Current IRHDR Research Projects

Allen County Dental Grant

IRHDR is continuing its partnership with the Allen County Health Department to provided preventive dental services to children in Allen County. The partnership began in 2004 and focuses on second and seventh grade students in the Allen County school system. These funds were made possible by a grant from the state of Kentucky secured by the Allen County Health Department. Since 2004, the IRHDR has provided dental exams, sealants, dental referrals, and oral health education to 1447 children in Allen County.

The IRHDR has accomplished this by engaging students from Western Kentucky University’s Dental Hygiene Department. During this time, 175 DH students have completed over 1300 hours of service learning in Allen County schools; thereby providing WKU students with hands-on experience as well as giving them the opportunity to incorporate knowledge from the classroom into a “real world setting.” The experience of working on the Mobile Dental Unit has allowed students to observe the unmet oral health needs in the community while giving them an opportunity to help meet those needs.

 

UofL/NIH Grant: "Curriculum Development for Health Aspects"

In this study we intend to address two related questions:

1) We are instituting a pilot project to determine whether or not the rural community will be receptive to the idea of participating in a DNA bio-banking effort.

2) Another goal of this project is for us to establish a process for collecting samples, de-identifying them, shipping them and storing them for analysis. By doing this, we will determine what will be the costs and challenges specific to our implementation of this process. Since the protocols for storage and analysis of samples are well established, our work will be concentrated upon the collection, de-identification and transportation of the samples to a University of Louisville storage facility.

 

Good Samaritan Grant: "Chronic Desease Risk Factors"

The purpose of this study is to monitor changes in obesity-associated risk factors for adult chronic disease, such as hypertension, dyslipidemia, hyperinsulinemia and impaired glucose tolerance in 6th and 7th graders in the Barren River Area District Development (BRADD) area by calculating body fat (measured by Body Mass Index or BMI), blood pressure, blood sugar levels and cholesterol levels.

At the same time we will be testing muscle strength, endurance and flexibility to determine fitness levels. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends the monitoring of these “changes in obesity-associated risk factors for adult chronic disease.”