This research grant application is in response to the KOI Award through the program: Mentored Career Development Award to promote Faculty Diversity/Re-entry in biomedical Research. NiCole R.Keith, Ph.D., is an exercise physiologist specializing in issues of physical fitness among minority and socioeconomically disadvantaged adults. She is a non-tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Physical Education at Indiana University Purdue University, Indianapolis. Since June 2006 Dr. Keith has collaborated as a co- investigator with colleagues on designing and evaluating behavioral interventions related to physical fitness. Fitness has been shown to be an important factor in health disparities, explaining nearly 50% of the association between socioeconomic status and mortality in one study. Fitness-related interventions seek to decrease cardiovascular risk, reduce health disparities, and improve health outcomes among disadvantaged adults. A main goal of this application is for Dr. Keith to complete her research career development in order to enhance her research capabilities to become an independent researcher. Dr.Christopher M.Callahan will be the primary mentor and Dr. Daniel 0. Clark will be the secondary mentor. Dr.Callahan's research focus is improving the quality of care provided to older adults by primary care providers. His research specializes in late life depression and dementia. Dr. Clark is the Director of Behavioral Research for the Center for Aging Research and his research focuses on older adult mobility and physical activity promotion. The training component of this proposal includes completing the 2-year Clinical Investigator Training Enhancement program (K30), training in qualitative and quantitative analyses, shadowing primary care providers to better understand the clinical environment, and receiving training in writing for peer-reviewed journals and research grant proposals. The proposed research will extend the development of a self report fitness survey to establish test-retest reliability and criterion validity in a general sample of adults and explore differences in survey validity between blacks and whites, men and women, and adequate and inadequate health literacy subgroups. RELEVANCE (See instructions): The proposed K01 Award will strengthen Dr. Keith's ability to design and conduct research on health disparities by focusing on issues of physical fitness and cardiovascular risk reduction, including physical activity promotion, among inner-city residents. (End of Abstract)