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Principal Investigator: Amy Zhang
Sponsor: NIH/NCI

African Americans (AA) have the highest incidence and death rates from all cancers combined in the U.S. Adequate assessment and treatment of depression in AA cancer patients is essential to reduce this cancer disparity. Our knowledge of AA cancer patients' depression is extremely limited at this time.

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Principal Investigator: Diana Morris
Sponsor: Prentiss Foundation

The University Center on Aging and Health at Case Western Reserve University is facilitating the establishment of a Care Net for formal and informal caregivers of older adults. A care net is a resource center for both formal and informal caregivers. A Community Advisory Board representing service agencies, older adults, and family caregivers has been established to guide the development of a Greater Cleveland Care Net.

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Principal Investigator: Shirley Moore
Sponsor: NIH/NINR

Exercise following an acute cardiac event has been shown to increase cardiovascular functional capacity and overall health. However continued exercise is required to maintain desired effects. After 6 months of a cardiac rehabilitation program, only 30 - 60% of individuals who attended are participating in an exercise regimen. The purpose of the CHANGE study (Change Habits by Applying New Goals and Experiences) is to test an intervention to increase individuals' exercise maintenance following a cardiac rehabilitation program.

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Principal Investigator: Patricia Higgins, Barbara Daly, Sara Douglas
Sponsor: Various

The Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing at Case Western Reserve University has been investigating the phenomenon of chronic critical illness (CCI) since 1988. The multidisciplinary CCI team is committed to studying the complexities of this patient population's illness, with the ultimate goal of improving the patients' health and/or their quality of life.

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Principal Investigator: Shirley Moore
Sponsor: NIH/NINR

This Cultural Intervention uses E-CHANGE, the computer based interactive intervention that consists of a sequence of nurse-led activities designed to increase cardiac patients exercise maintenance. Using focus groups, the perceptions and experiences of African American women's and men's adoption of exercise following cardiac rehabilitation will be determined and their suggestions and reactions to the electronic intervention to increase exercise will be incorporated in a future development of the computer based intervention.

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Principal Investigator: Shirley Moore
Sponsor: Ohio RIG

This project is a collaboration to combine expertise in informatics, human factors in computer applications, health behavior change, and exercise science. E-CHANGE tests the intervention of the CHANGE Study and puts it into electronic form, which is a computerized health behavior change program designed to assist cardiac patients to incorporate the lifestyle changes needed for long-term exercise.

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Principal Investigator: Elizabeth Madigan
Sponsor:National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, NIH

The purpose of the study is to determine factors predictive of rehospitalization and functional decline in heart failure (HF) patients receiving home health care and identify whether specific approaches to delivery of care (higher visit intensity) is associated with lower rehospitalization and functional status decline, potentially reducing the burden of HF on individual patients and the healthcare system.

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Principal Investigator: Carol Musil
Sponsor: NIH/NINR

The Grandmother Study is conducted at the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio with support provided by the National Institute of Nursing Research, National Institutes of Health. Dr. Carol Musil and her research team are examining the health of grandmothers and the impact of grandmothers' caregiving on themselves and their families. Over 450 grandmothers have continued in the study, since the study began in 2001.

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Principal Investigators: Mary Dolansky and Joel Hughes
Sponsor: NIH/National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

Successful self-management of heart failure (HF) depends on adhering to a complex treatment regimen, effective decision making and corrective action when HF symptoms are exacerbated. Recent reports indicate that 25-50% of HF patients have unrecognized cognitive impairment, yet little is known about the effects of this unrecognized cognitive impairment on patient self-management. Our aim is to assess the relationships among cognitive impairment, patient self-management, health, and health service.

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Principal Investigator: Susan Ludington
Sponsor: Various

Kangaroo care is skin-to-skin contact between mothers or fathers and their infants. Research studies are conducted at Case Western Reserve University, and certification as a kangaroo caregiver and conferences on kangaroo care are developed and administered by faculty at Case.

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Principal Investigator: Donna Dowling, Elizabeth Damato
Sponsor: HRSA

The neonatal nurse practitioner (NNP) program at FPB was reestablished in 2001 with support from Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). Students have clinical experiences at a number of area hospitals with certified Neonatal Nurse Practitioners serving as preceptors.

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Principal Investigator: Elizabeth Damato
Sponsor: NIH/NINR

The demands of early parenthood and their impact on the ability to obtain rest and sleep are exponentially increased for parents of twins. Twin births have risen 75% since 1980, increasing the number of parents at high risk for partial sleep deprivation, also referred to as sleep restriction. Sleep restriction results in depression and fatigue that can adversely affect parents' ability to meet childrearing demands. Singleton infants in general have many needs and parents find it difficult to attend to all of them. With twins, the needs are multiplied. Additionally, over 58% of live-born twins in the U.S. are delivered preterm. Preterm infants are more fragile, require more vigilant care, and show preference for nighttime wakefulness, further placing parents of twins at risk for sleep restriction.

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Principal Investigator: Shirley Moore
Sponsor: NIH/NINR

Self-management incorporates concepts of self-care, adherence, compliance, health behavior change, patient education, and collaborative care. The science of self-management has grown as behavioral science has progressed.There is a greater emphasis on chronic illness care along with the realization that traditional ways of engaging patients has not been effective.

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Principal Investigator: Shirley Moore
Sponsor:NIH/NHLBI

The purpose of this project is to conduct a head-to-head evaluation of two different interventions, SystemCHANGE and CHANGE+, as compared to Usual Care in older cardiac patients. SystemCHANGE is a novel intervention that focuses on environmental change, using System Improvement strategies to increase exercise. CHANGE+ is an intervention based on contemporary cognitive behavioral strategies, including stages of change and problem solving.

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Co-Principal Investigators: Shirley Moore, Mary Dolansky
Sponsor:The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

The goal of this project was to develop and conduct psychometric testing of a measure of systems thinking, the Systems Thinking Scale (STS). For this project, we generated an initial bank of test items representative of the concept of Systems Thinking in CQI, performed preliminary field testing of the instrument to ensure clarity of meaning of the items and feasibility of the response format to end users, and executed extensive psychometric testing to assess reliability and validity of the STS.