Community Health Research Team

The Section of Community Health partners with community members to develop and evaluate interventions to improve health equity. Research is driven by community needs and community partners are involved in all phases of the research.

Principal Investigator:

Beth Lynch, PhD
Professor, Department of Family and Preventive Medicine
Director, Section of Community Health Research Team
Rush University Medical Center

Current Projects

Vital Investments to Advance Life Expectancy (VITAL)

Vital Investments to Advance Life Expectancy (VITAL) takes advantage of a unique opportunity to measure the impact on cardiovascular (CV) health of a major social and capital investment in a high poverty neighborhood in Chicago: West Garfield Park. The Sankofa Wellness Village, a $50 million investment which is set to open at the end of 2025, is a community designed set of initiatives to dramatically improve health in the neighborhood. The initiatives include a wellness center (with a health clinic, a YMCA with a gym and walking track, a community-owned credit union and a café), a business center to support local entrepreneurs, an arts and performance center, and a grocer initiative to provide local access to healthy food. The Sankofa Wellness Village will rapidly transform a community with limited resources to one boasting a wide array of tailored services and recreational amenities aimed at improving community health. Our approach will be to measure changes in social needs and CV health in a cohort of residents before and after the opening of the Sankofa Wellness Village in West Garfield Park in comparison with Englewood, another disinvested community located in a different area of Chicago. We hypothesize that by transforming many of the structural factors of health that are the root causes of CVD, the Sankofa Wellness Village will lead to reduced social needs, improved psychological well-being, and improved Life’s Essential 8 CV health behaviors and health factors in residents of West Garfield Park relative to residents of Englewood. This finding would offer direct causal evidence that investing in impoverished neighborhoods to improve health is a viable solution to narrowing the life expectancy gap.

PI: Dr. Beth Lynch
Sponsor: NIH 5 U01 AG094351-02
Recruitment Status: Ongoing Recruitment

Chicago Chronic Conditions Engagement Network (C3EN)

The burden of multiple chronic conditions in the Chicago region is elevated in communities where there are gaps in economic opportunities and gaps in the healthcare system. To address these gaps, innovative approaches are needed at multiple levels including new ways of delivering preventive and management services as well as more interdisciplinary, collaborative approaches to science. The Chicago Chronic Conditions Engagement Network (C3EN) will address these gaps by strengthening collaborations across community-based organizations, practice networks, and academic researchers, by promoting a comprehensive approach to the prevention and management of multiple chronic conditions that accounts for psychological health, functional health and social life, and by supporting interventions that actively seek to cross boundaries of disease-specific management, professional training, community and practice.

PIs: Drs. Elbert Huang (University of Chicago) and Beth Lynch (Rush)
Sponsor: NIH (Grant Number: 5P50MD017349-02)
Recruitment Status: Recruitment Completed

Keep It Movin' (KIM)

Persons with multiple chronic conditions experience increased risk of disability, reduced quality of life, increased hospitalizations, and death. For over a decade, Rush researchers and churches in the Chicago region have collaborated through the Alive Faith Network. Health screenings with church members and the community on Chicago’s west side have demonstrated high rates of lower extremity physical function limitations, especially among those with chronic illness. Since physical activity offers an effective approach to reducing morbidity and mortality among persons experiencing chronic condition-associated impairments, church partners have called for the testing of physical activity interventions to address this health challenge. Therefore, Rush investigators in collaboration with the Alive Faith Network are conducting a physical activity program that community members named Keep It Movin’ (KIM).

The KIM intervention builds on the evidence-based Lifestyle Interventions and Independence for Elders (LIFE) Study, which showed that a structured physical activity program can reduce mobility disability among older adults with physical function limitations. Participants in the KIM pilot study reported significant barriers to engaging in recommended physical activity, such as pain, fear of injury, and functional limitations. Therefore, we adapted the LIFE intervention for implementation by adding functional education. We hypothesize that this augmented intervention, which enhances church members’ participation through additional social support and education by knowledgeable rehabilitation specialists, will lead to both increased physical function and increased physical activity among adults with physical function limitations due to multiple chronic conditions.

PIs: Drs. Beth Lynch and Steve Rothschild
Sponsor: NIH (Grant Number: NCT05345041)
Recruitment Status: Recruitment Completed

Abundant Living

Abundant Living is a church-based intervention aimed at producing a sustained, clinically significant reduction in systolic blood pressure in AAs with uncontrolled blood pressure. Abundant Living focuses exclusively on the two most effective BP reduction strategies: healthy eating and medication adherence. It features a stepped care design in which all participants receive a 9-month, culturally-tailored diet intervention. Those with poor medication adherence also receive individualized support from a community health worker (CHW) to address barriers to adherence. The diet intervention targets vegetable and sodium intake and consists of two components delivered in 24 sessions over nine months: (1) the ALIVE Bible study, led by the Senior Pastor, which links healthy eating to spiritual values to increase motivation for behavior change, and (2) Behavior Change small groups, led by trained church members, focused on nutrition education and behavior change strategies.

Principal Investigator: Beth Lynch, PhD
Sponsor: National Institutes of Health
Recruitment status: Completed
NIH grant number: R01NR018463

The Alive Faith Network

The Alive Faith Network (AFN) is a coalition of churches in Chicago working collaboratively to improve the health and well-being of their congregations and surrounding communities. Co-founded by community leaders and researchers, AFN strengthens the infrastructure of church-based health ministries, supports clergy wellness and facilitates community-engaged research. By leveraging the trust and reach of churches, AFN connects faith-based institutions with public health initiatives and ensures that community voices shape health interventions and research priorities.

Co-Directors: Dr. Beth Lynch, Pastor Steve Epting, LaDawne Jenkins
Sponsor: Abbott Foundation
Recruitment Status: Ongoing Recruitment

Past Projects

COVID-19 Testing

The epidemic of novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has caused an unprecedented public health crisis in the United States. African Americans (AA) have been disproportionately impacted, as systemic inequities have contributed to increased exposure and vulnerability to COVID-19. Evidence suggests that AAs are delaying testing and care for COVID-19, which increases risk of transmission and poor outcomes. In Chicago, segregated AA neighborhoods have experienced some of the highest COVID-19 mortality rates in the city, yet large portions of these neighborhoods remain testing deserts. Providing trusted, accessible, community-based testing in underserved AA communities is critical to ensuring that AAs receive an early diagnosis, thereby reducing the risk of further transmission and improving clinical outcomes. Dr. Beth Lynch is leading two projects to address this on the West and South Side neighborhoods of Chicago. These studies leverage the Alive Church Network (ACN), a long-standing, community-driven coalition of African American pastors and public health researchers that was developed as a sustainable infrastructure to address health inequities in chronic disease in segregated AA neighborhoods in Chicago. The ACN was designed to address lack of access to health care, cultural insensitivity, and lack of trust, which are the root cause of disparities in chronic disease as well as infectious disease, including COVID-19. The projects utilize the ACN infrastructure to create a network of church-based testing sites in segregated and underserved AA neighborhoods in Chicago that will provide COVID-19 testing and education as well as linkage to healthcare and social resources.

Alive Church Network COVID-19 Testing (West Side)
- Principal Investigator: Beth Lynch, PhD
  Sponsor: Walder Foundation
  Recruitment status: Currently testing
Alive Church Network: Increasing COVID-19 Testing in Chicago’s African American Testing Deserts (South Side)
- Principal Investigator: Beth Lynch, PhD
  Sponsor: National Institutes of Health
  Recruitment status: Currently testing
  NIH grant number: R01NR018463-01A1S1

ALIVE: Randomized trial of a community based participatory research intervention to reduce diet-related chronic disease in African American congregants

ALIVE is a culturally-tailored, church-based diet intervention designed by a partnership of researchers, African American pastors and congregants using a community-based participatory research methodology. The main components of the intervention include a Bible study to increase intrinsic motivation to eat healthier, paired with small group sessions focused on building self-efficacy through nutrition education, cooking instruction and behavior change techniques. All intervention components are delivered by church members in 24 sessions over 9 months.

Principal Investigator: Beth Lynch, PhD
Sponsor: National Institutes of Health
NIH grant number: R56HL135247

The LIFE Program: A Behavioral Approach to Glycemic Control in African Americans with Diabetes

This project is a randomized controlled trial to test an innovative lifestyle intervention to achieve sustained improvements in glycemic control among low-income African American diabetes patients. The LIFE (Lifestyle Improvement through Food and Exercise) program is a diabetes self-management program focused on diet and exercise, informed by anthropological research on models of food and health among low-income African-Americans. Pilot work demonstrated that the LIFE Program is effective in improving glycemic control among low-income African Americans at 6-months. The main goal of the current study is to determine whether the LIFE Program can achieve sustained improvements in glycemic control for 12 months. The trial will randomize low-income African American adults with diabetes to a control group, which receives standard diabetes education, or an intervention group, which receives the LIFE Program, featuring a 6-month intervention (20 group meetings with peer support telephone calls) followed by an 18-month maintenance phase (monthly peer support phone calls and quarterly group sessions).

Principal Investigator: Beth Lynch, PhD
Sponsor: National Institutes of Health
NIH grant number: R01DK092271

Partnership for Congregational Wellness

The Rush Clergy Health Partnership is a CBPR partnership which is optimally positioned to design, implement, and achieve successful results from a church-based behavioral intervention for African Americans. This Partnership is a university-community collaboration that was initiated by the community. It draws on an innovative "train the trainer" model where church leaders make lifestyle changes first and then are well-equipped to model and advocate for these changes in church peers.

Principal Investigator: Beth Lynch, PhD
Sponsor: National Institutes of Health
NIH grant number: R24MD007994