CSUN Professors to Direct Cancer Study
Two Cal State Northridge professors are working to develop a questionnaire to determine the risk factors for disabled teenage girls contracting breast cancer and other diseases, the university announced.
Assistant professors Carol Koprowski, of the department of family environmental sciences, and Sarah Hall, of the department of special education, have received a $125,000 grant from the California Breast Cancer Research Program to develop the questionnaire that will gauge how diet and physical activity affect the group of teens.
“This will allow researchers to draw conclusions on issues related to health, to see whether [disabled teen girls’] risks are higher than the general population,” Koprowski said last week.
The professors will assemble groups of students, parents and teachers this month to discuss the pilot study. Based on their feedback, Koprowski and Hall will develop the questionnaire that could be taken in January by at least 250 public school students in Burbank and Simi Valley.
“We’ll administer the questionnaire to see if we’re asking the right types of questions,” Koprowski said.
Koprowski and Hall are consulting with Nick Breit, a CSUN kinesiology professor and adapted physical education specialist, and Leslie Bernstein, a preventive medicine professor at USC, who has written about exercise reducing the risk of breast cancer.
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