(JACKSON, Miss.) - More than 5,300 participants in the largest single site study of heart disease in African Americans are being urged to come back for their final exam.
Jackson Heart Study (JHS) researchers announced the start of the third exam during a recent news conference at the Jackson Medical Mall Thad Cochran Center in Jackson, Miss.
"The third exam is going to be very important," said Dr. Herman Taylor, lead investigator for the JHS. "We do our usual blood drawing and EKGs (electrocardiograms), but we are also doing MRIs (magnetic resonance imaging), which will give us new information about the structure and function of the participant's heart."
Jackson State University President Ronald Mason Jr., who also attended the kickoff, agrees it is important to get the word out about the final exam.
"If you are a black man in Mississippi, you die eight years younger than anybody else in America," Mason said. "We're not sure what the reasons are for that, but it's important that we find out the reasons. This is the third exam and we're trying to track people's progress through this exam to try to understand the long-term issues that are killing black people in Mississippi."
The JHS, a local partnership among Jackson State University, Tougaloo College and the University of Mississippi Medical Center, is funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities and the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering of the National Institutes of Health.
Since the first exams were held in 2000, Jackson State's role in the longitudinal study has included coordinating, analyzing and managing data.
Taylor said the third examination of the Jackson Heart Study will be conducted from February 2009 through May 2012. Like the first and second exams, it is free to all participants. The exam, which happens every four years, will include measurements of participants' blood pressure, body fat composition, glucose and cholesterol and an updated medical history, among other tests.
JHS investigators are determined to find out why African Americans nationwide, but particularly those who live in Mississippi, have a higher rate of cardiovascular and related diseases, such as hypertension, diabetes, obesity and kidney failure, than any other group. The project's goal is to investigate the reasons and develop measures to prevent and treat those conditions.
For more information, contact Donna Antoine-LaVigne at 601-979-8740.
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About Jackson State University: Challenging Minds, Changing Lives Jackson State University, founded in 1877, is a historically black, high research activity university located in Jackson, the capital city of the state of Mississippi. Jackson State's nurturing academic environment challenges individuals to change lives through teaching, research and service. Officially designated as Mississippi's Urban University, Jackson State continues to enhance the state, nation and world through comprehensive economic development, health-care, technological and educational initiatives. The only university in the Jackson metropolitan area, Jackson State is located near downtown, with three satellite campuses throughout the city. For more information, visit www.jsums.edu.
