The Health Behavior, Communication and Outreach Core (HBCOC), directed by Donna B. Jeffe, PhD, provides services to investigators engaged in Prevention and Control and Clinical/Translational research. Core faculty and staff have developed high quality services in behavioral science, epidemiology, health education and communication, program evaluation, psychological quality-of-life assessments, and geocoding and spatial statistics.

The HBCOC is an affiliated resource of the Institute of Clinical and Translational Sciences and the Siteman Cancer Center at Washington University School of Medicine with an additional component at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis.

Core services

  • Epidemiology and Spatial Statistics: Assistance with study design, instrument development, data collection, entry and management, access to and merging of large databases, 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 & 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 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.

Faculty

Core Director

Donna Jeffe, PhD
Phone: 314-286-1914
Email: jeffedonnab@wustl.edu

Location: 600 S. Taylor Ave., Suite 155

To access, email: djeffe@dom.wustl.edu

Core Manager

Maria Perez, MA
Phone: 314-286-1917
Email: mperez@wustl.edu


Publication acknowledgement

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

If your work was also supported by a JIT award, please add the following statement: “Research reported in this publication and services provided by the Health Behavior, Communication and Outreach Core were supported by the Washington University Institute of Clinical and Translational Sciences grant UL1TR002345 from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official view of the NIH.”