W.Va. Center Gets Federal Disease Prevention Grant

  The West Virginia Prevention Research Center is getting $750,000 to conduct disease prevention research.

Officials say the funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is for the first year of a five-year funding period.

The center is one of 26 academic institutions nationally and the only one in West Virginia to receive the funding.

Officials say the award will support a five-year childhood obesity project.

As part of the project, researchers will partner with the Mid-Ohio Valley Health Department and West Virginia elementary schools to test school- and family-based interventions that promote physical activity in middle school children. Study findings will be used to shape state and local physical activity policies.