Federal Grant Award Summary

Drexel University received a $780,647 Project Grant award dated July 7, 2026, from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) under the Minority Health and Health Disparities Research program (CFDA 93.307). The grant funds GANAS, a 10-week men's health intervention designed to improve sleep quality, strengthen social connectedness, and reduce chronic stress among low-income men. The intervention will be delivered through Facebook-based support groups facilitated by trained peer mentors, featuring weekly workshops, skill-building activities, and digital engagement focused on stress coping mechanisms, sleep hygiene, relationship strengthening, help-seeking behaviors, social support networks, and health-protective routines. The program builds on prior formative and pilot research conducted with Latino men and will test whether its core mechanisms produce measurable improvements in sleep, stress regulation, and social connection across a broader low-income male population.

The research initiative addresses a documented gap in prevention programming for low-income men, who experience elevated chronic disease burden and limited access to interventions targeting stress coping and social connection. By targeting sleep as a key prevention mechanism—given its documented links to hypertension, cardiometabolic disease, and mental health outcomes—the GANAS intervention aims to interrupt the stress-to-disease pathway identified in the principal investigator's prior NIMHD-funded research with economically disadvantaged populations. The award supports research through November 30, 2030, and is housed at Drexel University's Pennsylvania location.