Hispanics are the largest ethnic minority group in the United States, yet studies on factors associated with health outcomes in Hispanic communities are limited.
Frank J. Penedo, a professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Miami College of Arts and Sciences, is among the researchers trying to change this.
Penedo studies how sociocultural, biobehavioral, and psychosocial mechanisms impact health, and he is currently the lead researcher on two longitudinal cohort studies involving a diverse sample of Hispanic participants from various socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds.
One of these studies is a landmark longitudinal study examining risks and protective factors for cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and other conditions. Penedo and his team recently received a $21 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to extend the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos, which first started in 2006 and is now in its fourth phase. National in scope, with participants in Miami, Chicago, San Diego, and the Bronx, this study is the most comprehensive long-term study of multi-level determinants, including risk and protective factors for health and disease, in Hispanics living in the United States. It was initially led by Neil Schneiderman, a psychology professor and pioneer in the fields of health psychology and behavioral medicine who passed away in 2023.
The study seeks to answer, among other questions, why Hispanic communities have better cardiovascular outcomes despite more negative non-medical drivers of health, such as high uninsurance rates, and high rates of risk factors like diabetes and obesity.
"Now that we have this longitudinal data with such a large number of participants, we're really going to be able to model the factors that are either risk factors or protective factors that are contributing to cardiovascular disease and other conditions such as diabetes, obesity, and cancer," explained Penedo, who is also the associate director for population sciences and director of cancer survivorship and supportive care at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the Miller School of Medicine. "I feel that we're moving into the most exciting phase of the study."
Penedo is also leading a six-year study on Hispanic cancer survivors that launched in 2023 in collaboration with researchers in Texas. This study looks at the impact of a range of factors, including sociocultural, psychosocial, and behavioral factors, on disease progression and patients' quality of life.
Supporting cancer survivors is a core part of Penedo's work. He is an internationally recognized scholar in cancer survivorship and outcomes research and has studied the effectiveness of evidence-based interventions, such as stress-management and self-management techniques, in helping patients cope with their symptoms and improve their overall health and wellbeing.
"The concept is that if you can effectively engage people in these interventions, you can provide very practical and easy-to-implement tools to help prevent or manage disease and possibly reduce adverse outcomes and improve quality of life," Penedo said.
Penedo, who was born in Cuba and moved to Miami as a child, completed both his bachelor's degree and Ph.D. at the University of Miami. He was initially a pre-medical student, but a health psychology research study changed his academic trajectory. The study, conducted by Michael Antoni, a professor in the Department of Psychology, found that men with HIV who participated in a stress-management intervention experienced less decline in key immune markers suggestive of a protective role for the intervention.
"When I heard that, I said, 'Wow, that's really interesting that an intervention that's talking about depression and coping and social support is going to affect a CD4 cell—a key index of immune competence in HIV,'" Penedo recalled. "I was aware of the mind-body connection from my undergrad psychobiology classes, but at the time did not realize stress could impact health at that level. And then I started working with Mike Antoni as an undergraduate research volunteer for research credit, and I just fell in love with the field."
Penedo earned a Ph.D. in clinical health psychology at the University, where his graduate work focused on HIV, and then completed a clinical residency at the University of Pittsburgh in psychosocial oncology and behavioral medicine. He returned to his alma mater for a postdoctoral fellowship and, except for a seven-year stint at Northwestern University, has been at the University of Miami ever since. Along the way, Penedo has authored over 350 publications. He has also received continuous NIH funding for more than 20 years.
"The Department of Psychology is really an exceptional place," Penedo said. "It's been paradigm-shifting in behavioral medicine and health psychology, and we're so fortunate to have the relationship we have with the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Miller School of Medicine, which really allows us to create these synergies and interdisciplinary studies that otherwise wouldn't be possible."
