ECU researcher promoting health equity in cancer, cardiovascular disease research

Dr. Eric Soule in the East Carolina University Department of Health Education and Promotion is part of a research team examining cancer and cardiovascular disease disparities among African American populations in Arkansas.

ECU assistant professor Dr. Eric Soule is using the method of concept mapping as a research team member with the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. (ECU photo)

Soule will lead studies using an innovative method of concept mapping. This will inform strategies to promote health equity, develop researcher and community partner skills needed to secure resources to aid in promoting health equity and eliminate health disparities, and ensure research findings are utilized to promote impactful health-promoting changes in the community.

Although the research aims to impact health in Arkansas, Soule noted the knowledge gained will translate to strategies and techniques that can be used to promote health equity in the ECU community and surrounding region. The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences received $18.9 million from the National Institutes of Health for this research focused on cancer and cardiovascular disease disparities among people who live in rural areas and African American populations across Arkansas.

“While the Center for Health, Research and Social Justice will promote health equity in communities outside of eastern North Carolina, the focus on promoting health in African American, Black and rural communities is directly in line with ECU’s commitment to social justice, promotion of health equity and promoting health in rural communities and underserved populations,” Soule said.

Soule said ECU and UAMS worked together previously to conduct research aimed at informing tobacco regulatory policy.

“Now, we will use these same tools for strategic planning to identify strategies for integrating a social justice framework into the research approaches that will be used to promote health and prevent chronic disease in rural and African American communities in Arkansas,” Soule said. “I’m excited to be a part of this project and I feel it is just one example of the outstanding work that is being conducted by the Department of Health Education and Promotion within the College of Health and Human Performance at ECU.”

Faculty members at the UAMS College of Public Health are leading the grant. Along with Soule representing ECU, Virginia Commonwealth University is a key partner in the research.

“This exciting new award ranks among our largest and will support a highly innovative social justice program to guide research, training and community engagement activities,” said Dr. Shuk-Mei Ho, UAMS vice chancellor for research and innovation, in a release by the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. “The elimination of health disparities and promotion of health equity is a Healthy People goal for our nation and for Arkansas. According to the advisory committee for Healthy People 2020, health disparities are systemic and plausibly avoidable.”

The five-year grant was awarded in November. UAMS’s news release highlighted these three goals for the center:

• Advance the science of chronic disease health disparities through multidisciplinary team science to improve cancer and cardiovascular outcomes.
• Facilitate research and training opportunities to strengthen the capacity of researchers and community members to develop interventions that reduce cancer and cardiovascular disease disparities using social justice principles.
• Support academic-community partnerships to address the root causes of chronic disease disparities among African Americans and in rural areas in the state.