A collaboration between Pennington Biomedical, LSU AgCenter and Southern University Ag Center is addressing "real world" health issues is a parish of great need.
Recently, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) approved a pilot project to help support this effort, funded in part by the Louisiana Clinical and Translational Science (LA CaTS) Center, for a "Community-wide Health Assessment for West Carroll Parish". This is a collaborative project between Pennington Biomedical, the LSU AgCenter, and Southern University Ag Center.
The objective of this project is to conduct a baseline health assessment of chronic disease, risk factors, and risk factor knowledge in West Carroll Parish. The community health assessment will include two components:
- a population health phone survey conducted by the LSU Public Policy Research Lab (address-based sample of 2,500 households; anticipate ~400 respondents), and
- community health screenings (screening for CVD risk factors including obesity, hypertension, diabetes and dyslipidemia; 200 participants) conducted at the LSU/SU Ag Center Research and Extension Site in Oak Grove, Louisiana.
The results of this pilot project will identify the most applicable risk factor reductions to target for intervention in order to develop innovative intervention components designed for effective implementation in the rural Lower Mississippi Delta.