Health Behavior, Communication and Outreach Core

The main goals of the Health Behavior, Communication and Outreach Core are to provide consultation and direct services to support behavioral, patient-centered/clinical, educational, and prevention research. Core faculty and staff have expertise in behavioral science, epidemiology, health education and communication, program evaluation, and survey development, including psychosocial and educational assessments. In brief, the Core provides various services to investigators, including research design, data collection and management, programming of web-based and computer-assisted telephone interviews; designing, implementing, and evaluating school- and community-based programs and curricula; survey development and instrument validation; measurement of the psychological aspects of illness and quality of life; and geocoding and spatial statistics. The Health Behavior, Communication and Outreach Core is an affiliated resource of the Institute of Clinical and Translational Sciences and the Siteman Cancer Center at WashU School of Medicine with an additional component at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis.

If research supported by the Health Behavior and Outreach Core results in publication, please acknowledge this support by including the following in your publication(s): We thank the Health Behavior, Communication and Outreach Core, which provided (Please insert name of service) service.

Service available to Washington University and other non-profit organizations.

Priority service for All entities, including for-profit organizations.

• Epidemiology and Spatial Statistics: Assistance with study design, instrument development, data collection, entry and management, access to and merging of large databases, power calculations, geocoding and spatial statistics.
• Health Education: Design, implement and evaluate school- and community-based programs and curricula. This includes qualitative research planning, development of assessment tools for measuring health-related knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and behaviors, training in implementation of health education methods, and development of medical school curricula.
• Health Communication: Through our collaboration with the Health Communication Research Laboratory (HCRL) at the Brown School of Social Work, we can help in the development of print, computer and video-based health communication materials and programs. This includes tailored health education interventions based on survey or other data gathered from potential recipients, assessment of materials for readability and cultural appropriateness, graphic design of health communication materials, and website design and development.
• Psychological Aspects of Cancer and Quality of Life: We have extensive experience in research and measurement of the psychological aspects of illness and quality of life. This includes identifying appropriate measures for quality of life and psychological characteristics, development and validation of psychosocial, behavioral and quality of life instruments, programming of computer-assisted telephone interviews and web-based surveys, and development and evaluation of interventions addressing psychological status and quality of life in cancer patients and their families.
• Outreach: We help studies to reach minority and underserved populations, addressing their healthcare needs, and evaluating approaches to reducing inequalities in cancer prevention and care. This includes planning community-based participatory research aimed at reducing cancer disparities in prevention, treatment, and health outcomes.

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Please contact this core directly for pricing information.