NIH/DC Initiative to Reduce Infant Mortality
Brief Project Description
Lead Investigators: Ayman El-Mohandes, MD; Richard Windsor, PhD; Susan Blake, PhD
Dr. Ayman El-Mohandes recently completed Phase II of the NIH/DC Initiative to Reduce Infant Mortality in minority populations. Project DC HOPE tested the efficacy of an integrated behavioral intervention to reduce the risk of smoking (both active and passive exposure), depression, and intimate partner violence during pregnancy, recruiting over 900 minority pregnant women from the District of Columbia. The collaboration included researchers from Georgetown, Howard University Hospital, Children's National Medical Center and the Research Triangle Institute who are preparing publications to disseminate their findings.
Drs. El-Mohandes, Windsor, and Blake are now testing two protocols in Phase III of the NIH/DC Initiative. Over the next five years, they will be collaborating with the Department of Pharmacology and the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology in the School of Medicine and the Clinical Research Institute at Children's Hospital to a) assess environmental tobacco smoke exposure in infants and b) test the efficacy of nicotine replacement therapy in pregnant smoking women.
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