Monday, June 30, 2025 6/30/2025

Social stressors and inflammation: A mixed methods approach to preterm birth

Award Number: R01MD011575
ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL CENTER ON MINORITY HEALTH AND HEALTH DISPARITIES
OPDIV: NIH
AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY
AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 01/06/2017
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 04/30/2023

Group Awards By:

View Award Description

Social stressors and inflammation: A mixed methods approach to preterm birth - African American women have 1.5 times the rates of preterm birth (PTB) (<37 weeks completed gestation) compared with non-Hispanic white women. This disproportionately high PTB rate in African Americans is a persistent health inequity that leads to high child mortality, morbidity, and developmental delays. In the U.S. approximately $26 billion are spent annually on health care costs for infants and children that were born prematurely. Recent attempts to explain the high PTB rates in African American women have focused on social stressors, such as disadvantaged neighborhoods, racial discrimination, and stressful life events. These social stressors may lead to PTB by increasing women’s emotional stress levels. Not surprisingly, emotional stress along with levels of the stress hormone cortisol and systemic inflammation - both physiological responses to stress - have all been related to higher risk of PTB. In contrast, one’s psychosocial resources (e.g., social support) can lessen emotional stress and have protective effects on PTB. Little is yet known about the pathways by which social stressors affect inflammation, and ultimately PTB. The objective of the proposed study is to determine how social stressors alter inflammation during pregnancy and lead to PTB in African American women. We aim to: 1) determine the pathways by which social stressors affect PTB; and 2) describe social stressors, emotional stress and psychosocial resources; the associations among these concepts; and their impact on PTB from women’s perspectives. In this longitudinal convergent mixed methods design, we will enroll 1,500 African American women who live in the Detroit metropolitan area. We will collect data on social stressors, emotional stress, and psychosocial resources through questionnaires and administrative (e.g., census) data. This will be done three times prenatally. At these same time points, levels of cortisol and systemic inflammation will be determined from hair and blood samples, respectively. We will also obtain birth data from the prenatal and hospital records. In a subsample of 60 women, semi-structured interviews will be conducted to more specifically understand the associations among social stressors, emotional stress and psychosocial resources; and their impact on PTB. We will conduct a variety of statistical, qualitative and mixed methods analyses using both quantitative and qualitative data to determine answers to the aims of our study. We will also consider the timing of pregnancy in our analyses, as the prenatal data are collected at three distinct time points. The proposed research is highly relevant to NIH’s mission to elucidate mechanisms underlying health disparities in PTB. Insights gained from this mixed methods approach may lead to the development of an individualized PTB risk profile based on a woman's social stressors and biomarkers which will have potential use in clinical practice and be a target for culturally appropriate interventions to reduce PTB incidence in African American women, and will generate new perspectives for future research in other racial groups through our detailed focus on this high risk group.


Issue Date FY	Funding FY	Legal Entity Name	Legal Entity Address	Legal Entity City	Legal Entity State	Legal Entity Zip Code	Legal Entity COUNTY	Legal Entity COUNTRY	Assistance Listing	Award Code	Budget Year	Action Date	Action Type	Action Amount

Issue Date FY: 2023 ( Subtotal = -$31,573 )
2023	2021	THE UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA BOARD OF TRUSTEES	4000 CENTRAL FLORIDA BLVD	ORLANDO	FL	32816	ORANGE	USA	Minority Health and Health Disparities Research	000	6	9/11/2023	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	-$31,573
														Subtotal = -$31,573

Issue Date FY: 2021 ( Subtotal = $561,822 )
2021	2021	UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA BOARD OF TRUSTEES, THE	4000 CENTRAL FLORIDA BLVD	ORLANDO	FL	32816	ORANGE	USA	Minority Health and Health Disparities Research	000	6	4/7/2021	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$561,822
														Subtotal = $561,822

Issue Date FY: 2020 ( Subtotal = $1,167,213 )
2020	2020	UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA BOARD OF TRUSTEES, THE	4000 CENTRAL FLORIDA BLVD	ORLANDO	FL	32816	ORANGE	USA	Minority Health and Health Disparities Research	007	5	9/17/2020	SUPPLEMENT FOR EXPANSION	$266,479
2020	2020	UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA BOARD OF TRUSTEES, THE	4000 CENTRAL FLORIDA BLVD	ORLANDO	FL	32816	ORANGE	USA	Minority Health and Health Disparities Research	006	5	9/1/2020	SUPPLEMENT FOR EXPANSION	$197,610
2020	2020	UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA BOARD OF TRUSTEES, THE	4000 CENTRAL FLORIDA BLVD	ORLANDO	FL	32816	ORANGE	USA	Minority Health and Health Disparities Research	004	5	4/7/2020	CHANGE OF GRANTEE / TRAINING INSTITUTION / AWARDING INSTITUTION	$720,701
2020	2020	UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA BOARD OF TRUSTEES, THE	4000 CENTRAL FLORIDA BLVD	ORLANDO	FL	32816	ORANGE	USA	Minority Health and Health Disparities Research	005	5	9/1/2020	CHANGE OF GRANTEE / TRAINING INSTITUTION / AWARDING INSTITUTION	$0
2020	2020	UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA BOARD OF TRUSTEES, THE	4000 CNTRL FLORIDA BLVD	ORLANDO	FL	32816	ORANGE	USA	Minority Health and Health Disparities Research	001	5	1/28/2020	CHANGE OF GRANTEE / TRAINING INSTITUTION / AWARDING INSTITUTION	$703,124
2020	2019	OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY, THE	1960 KENNY RD	COLUMBUS	OH	43210	FRANKLIN	USA	Minority Health and Health Disparities Research	003	4	4/7/2020	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	-$699,276
2020	2019	OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY, THE	1960 KENNY RD	COLUMBUS	OH	43210	FRANKLIN	USA	Minority Health and Health Disparities Research	000	4	1/27/2020	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$0
2020	2018	OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY, THE	1960 KENNY RD	COLUMBUS	OH	43210	FRANKLIN	USA	Minority Health and Health Disparities Research	002	3	4/7/2020	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	-$21,425
														Subtotal = $1,167,213

Issue Date FY: 2019 ( Subtotal = $699,276 )
2019	2019	OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY, THE	1960 KENNY RD	COLUMBUS	OH	43210	FRANKLIN	USA	Minority Health and Health Disparities Research	000	4	12/3/2018	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$699,276
														Subtotal = $699,276

Issue Date FY: 2018 ( Subtotal = $1,388,160 )
2018	2018	OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY, THE	1960 KENNY RD	COLUMBUS	OH	43210	FRANKLIN	USA	Minority Health and Health Disparities Research	000	3	12/4/2017	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$657,549
2018	2018	OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY, THE	1960 KENNY RD	COLUMBUS	OH	43210	FRANKLIN	USA	Minority Health and Health Disparities Research	001	3	6/12/2018	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$730,611
														Subtotal = $1,388,160

Issue Date FY: 2017 ( Subtotal = $764,930 )
2017	2017	WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY	5057 WOODWARD 13 FLOOR	DETROIT	MI	48202	WAYNE	USA	Minority Health and Health Disparities Research	000	1	1/6/2017	NEW	$689,648
2017	2017	WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY	5057 WOODWARD 13 FLOOR	DETROIT	MI	48202	WAYNE	USA	Minority Health and Health Disparities Research	001	1	5/11/2017	NEW	-$689,648
2017	2017	OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY, THE	1960 KENNY RD	COLUMBUS	OH	43210	FRANKLIN	USA	Minority Health and Health Disparities Research	003	2	7/19/2017	CHANGE OF GRANTEE / TRAINING INSTITUTION / AWARDING INSTITUTION	$75,282
2017	2017	OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY, THE	1960 KENNY RD	COLUMBUS	OH	43210	FRANKLIN	USA	Minority Health and Health Disparities Research	002	2	5/11/2017	CHANGE OF GRANTEE / TRAINING INSTITUTION / AWARDING INSTITUTION	$689,648
														Subtotal = $764,930

Grand Total All Awards = $4,549,828

Top

All Categories

About

Search

Reports

Data Submission

Award Information

Social stressors and inflammation: A mixed methods approach to preterm birth

Award Number: R01MD011575

ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL CENTER ON MINORITY HEALTH AND HEALTH DISPARITIES

OPDIV: NIH

AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY

AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 01/06/2017

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 04/30/2023

Federal Websites

Department of Health & Human Services

HHS Operating Divisions

HHS Staff Divisions

Download A Document Viewer