UCF Nursing Professors Conduct Life-Changing Studies on Women’s Health

By Kathryn Podolsky

Two upcoming weeks of celebration recognizing women’s health issues and the nursing profession link together research by three University of Central Florida School of Nursing professors.

National Nurses Week, May 6-12, honors nurses and their contributions nationwide. Nearly coinciding, National Women’s Health Week, May 9-15, seeks to raise awareness about the steps women can take to improve their health, being informed and becoming knowledgeable about preventive health-care measures.

Nursing Professors Karen Dennis and Karen Dow and Associate Professor Emma “E.J.” Brown receive substantial funding from the National Institutes of Health to support their research. Although they oversee very different research projects, all three are committed to improving women’s health and their lives.

Dennis’ research focuses on aging women who are overweight and have a sedentary lifestyle, and who have the hereditary genes that may contribute to excess body weight. Overweight or obese women who are at least one year postmenopausal and less than 65 years of age are participating in the project, and the effects of a weight loss program both at home and at a designated center will be assessed. (Other participants will be sought for this study this fall and in 2005.) Lifestyle modification and weight loss through the study will help aging women lose weight and lower their risk factors for obesity-related diseases.

Dow is currently studying breast cancer survivorship and the quality of life of survivors in a project that includes 250 breast cancer survivors and is now in its third year. Two other ongoing projects are the Web-based program and study, “Fertility After Breast Cancer,” a major concern among young breast cancer survivors, and the development of WebONE, an interactive, online oncology nurse education available in Japanese, Chinese, Spanish and Portuguese. Dow has been awarded the “Excellence in Breast Cancer Education” award for 2004 for her dedication to educating patients and the public about breast cancer.

Brown’s research has focused on women and minority populations, and she was awarded the 2004 Award for Research in Minority Health by the Southern Nursing Research Society. Her current project, “Ethnography: Drug Use among African-American Women in Rural North Florida,” reflects her focus on HIV and drug abuse prevention and intervention among rural African-American women — research within a population that historically has been difficult to reach.