O. Kenrik Duru, MD, MSHS

Co-Director, Administrative Core and Former Scholar

O. Kenrik Duru, MD, MSHS, Professor, Department of Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine, received a Doctorate of Medicine from the University of California San Francisco and a Master of Science in Health Services from the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. Dr. Duru’s research interests include enhancing physical activity among minority seniors and designing interventions to reduce disparities in medication adherence and clinical outcomes among patients with diabetes.

COHORT

2003-04 & 2010-11

Project

RCMAR National Coordinating Center (CC) Collaborative Research Project: “Where do older adults go? Comparing GPS tracking to self-report for collecting data on activity locations – A pilot study in Los Angeles and San Francisco.” Dr. Duru conducted this RCMAR National CC-funded project in collaboration with Dr. Irene H. Yen, a scholar in the University of California San Francisco RCMAR Center for Aging in Diverse Communities (CADC) between 02/01/2010-08/31/2011. Drs. Duru and Yen used global positioning system (GPS) devices to track the travel patterns of 40 older adults (mean age: 69) in San Francisco and Los Angeles, CA, and collected participants’ survey responses about their travel patterns. GPS documented the mode of travel, the path of travel, and the destinations, while surveys documented the purpose of the travel and the impressions or experiences in the specific locations.

Project

2003-2004 Pilot Project, “Perceived barriers to physical exercise among African-American seniors in Los Angeles.” Dr. O. Kenrik Duru’s RCMAR/CHIME-funded project was a focus-group study of neighborhood-level barriers to exercise among African-American elderly in Los Angeles, CA, in which he examined reasons that prevented them from regularly walking or engaging in other forms of exercise. Dr. Duru used his findings to develop a pilot, church-based intervention for African American women age 60 and over, entitled “Sisters in Motion.” The intervention was faith-based and placed emphasis on instilling mutual responsibility for exercise among small groups of participants.

Publications