Deep South Resource Center for Minority Aging Research (RCMAR)
This page serves as a description of what the Deep South RCMAR is. Please visit
the main Deep South RCMAR website
for more in-depth information and details.
The Deep South RCMAR serves as research-based
and mentoring investment in the process of closing the health disparities gap between
African American and non-minority older adults. The Center will increase the number
of researchers with the capacity to conduct independent, peer-reviewed research
related to minority aging and health disparities. Focus areas for the Deep South
RCMAR include health problems that are particularly prevalent among older African
Americans, with special attention to issues related to rural elders; intervention
research addressing exercise, diet, or preventive health strategies; and studies
addressing socio-economic, discrimination, trust, and bioethical issues impacting
measures of both physical and mental health.
The Deep South RCMAR provides a research
infrastructure for the following objectives:
- establish a mechanism for mentoring research careers;
- enhance cultural diversity of the professional workforce conducting research on
the health of older persons;
- conduct research on and disseminate strategies for recruiting and retaining African
American older adults in research;
- facilitate innovative strategies to support enduring research careers in minority
health, and/or encourage the recruitment of established researchers to undertake
research on minority aging health;
- improve the research methods and tools necessary to conduct rigorous and comparable
research on diverse populations;
- advance scientific knowledge leading to a decrease in health disparities;
- disseminate to scientific and non-scientific communities research results addressing
the resolution of health disparities through the improvement of minority health,
particularly for older African Americans.
The Deep South RCMAR is composed of
three interacting and collaborative cores (administration, investigator development,
and community liaison) created by and built upon the unique strengths of four partnering
institutions (Morehouse School of Medicine, Tuskegee University, University of Alabama,
and University of Alabama at Birmingham). The cores provide an infrastructure to
provide training and mentoring programs, fund three pilot projects per year, and
nurture community relations needed to meet the stated objectives. The Deep South
RCMAR is not only a regional, but also a national resource, for expertise related
to the reducing health disparities between older African Americans and Whites, mentoring
investigators committed to research in health disparities and aging; and working
with communities to achieve common goals and enhance the recruitment and retention
of older African Americans in research studies.