As a Choctaw tribal member, Michelle Johnson-Jennings, Ph.D., has devoted her career to giving back to the American Indian community. Each day, she looks at the health disparities that plague the population and works fervently to bridge the gaps.

After receiving her doctorate in counseling and training as an integrated primary care psychologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, she put her efforts into full gear by founding and co-directing the College of Pharmacy’s Research for Indigenous Community Health Center on the University of Minnesota-Duluth campus…

Understanding the drivers behind health disparities within minority communities is no easy endeavor, so the University of Minnesota looks to experts like Kola Okuyemi, M.D., M.P.H., to identify and dissect the numerous factors that go into creating these divides.

Older Americans dealing with high levels of psychosocial distress are at higher risk for stroke according to new research led by Susan Everson-Rose, Ph.D., M.P.H., associate director of the Program in Health Disparities Research at the University of Minnesota.

The study, published in the American Heart Association journal Stroke, followed more than 4,000 people aged 65 and over who were participants in the Chicago Health and Aging Project.

To arrive at their results, researchers identified 151 deaths from stroke and 452 events that led to first-time hospitalization as a result of a stroke. Researchers found that those with the most psychosocial distress had three times the risk of death from stroke and a 54 percent increased risk of first hospitalization compared to those least distressed.  Furthermore, the risk of distress climbed with age.

Among the African American population of Rochester, Minnesota, black women diagnosed with cancer are statistically more likely to die sooner than white women diagnosed with cancer.  Similar statistics can be found nationwide.

Given the cancer resources the city of Rochester has dedicated to cancer screening, prevention and treatment, this shouldn’t be the case, said University of Minnesota, Rochester, health disparities researcher Starr Sage, Ph.D.

“Evidence has shown us that black women within the Rochester community don’t utilize the health service resources that are available to them in the same numbers that their white counterparts do,” said Sage. “The question is: Why?”

To answer that question, Sage and community partner Andre Crockett from Rochester’s Vision Church are two members of the team recently awarded a pilot grant from the University of Minnesota’s Program in Health Disparities Research. They’ll investigate the best ways to communicate cancer prevention to black women and improve outcomes for those already diagnosed. They’ve teamed up with Mayo Clinic for the project …