Women’s Health Research Day to feature presentations on dozens of topics

By STEPHANIE GUNTER
UNC News Services

CHAPEL HILL -- Health researchers from across the state will give presentations on research areas including breast cancer, eating disorders and osteoporosis at the fifth-annual Women’s Health Research Day to be held March 17 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The event, free to the public, will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Medical Biomolecular Research Building. Organizers ask that participants register for the event by clicking on www.cwhr.unc.edu and following the instructions.

University of North Carolina President Molly Corbett Broad will give opening remarks, followed by juried presentations and remarks from health research and other leaders on a variety of topics. Gov. Mike Easley has proclaimed March 17 as "Women’s Health Research Day" in North Carolina.

The event is sponsored by UNC’s Center for Women’s Health Research, a collaborative program of the schools of medicine and public health and the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research.

Many of the research day topics will help in the designing of interventions to eliminate health disparities and decrease the incidence of diseases affecting women, said Dr. Ruth Petersen, director of women’s preventive health research at the center.

Topics to be presented include a comparison of birth outcomes among U.S.-born and non-U.S.-born Hispanic N.C. women, breastfeeding’s ability to protect against overweight, disabled women’s health-care access, the relationship between a high-glycemic diet and the risk of diabetes and more.

"In 2001, the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences confirmed that the differences between the sexes exist in the prevalence and severity of a broad range of diseases, disorders and conditions," said Dr. Valerie Parisi, Robert A. Ross professor and chair of the UNC School of Medicine’s department of obstetrics and gynecology. "Gender-based research matters in ways we did not expect."

Registrants may attend an individual session or the whole day. In addition to sessions on research, the day will include an early afternoon session stressing mentorship and building interdisciplinary careers.

"We are only beginning to understand the importance of women’s health research and the positive outcomes that research can produce," said Dr. Jill Ridky, director of program development for the Center for Women’s Health Research. "We want to showcase this research’s importance – and also stress how important collaboration among different disciplines is in furthering women’s health research."

Presentations will represent social work, public health, psychiatry, surgery, obstetrics and gynecology and other areas. A judges panel will select three award recipients at the end of the day.

The Center for Women’s Health Research was founded in March 2000 and provides research, research services and career development for women’s health investigators to optimize the quality of life and improve the health of all women.

To view the full agenda of events and speakers or to register, please contact Kerrie Kurgat at (919) 843-3394 or visit www.cwhr.unc.edu.

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(Gunter, of Raleigh, is a senior majoring in journalism and mass communication.)

Center for Women’s Health Research contact: Kerrie Kurgat, (919) 843-3394
News Services contact: Deb Saine, (919) 962-8415 or deborah_saine@unc.edu