Center for Healthful Behavior Change Research | NYU Langone Health

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Center for Healthful Behavior Change Center for Healthful Behavior Change Research

Center for Healthful Behavior Change Research

NYU Langone’s Center for Healthful Behavior Change develops, evaluates, and disseminates innovative behavioral interventions in clinical and community settings to help reduce chronic disease and improve health. Our research is supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health and other public and private funders. We make our proprietary datasets available for research collaborations through our data repository.

With our collaborators, we work on research at all stages:

  • developing specific aims for behavioral intervention proposals
  • developing cultural tailoring strategies in the design of behavioral interventions
  • developing theoretical models and targets for behavioral interventions
  • training research teams in behavioral counseling techniques, such as motivational interviewing
  • developing protocols to ensure treatment fidelity in behavioral intervention research
  • developing methods to integrate technology into behavioral interventions
  • measuring and evaluating adherence to prescribed treatment regimens

Research Units

At the Center for Healthful Behavior Change, we have three research units built around our areas of expertise.

Behavioral Intervention, Development, and Implementation Unit

The Behavioral Intervention, Development, and Implementation Unit provides core infrastructure for programs that focus on modifying behavior to improve health. We develop and evaluate tailored behavioral research models in clinical trials, based on a multidisciplinary foundation of theory and research, and implement and evaluate interventions. We work with other researchers, offering advice on how to recruit and retain participants for clinical trials, develop and implement an intervention, and maintain fidelity to treatment. We also offer education and training programs in behavioral intervention research.

Patient Navigation Unit

The Patient Navigation Unit works with the Beatrice W. Welters Breast Health Outreach and Navigation Program, part of Perlmutter Cancer Center, to help people in medically underserved areas of New York City access screening for breast cancer, regardless of their income or insurance status.

This work builds on the Men’s Health Initiative, in which the Center for Healthful Behavior Change partnered with more than 200 barbershops and churches in New York City to help African Americans at risk for high blood pressure and colorectal cancer get proper screening and healthcare. Through the program, we provided free blood pressure screening and counseling and colorectal cancer prevention education to thousands of men and women. We also identified and enrolled hundreds of at-risk men over age 50 in a trial of a patient navigation strategy. In a six-month period, rates of colorectal cancer screening improved among men who worked with patient navigators, and among all men participating, there was a six-point average reduction in blood pressure.

Psychosocial Unit

The Psychosocial Unit provides support and develops methodological best practices to integrate psychosocial factors into the design, analysis, and dissemination of population health research. Our goal is to advance original research that leads to effective psychosocial approaches to population health interventions. We are currently developing a battery of core measures to assess and identify psychosocial factors associated with health outcomes. Our education and training programs include training in psychosocial health research methods, theory, and intervention delivery strategies.

Contact Us

For all inquiries, please contact Lloyd Gyamfi, research project manager for research and training initiatives, at lloyd.gyamfi@nyulangone.org or 646-501-2678.