# Advancing Methods for Multilevel Interventions to Support Health Equity for Urban American Indian/Alaska Native and Black Youth

> **NIH NIH K01** · UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER · 2024 · $163,201

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
This K01 Mentored Research Scientist Development Award will provide the candidate, Nicole R. Tuitt, DrPH,
with advanced training and structured mentoring to facilitate her transition to research independence. The
candidate's goal is to become an independent investigator with expertise in state-of-the-art approaches in the
development and evaluation of culturally relevant, strengths-based multilevel interventions which aim to reduce
substance use and sexual health disparities among urban American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) and
Black youth. The proposed scope of work will fill a gap in existing literature on multilevel approaches to reduce
substance use and sexual health inequities among youth of color. The inability of efforts to reduce adolescent
substance use and sexual health disparities to yield sustained improvements likely stem from failure to account
for mutually-reinforcing structural disadvantages and multifaceted mechanisms that include all socioecological
levels that underlie adolescent health inequities. Most risk reduction strategies focus only at the individual and
interpersonal levels. Developing and operationalizing a strengths-based conceptual framework grounded in the
socioecological model is critical to inform a multilevel intervention to reduce substance use and sexual risk-
taking among urban AIAN and Black youth. The candidate will employ a transformative, sequential mixed
methods approach to accomplish the following specific aims, each training goal is matched with the aim in
which the researcher will apply her new skills. AIM 1: Examine multilevel determinants of substance use and
sexual risk-taking among Black and AIAN high youth (ages 14-18) in Denver Metro, CO. Training: (1)
Advance expertise in theoretical and methodological foundations in social and spatial epidemiology to
understand the impact of structural contexts on risk and resilience to adolescent substance use and sexual
risk-taking; and (2) multilevel structural equation modeling, with geographic contexts, to explore the direct,
indirect, and interactive relationships across levels. AIM 2. Engage urban AIAN and Black youth to elucidate
distinct conceptual frameworks of risk and resilience to substance use and sexual risk-taking guided by
findings from Aim 1; and identify the most critical levels on which to intervene. Training: (1) Develop skills in
scenario-based qualitative interviewing (SBI) to engage youth to interpret quantitative data in the development
of conceptual frameworks of risk and resilience. The K01 award will position Dr. Tuitt as a trained researcher
with expertise on the influence of structural disadvantages on adolescent substance use and sexual risk-taking
as well as multilevel approaches. Given her shift away from a focus on individual behaviors to structural
factors, expertise in SBI, social and spatial epidemiology, and multilevel SEM will ensure the candidates
successful transition into an independent resea...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10903907
- **Project number:** 5K01DA054301-04
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER
- **Principal Investigator:** Nicole R Tuitt
- **Activity code:** K01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $163,201
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2021-08-15 → 2026-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10903907

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10903907, Advancing Methods for Multilevel Interventions to Support Health Equity for Urban American Indian/Alaska Native and Black Youth (5K01DA054301-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10903907. Licensed CC0.

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