CBPR > News & events
Kneipp to investigate health of women leaving
welfare
September 2005
University of Florida College of Nursing Associate Professor Shawn Kneipp,
Ph.D., A.R.N.P., has been awarded $1.4 million from the National Institutes
of Health/National Institute of Nursing Research to lead an innovative community-based
participatory research study intended to improve the health of women transitioning
from welfare to work and extend employment duration.
Major changes in the United States welfare system since 1996 have resulted
in an increase of women moving into low-wage jobs through welfare transition
programs, Kneipp said. Yet studies have documented that 30 percent of these
women return to the program within one year of exit due to difficulty maintaining
employment. A key factor driving re-entry is the extremely high prevalence
of chronic health conditions in this group. Data from Kneipp’s previous
research has shown that current approaches to address these health problems
are inadequate and do not address health disparities.
Her current study is unique in that it will center on the welfare transition
program (WTP) participants who will assist in developing new, culturally
relevant and sensitive clinical screening tools to assess the health status
of women moving through WTPs. The study partners members of the WTP with
academic researchers, providers at the Eastside Community Practice
http://www.med.ufl.edu/patients/ufclinics/eastside.shtml
in Gainesville, community health leaders, and local employers to conduct
the research.
Kneipp’s research team will assess whether a comprehensive health
program will increase rates of voluntary screening, identification and treatment
of chronic health conditions, raise the knowledge and skills necessary to
navigate the Medicaid http://www.cms.hhs.gov/home/medicaid.asp
system, increase employment duration and improve health status.
In the first year of the study, the research team will be involved with
clinical screening tool development and testing via focus groups and surveys
of WTP participants. For the remainder of the study, the team will use the
screening tool as one component of testing this public health program –
of which an important component will be placing public health nurse on site
– in a randomized clinical trial. The public health nurse will handle
case management, follow-ups and referrals of the research participants in
order to monitor and assess their health status.
“The use of community-based participatory research is innovative because
it allows members of the target community to have some shared control over
the research,” Kneipp said. “It is our hope that by conducting
this research we can have a better understanding of how to improve the health
of disadvantaged women through welfare transition programs.”
For more information contact Tracy Brown Wright, 352-273-6421, tracyb@nursing.ufl.edu; or Dr. Shawn Kneipp, 352-392-3597, skneipp@nursing.ufl.edu.
