University Times

Pitt's Graduate School of Public Health (GSPH) has received a $1.85 million federal grant to study differences in health and self-care among chronically ill elderly blacks and whites in western Pennsylvania, and the effects of these differences.

The study will compare long-term changes in self-care behaviors of African-Americans and Caucasians, aged 65 and older, who are suffering from at least one of two chronic illnesses prevalent among the elderly — osteoarthritis and coronary artery disease.

Self-care behaviors are defined in the study as activities that individuals perform in caring for themselves as a result of their illness, such as exercising, modifying diets and taking medications, home remedies, vitamins or other herbal or nutritional supplements.

"This grant will allow us to look at differences in how elderly black and white patients care for themselves and how these self-care behaviors change over the length of the illness, and to determine if those differences affect health outcomes," said Myrna Silverman, professor of public health and anthropology, and the study's principal investigator.

Researchers will conduct four personal and three telephone interviews with each of 1,200 patients from Allegheny County (half of them African American, half white) over 30 months. Information from the participants will help researchers define how patients develop, maintain and change their self-care, and how these behaviors are affected by changes in the disease, the patient's environment and his or her social and psychological characteristics.

Results are expected to show how self-care behaviors affect the patient's long-term quality of life and physical and mental health, and how racial differences in self-care contribute to different outcomes.

"We believe the results will highlight some differences in minority self-care and elderly self-care in general, which could provide clues for the development of culturally sensitive patient education programs on the importance of particular self-care behaviors for the management of a specific illness," Silverman said. "This could lead to an improvement in health services and, ultimately, the health of all older adults."

This research is a follow-up to a previous study in which Silverman gathered data on self-care behaviors and found significant differences according to race. The current study will focus on the changes in these behaviors over time, and the effects these behaviors have on patients' health.

The study, to be completed in mid-2004, is funded through a grant from the National Institute on Aging, one of the National Institutes of Health.