About

Cultivating Collaboration, Amplifying Impact: Advancing Asian Health Equity

 

Overall Organizational Structure of the Rutgers-NYU Center for Asian Health Equity (CAHPE)

The CAHPE is divided into 3 main cores and 2 Research Projects.


Cores:
  1. Administrative Core: Dr. Soko Setoguchi, Dr. Bei Wu and Dr. Partho Sengupta 
  1. Investigator Development Core: Dr. Soko Setoguchi, Dr. Melissa Simon, Dr. Partho Sengupta, Dr. Don Hoover, Dr. Gail Melkus, and Dr. Bei Wu 
  1. Community Engagement Core: Dr. Sunanda Gaur, Dr. Emerson Ea, and Dr. Keith Chan 

Research projects:

HOMESTYLES: led by Dr. Carol Byrd-Bredbenner, is an intervention of high-fiber diet rich in whole grains which has shown to reduce inflammation and improved obesity. The goals for this project are: A) Culturally adapt the HomeStyles intervention to US Chinese in NY/NJ through community-engaged approaches. B) Conduct a 10-week, 2-armed RCT to test HomeStyles intervention efficacy on health outcomes (dietary intake, physical activity, self-efficacy, HbA1C, waist circumference, and BMI), hypothesizing that participants randomized to the treatment condition will have greater improvements in health outcomes than control comparators. C) Examine associations between intervention participation and gut microbiota/systemic inflammation and test hypotheses that a whole-grain rich diet adopted by those in the intervention group will increase anti-inflammatory gut bacteria, reduce inflammatory gut bacteria, and lower systemic inflammation.  

NYUCI-ES: led by Dr. Bei Wu and Dr. Mary Mittelman, is a multicomponent intervention that includes individual and family counseling and ongoing support via support group and online chat groups and on demand counseling. The goals for this project are: A): Develop culturally adapted informational and educational materials about dementia and caregiving issues for social service providers of the intervention and for family caregivers. B): Test the hypothesis, H1: A counseling and support intervention (the NYUCI-ES) will significantly improve psychosocial factors such as depression, stress self-rated health and chronic disease management among Chinese and Korean-American ADRD caregivers and these changes will be mediated by improvement in social support. C) Test the hypothesis, H2: the NYUCI-ES will reduce biologic risk factors, including metabolic health (glycosylated hemoglobin) and inflammation (Oxidative stress, lipid metabolism, etc.) within 6 months of enrollment compared to baseline and a control group; these changes will be mediated through increases in social support and decreases in depressive symptoms and will be maintained at the 12-month follow-up.