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Kia Skrine Jeffers, PhD, RN, PHN
Kia Skrine Jeffers, PhD, RN, PHN, is an Assistant Professor in the UCLA School of Nursing. Dr. Skrine Jeffers earned her undergraduate degree in Broadcast Journalism from North Carolina A&T State University, and her Master’s and doctoral degrees in Nursing from UCLA. She is a practicing community-based nurse. Her research focuses on the impact of intersecting psycho-, bio-, behavioral and life course experiences on type 2 diabetes risks among African American seniors; diabetes prevention and self-management interventions; and, healthcare policies that impact equity and access for underresourced populations.
COHORT
2017-18 & 2021-22
Project
“Evaluating the feasibility to implement the Medicare Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) in a parish nurse program of a safety-net health system.” This exploratory, mixed methods study aims to evaluate the employee and patient factors that may facilitate or impede implementation of the Medicare Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) within the parish nurse program of a safety net health system. With Medicare’s prediabetes coverage expansion in 2018, many safety-net health systems and community-based organizations (CBO) will be considering whether or not to become Medicare DPP providers. The expansion will increase access to diabetes prevention services for low-income, racial/ethnic minority seniors, as costs for the program to date have largely been out of reach. In addition to providing evidence for the parish nurse program, this study will provide science for safety-nets and CBOs to draw upon as they evaluate their own capacity to become Medicare DPP providers.
Project
“Evaluating the Feasibility and Acceptability of a Therapeutically-Grounded Virtual Sister Circle Intervention for Black Women with Depressive Symptoms,” While published estimates of depression prevalence among Black women range from 10-17%, there is additional evidence that depression is significantly underdiagnosed in this population. Untreated depression, particularly in late life, is associated with numerous mental and physical health conditions including anxiety, loneliness, Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, morbidity from preventable chronichealth conditions, accelerated aging, and suicide. Depression may also contribute to racial/ethnic health disparities given the relationship between depression and cardiometabolic dysfunctionand the strong correlation between depression and stress. Middle-and older-aged Black women have up to 5 times greater odds of increased allostatic load (i.e., cumulative “wear and tear” from prolonged adaptation to stress) compared to their non-Hispanic White (NHW) counterparts. Evidence from the scientific literature and popular media also indicate that many Black women suffer in silence from untreated depression.New and innovative approaches are needed to address depression within this population.