Cardiovascular Disease Risk Training Program in Central America
The Dornsife School of Public Health's Urban Health Collaborative and the Center for the Prevention of Chronic Diseases at the Institute for Nutrition of Central America and Panama (INCAP) have partnered to establish the Drexel-INCAP Training Program on Social Determinants of Cardiovascular Disease Over the Life Course.
This program was established, in part, because cardiovascular disease (CVD) incidence and the prevalence of CVD risk factors have steadily increased in the Central American region over the last several decades.
Drexel-INCAP Program - Table of Contents:
About the Program
The program provides training and mentoring of MS and PhD degree students in identifying relevant research questions, in the use of appropriate research methods, and in the dissemination of results to the scientific community, the public, and policy makers. The goal is to increase local capacity to conduct policy-relevant research about the influence of social determinants and place-based factors on CVD.
The training program is led by Brisa Sánchez, PhD, Dornsife Endowed Professor of Biostatistics and Associate Dean for Research, and Ana V. Diez Roux, MD, PhD, MPH, Dean Emerita of the Dornsife School of Public Health and Director of the Drexel Urban Health Collaborative.
Program Eligibility
To be eligible to apply through this training program you must be a permanent resident or citizen of an INCAP-associated country: Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, El Salvador, Costa Rica, República Dominicana, or Belize.
Individuals outside of Central America are not eligible for support as trainees. Learn more on the Urban Health Collaborative's website.
Application Process
Applicants for PhD and MS degrees at Drexel University:
To apply please see Dornsife's application requirements for the PhD and MS degrees. Submit your application materials through the SOPHAS website. Fee waivers to cover the application cost may be granted upon request.
Applicants for postdoctoral fellowships (located at INCAP):
Applicants for postdoctoral fellowships must hold a doctoral degree (MD, PhD, JD). To apply, submit a CV and cover letter describing your interest and/or experience in CVD research. Additional materials may be required after your initial application (e.g., research plan for the visit, letters of reference).
Applicants for visiting research fellowships at Drexel University:
Visiting fellows will ideally have a doctoral degree; however, persons without a doctoral degree who have significant research experience and/or hold a faculty position at a local university may be considered for a visiting fellowship.
To apply, submit a CV and cover letter describing your interest and/or experience in CVD research. Additional materials may be required after your initial application (e.g., research plan for the visit, letters of reference).
Learn More:
For more information on fee waivers, the application process, deadlines, and goals of the program please visit the Drexel-INCAP Training Program on Social Determinants of Cardiovascular Disease Over the Life Course on the Drexel Urban Health Collaborative's website.
Watch the Drexel-INCAP program's recorded seminars and workshops. These events (held in Spanish) focus topics such as social determinants of health, CVD and lifecourse epidemiology, and research methods.
Meet the Drexel-INCAP Research Fellows
Paola Arevalo, MS, 2022 Fellow
Hometown: Guatemala City, Guatemala
Undergraduate Institution: Rafael Landivar University
Undergraduate Major: Nutrition
Dornsife Degree and Major: PhD in Epidemiology
Faculty Mentor: Amy Auchincloss, PhD
Before pursuing a PhD in Epidemiology full time, Paola worked as a research assistant in the Research Center for the Prevention of Chronic Diseases (CIIPEC) of the Institute of Nutrition of Central America and Panama (INCAP). She led the data analysis in projects related with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), World Health Organization (WHO) and Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO). The specialized software used included the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)’s software -FoodEx2- for standardizing food items; Canada’s University of Toronto -FLIP- software to collect packaged food data; and -STATA15- as statistical software.
As a research assistant with the University of Chile she worked with a team of nutritional epidemiologists, translating the research of the team on non-nutritive sweeteners intake in Chilean toddlers, scholars and adolescents to a compound of recommendations based on evidence, so that policy makers could consider it for the next stages of their Food Labelling Law and other policies. Her work focused on Chilean toddlers is in process of being published in a scientific journal.
In the future she looks forward to contributing further to the study of food environments, health disparities and the adjustment of well-designed public health policies, with the aim of reducing inadequate dietary intake and the prevalence of chronic diseases. Also, to focus on low-income and immigrant communities, promoting healthy lifestyles’ strategies to guarantee a better quality of life across the lifespan.
Juan Carlos Figueroa, MS, 2022 Fellow
Hometown: Guatemala City, Guatemala
Undergraduate Institution: Universidad del Valle de Guatemala
Undergraduate Major: Anthropology
Dornsife Degree and Major: MS in Epidemiology
Faculty Mentor: Brisa Sánchez, PhD
Before pursuing an MS in Epidemiology full time, Juan Carlos worked in Guatemala with the Center for Prevention of Chronic Diseases of the Institute of Nutrition of Central America and Panama (INCAP) in a study aiming to improve hypertension control and with the Ministry of Public Health doing assessments and helping design communication strategies to improve malaria care.
As a research assistant with Center for Prevention of Chronic Diseases he conducted fieldwork and qualitative data analysis. He interviewed health administrators, health providers, and patients in relation to hypertension care and discovered a harsh reality: primary health services lack of enough funds, do not prioritize hypertension care, and do not have enough staff and appropriate infrastructure.
He is interested in mixed methods research focusing on cardiovascular diseases and social determinants of health. In the future he expects to conduct research that balances in-depth knowledge of local realities with a population interpretive focus.
Ana Lucía Peralta, MD MSCI, 2022 Fellow
Hometown: Guatemala City, Guatemala
Previous Institution: Tulane University
Previous Major: Master in Science in Clinical Epidemiology
Dornsife Degree and Major: PhD in Epidemiology
Faculty Mentors: Usama Bilal, PhD, MPH, MD and Mariana Lazo, PhD, ScM, MD
Ana Lucía worked as research assistant at Tulane University School of Public Health for the CATCH Study, where she supported the development of a team-based care strategy to improve hypertension control in Colombia and Jamaica. She had previously worked at the Research Center for the Prevention of Chronic Diseases (CIIPEC) where she coordinated the field implementation of an effectiveness-implementation trial for Hypertension control in Guatemala.
In the future she looks forward to contributing further to the understanding of the influence of context and social determinants in cardiovascular disease health outcomes to inform the development and implementation of community- based health interventions.
The program is funded in part by NIH-Fogarty grant D43TW011971 (Sanchez/Diez-Roux, MPIs).