October 27, 2023 | Danielle Faipler

New 5-Year NIH Grant for Structural Racism and Health Research

NIH-funded grant will provide 5 years of funding to research the impact of structural racism and the moderating role of psychosocial resources in cancer control behaviors among African Americans.

An image of an urban and rural community and overview of the Community-Health-Investigation-and-Participatory (CHIP) Tool for Mapping Social Justice

An image of an urban and rural community and overview of the Community-Health-Investigation-and-Participatory (CHIP) Tool for Mapping Social Justice (contributed image)

University of Connecticut associate professor in the Department of Geography Debarchana (Debs) Ghosh along with behavioral health professor Cheryl Knott at the University of Maryland have secured a $3.24 million grant from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) to investigate structural racism, discrimination and lived experiences on African Americans’ cancer risk, prevention, and screening behaviors.

The 5-year study will build an index to measure structural racism and discrimination (SRD) and provide insights into the impact of SRD on cancer-related research concerning historically underserved communities. The project will also implement a community-engaged framework to enable stakeholders in the study’s four focal sites in Maryland, Connecticut, Alabama, and Missouri to offer feedback throughout the study.

“It is well-established that the neighborhood where a person lives can have a considerable impact on their health and health behaviors. To date, very little research on structural racism and discrimination and its impact on health has used a multidimensional and community-engaged approach. This will give the study authenticity, with real-world implications for future health promotion,” said Ghosh.

The study has three aims:

  • Construct and map a multidimensional index of structural racism and discrimination using publicly available data to show county-level manifestations of structural racism and discrimination in the U.S.
  • Evaluate how place-based exposure to structural racism and discrimination affects cancer control behaviors, such as healthy eating and exercise, among African American adults.
  • Test how psychosocial resources impact the relationship between exposure to structural racism and discrimination and cancer control behaviors in African Americans.

Ghosh, who is also a principal investigator at UConn’s Institute for Collaboration on Health, Intervention, and Policy (InCHIP), is leading the study’s first aim and is recruiting graduate research assistants to assist in creating a comprehensive index of place-based structural racism and discrimination. Research assistants will learn how to use geospatial methods, digital cartography, and big-data visualization techniques to develop the index. The index will use census data from 1990 to 2020 to combine four interrelated dimensions including redlining and residential segregation; violence and incarceration; unequal medical resources; and concentrated poverty.

Ghosh is seeking Ph.D. students to help with the study. Interested students can learn more about the research assistantships and the required and preferred qualifications for this project here.

Findings from the first aim will be shared with community members in the four focal sites. Community feedback will help refine the index, ensuring it captures residents’ experiences.  The index will then be disseminated broadly to communities, policymakers, and researchers to inform policy and practice interventions that seek to eliminate cancer disparities disproportionately impacting African Americans. The index is critical for conducting Aim 2 and 3. By the study’s third year, Ghosh and Knott will launch a nationwide survey and will recruit 5,000 respondents from the four focal states.

This study is related to another project that Ghosh is working on with Knott. In January, Ghosh and Knott secured $800,000 from the American Cancer Society to analyze how psychosocial resources and neighborhood characteristics like diversity and incomes affect cancer control behaviors among African Americans.

In 2021, Ghosh secured the InCHIP faculty seed grant and UConn College of Liberal Arts and Sciences’ summer funding, which provided a proof of concept for the study’s first aim and laid the foundation for the extramural award. The preliminary results from the grants highlighted strengths and opportunities in the methodology and quality of data, as well as an informed budget justification and timeline.

InCHIP has opened the next round of Seed Grants for UConn Faulty. This opportunity will fund four to five pilot projects this academic year. Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis during the fall semester through November 17, 2023 at 11:59 p.m. and the application portal will re-open in January 2024. The spring semester deadline will be April 19, 2024 at 11:59 p.m.

More information about seed grants and instructions to apply are available here.