November 30th , 2005
For Immediate Release
For more information:
Megan Laurie
(801) 863-7149
Written by:
Charlene Brown
(801) 863-7205
UVSC Associate Professor Receives Scholar Award
UVSC Associate Professor Jason Slack received the Dr. G. Arthur Broten Young Scholars Recognition Award for research on the “Utah Health Family Trees” that Slack completed for his doctoral dissertation at the University of Utah in May. Slack was one of only three scholars in the region who were awarded at the Western Society for Kinesiology and Wellness conference in Reno, Nevada. Slack received a certificate and a cash prize and his presentation will be published in the conference review.
The late Roger Williams, a genetic researcher at the University of Utah, started the “Utah Health Family Trees” in 1983. He assigned high school students to complete a health questionnaire of their parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles. The Cardiovascular Genetics Department (CVG) at the University of Utah used the data to predict heart disease for participating families. More than 54 Salt Lake County high schools and more than one million participants contributed data.
After 17 years, Slack revisited the data and conducted a follow-up with 381 families to see if the predictions for heart disease were accurate. “My part in the project was to validate the data collection process.” Slack wanted to test if the classification of respondents as low, medium or high risk was a legitimate method of categorization.
Slack found, “Those who showed high risk were 3.7 times more likely to develop heart disease.” Some of those respondents have been involved with intervention treatment studies at the University of Utah. “The research was good to identify risk level. It was useful and predictive,” Slack said.
Slack hopes to involve UVSC students with the development and coordination of more intervention material to collect information for high risk families. These heart disease prediction and intervention resources will be made available to the broader community. The CVG has a plan to launch a Website and an online questionnaire where individuals can quickly view their risk levels and seek intervention if needed.
For more information contact Jason Slack at (801) 863-7488.
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