Dr. Cooker Perkins associate professor of Natural Sciences at Pepperdine is currently conducting a study on the prevalence of Type 2 diabetes in postpartum Hispanic women with the help of Pepperdine students.
Perkins has a background in Exercise Physiology and Epidemiology and focuses her research on health behaviors within communities. An interest in public health behaviors led her to research diabetes within the Hispanic community.
While Type 1 diabetes— also known as childhood-onset diabetes— is genetically based Type 2 diabetes is an acquired disease. While people can be genetically predisposed to Type 2 diabetes lack of physical activity and poor nutrition are often correlated with its onset. Type 2 diabetes is considered a “co-morbidity of obesity Perkins said, meaning it accompanies obesity and often results from excessive weight.
Though the research is being conducted with the intent of examining the health disparity of Type 2 diabetes incidence that currently exists within the Hispanic population in general, Perkins is focusing on the postpartum time period, which she describes as awindow of opportunity” in terms of research.
“I see pregnancy and postpartum as a window of opportunity because women have heightened awareness of their body and heightened awareness of their health behaviors Perkins said. [We can then] come into the picture see what they’re doing and offer some changes for modifications to their lifestyle that would set them up for healthier labor a healthier baby and a healthier postpartum.”
Hispanic women have a higher incidence of Type 2 diabetes than do Caucasian women— a gap that has drawn the attention of Perkins and other researchers. Perkins is assessing current cultural trends that may be contributing to the health disparity.
What is her ultimate goal? To identify and address the external causes responsible for this disproportionate rate of diabetes in Hispanic women and to provide a culturally sensitive intervention that targets health and lifestyle behaviors.
“What we are interested in is how these two populations are functioning differently Perkins said. What does their whole health behavior package look like? Once we get an assessment of what that looks like we can then develop a more culturally sensitive intervention for that population; an intervention that’s sensitive to their needs.”
For Perkins cultural sensitivity includes chastising Hispanics for consuming culturally significant albeit unhealthy foods. “It’s important for us to understand what’s going on in this Hispanic postpartum population so that we can develop an intervention that is sensitive to the foods that are prevalent in their culture she said.
Physical activity, dietary habits and breastfeeding are among the postpartum health behaviors Perkins research targets.
The research is being funded by The Wood-Claeyssens Foundation, a Santa Barbara/Ventura County nonprofit foundation with a strong interest in philanthropic projects and research, and Perkins is conducting her research on Ventura county women. Undergraduate students at Pepperdine have helped Cooker design the project itself, and have collected dated at Ventura clinics in addition to researching in the Pepperdine labs.
Students are also involved in an aspect of the research known as service learning, or outreach projects, which incorporate service into the research process. This service is open to all students, even if they are not involved in the research aspect.
