Jeffrey D. Colvin, MD, FAAP
Medical Director, Legal Aid Referral Program; Medical Director, Center for Family & Community Connections; Director, Research, General Academic Pediatrics; Professor of Pediatrics, University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine; Clinical Associate Professor of Pediatrics, University of Kansas School of Medicine
Full BiographyJeffrey Colvin, MD, FAAP, Pediatrics, will lead work funded by a recently awarded 2-year, $471,496 Exploratory/Development Research Grant (R21) from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, part of the National Institutes of Health.
Dr. Colvin’s study “Childhood Housing Assistance and Adult Health: Life Course Critical Periods and Cumulative Impact” will explore whether housing assistance during childhood mitigates the impact of childhood poverty-related housing needs on the development of adult chronic health conditions.
As Dr. Colvin explains, poverty-related housing needs during childhood increase the risk of chronic health conditions as an adult. Government housing assistance assists about five million low-income families with those poverty-related housing needs on a population-wide scale. However, prior research has not investigated whether housing assistance during childhood mitigates the impact of childhood poverty-related housing needs on the development of adult chronic health conditions. More specifically, prior research has not examined the impact of housing assistance during childhood on the development of adult obesity and two of its complications, diabetes and hypertension. Dr. Colvin’s research will explore each of these.
Since these three chronic conditions are increasing at epidemic proportions, Dr. Colvin explains that there is a critical need to identify whether government housing assistance in childhood impacts the development of adult obesity, diabetes, and hypertension. If so, expansion of government housing assistance could decrease the impact of childhood poverty-related housing needs on these adult conditions on a population-wide scale.
“This research is relevant to public health because it seeks to identify psychosocial interventions that improve health and reduce chronic health conditions across the life course,” wrote Dr. Colvin. “It helps to ensure that all children have the chance to achieve their full potential for healthy and productive lives through psychosocial interventions early in life.”
Co-Investigators include Jordan Carlson, PhD, Children’s Mercy, Narayan Sastry, PhD, University of Michigan, Paul Chung, MD, MS, Kaiser Permanente School of Medicine, Donna Ginther, PhD, University of Kansas, Kirk McClure, PhD, University of Kansas, and Matt Hall, PhD, Children’s Hospital Association.