Community and Population Research

This research examines the impact of behavior, diet, environment or other factors on large numbers or people and tests the effectiveness of public health measures, preventive medicine or public policy on the health of communities and larger populations. At the WVU Pediatric Research Institute, these studies take our faculty out into the state to work with schools, community groups and government organizations to develop and test methods to improve the health of West Virginians.

The widespread network of people and families who support WVU Children’s Hospital has been instrumental to this work. They have helped WVU build teams of West Virginians who participate in health research and take direct action to improve the health of their children and communities.

Coronary Artery Risk Detection in Appalachian Communities Project
Principal Investigator: Dr. William Neal

Over the past 10 years, more than 46,000 fifth graders in West Virginia have been screened by WVU’s CARDIAC program -- providing us with one of the largest collections of children’s health data ever assembled by an academic medical center.

The unacceptably high prevalence of heart disease and diabetes in West Virginia is well known. CARDIAC, which involves schools in all of the state's 55 counties, has three components: a school-based surveillance initiative, an intervention initiative, and a transdisciplinary research approach. The CARDIAC program has also spun off a series of related initiatives that include Internet-based education programs and a familial hypercholesterolemia intervention project. WVU is a member of the CDC-funded Cardiovascular Health Intervention Research and Translation Network, which is developing and implementing a coordinated applied research and translation agenda to promote cardiovascular health. Other universities involved in the network are University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; University of Colorado at Denver; University of Illinois, Chicago; University of Washington; and University of Rochester. The Network’s first project will address perceptions of risk for cardiovascular disease among a variety of disadvantaged, minority, and high-risk populations using qualitative research methods.

National Children’s Study
Principal Investigator: Dr. Lesley Cottrell

The National Children’s Study examines the effects of environmental influences on the health and development of more than 100,000 children across the United States, following them from before birth until age 21. The goal of the study is to improve the health and well-being of children. West Virginia University’s part in the study will be conducted in Marion County, where a partnership of local schools and agencies is assisting us in enrolling 1,000 women and children. Researchers will analyze how environmental influences interact with each other and what helpful and/or harmful effects they might have on children’s health. By studying children through their different phases of growth and development, researchers will be better able to understand the role of these factors on health and disease. Findings from the study will be made available as soon as possible as the research progresses.

The study will also allow scientists to find the differences that exist among groups of people in terms of their health, health-care access, disease occurrence, and other issues, so that these differences or disparities can be addressed.

Birth Score Project
Principal Investigator: Dr. Martha Mullett

Each time a baby is born in a West Virginia hospital, hospital staff members collect a set of data for WVU’s Birth Score Project within 24 hours of the delivery. Information on the mother and newborn from hospital records, along with the mother’s answers to a set of standard questions, are made part of the Birth Score database. The information is used for risk assessment and referral of high risk infants to support systems or clinics. State agencies can use aggregate data for program development and planning of services.

This information is also valuable for public health research. Most recently the information has been merged with the CARDIAC data to evaluate some of the outcomes relating to birth weight and its relation to adult cardiovascular disease and childhood obesity.