding: R01 National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, Contact PI Krukowski)
• Thrive: A RCT testing the use of a web-enabled app with tailored feedback that is designed to improve patient-provider communication about medication adherence and related adverse symptoms outside of clinic visits among patients with hormone-receptor positive breast cancer (Funding: R01 National Institutes of Health/National Cancer Institute, Contact PI Krukowski)
• The Determinants of Tobacco Relapse and Initiation Following a Period of Forced Abstinence in the U.S. Military:  A Social Ecological Approach (Funding: R01 National Institutes of Health/National Institute on Drug Abuse, Contact PI Krukowski)
• Building Capacity to Implement and Evaluate Effectiveness of Interventions to Improve Colorectal Cancer (CRC) Screening in a Community Health Center (Funding: Integrated Translational Health Research Institute of Virginia, iTHRIV, Contact PI Zoellner)
• A RCT to compare the reach, effectiveness and maintenance of two family-based childhood obesity treatment programs in a medically underserved region (Funding: Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute Research Contract, Contact PI Zoellner)
• Cancer Center without Walls: Advancing Patient-Centered Research for Cancer Control in Rural VA (Funding: Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute Eugene Washington Engagement Contract, Contact PI Zoellner)
• Building research capacity to improve colorectal cancer screening in rural Southwest Virginia Clinics (Funding: P30 National Institutes of Health/ National Cancer Institute, Contact PI Zoellner)
• Extending Evidence-Based, Behaviorally Focused Interventions to Promote Cancer Survivorship in Appalachian Virginia (Funding: UVA Cancer Center, Cancer Control and Population Health, Contact PI Porter)