Health data scarce Four of the six leading chronic diseases that cause death are prevalent among Hawaii's Asian and Pacific Islander people, yet little health data is available on those groups, says a national official.
on certain isle groups
The National Institutes of Health
push grants for research in HawaiiBy Helen Altonn
haltonn@starbulletin.comIn preparing to come here this week, Dr. Yvonne T. Maddox, National Institutes of Health acting deputy director, said she found most health research has been done on African Americans, Spanish and American Indians.
She said efforts are just beginning to focus on Asian and Pacific Islander groups, which have four of the top causes of death: cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancers and chronic obstructive lung disease.
Maddox also is deputy director of the National Institute of Child Health and Development and co-chairwoman of a working group on health disparities. She recently received the Presidential Meritorious Executive Rank Award, the highest honor in federal civil service.
She said all 27 NIH institutes and entities are participating in efforts to try to eliminate disparities in six areas: infant mortality, cancer, diabetes, HIV/AIDS, immunizations and cardiovascular problems.
They are investigating socioeconomic conditions, access to care, quality of care, genetic and environmental factors, and other differences causing higher rates of disease and death among certain ethnic and racial groups.
Maddox and 14 other NIH officials have been meeting with Hawaii scientists, administrators, and hospital and community health representatives this week to encourage and help them apply for NIH funding.
About 300 people packed the East-West Center auditorium for workshops with the NIH group the past two days.
Maddox stressed the need for biomedical research, which NIH will support. It is expected to have a 2002 budget of $24 billion -- up from $23 billion this year.
She said the trend in NIH is to insist that new projects "will benefit the community in the end."
"We need new knowledge, but it must be new and useful," she said.
Maddox said that in talking to Dr. Edwin Cadman, dean of the University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine, he expressed a strong commitment to do clinical research here that can be used to benefit patients.
She urged Hawaii researchers to apply for grants from a new National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering. It has no director yet but will have $40.2 million to spend by next October, she said.
"The real issue in biomedical research is to try to accommodate the whole community, to improve the health of the nation, of everyone," Maddox said. "Unfortunately, everyone has not reaped the benefits of a $23 billion agency."
In Hawaii, for example, prostate cancer and diabetes are on the rise among Asian-Pacific Islanders, she said.
As a state with a lot of diversity, she said, "It is a major problem for clinical researchers to get a handle on why these differences exist.
"We need some good epidemiology here," she said, suggesting more partnership is needed between the NIH and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Her personal view, she said, is that the increase in diabetes may be linked to environment, socioeconomic status, access and quality of care.
"Preventable strategies don't exist," she said.
Smoking and lack of activity also contribute to all diseases, she said.