Research to Study Role of Physical Activity In Disease Prevention

By Lois Baker

Release Date: October 24, 1995 This content is archived.

Print

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Joan Dorn, Ph.D., research instructor of social and preventive medicine at the University at Buffalo, has received a $350,000 five-year First Independent Research Support and Transition (FIRST) Award from the National Institutes of Health.

Dorn’s award is based on a research proposal to investigate the role of physical activity in disease prevention. She will conduct long-term follow-up and analysis of two epidemiological studies containing data relating to this issue -- a general population study conducted in Buffalo in the 1960s, and a clinical trial conducted in Western New York in the late 1970s that was part of the National Exercise and Heart Disease Project.

The FIRST award is given to new researchers to support their first independent research project and help them become competitive for traditional NIH grants.

The ‘60s study, originally called the Buffalo Blood Pressure Study and now referred to as the Buffalo Health Study, contains detailed health and life-style information collected from black and white male and female residents of the City of Buffalo. The data include a record of daily physical activity both at work and home, during weekdays and weekends. This information will be used to compute a physical-activity index, which will be related to deaths in the group from all causes and from heart disease. The results should indicate whether a relationship exists between physical activity and mortality and if the relationship holds across race and gender.

The National Exercise and Heart Disease Project is a multi-center, randomized clinical trial designed to study the effects of a regular, medically-prescribed, supervised exercise program on the rehabilitation of male survivors of a myocardial infarction. Participants were 30-64 years of age at the study’s inception.

Dorn will determine current status of all original participants and the cause of death of those who have died, and will analyze various health factors determined at one and three years and their relationship to long-term survival.

Dorn lives in East Amherst.