Delaney Glass, Ph.D. candidate and NIH T32 Fellow at CSDE was awarded the National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant over the summer for her dissertation research “Effects of Extreme Stressors in Adolescence”. This dissertation grant funding is in addition to a Wenner-Gren grant awarded earlier this year. Based in the CSDE Biodemography Lab, her project will examine the embodiment of displacement and poverty-derived psychosocial stressors through the assessment of relationships between pubertal and metabolic hormones among Jordanian non-refugee and Syrian refugee adolescents. Upon completion of the project, she will share research findings with interested stakeholder organizations serving youth communities in Northern Jordan.
Keith and Martin Publish Article from CSDE Supported Research
CSDE Affiliates Monica Keith (Anthropology) and Melanie Martin (Anthropology) recently published a paper in Women’s Health Issues, titled the “Social Determinant Pathways to Hypertensive Disorders of Pregnancy Among Nulliparous U.S. Women“. The article is a write-up of their winning solution for the NICHD DASH Data Challenge, which was supported by CSDE. The study used data in the NICHD Nulliparous Pregnancy Outcomes Study: Monitoring Mothers-to-Be (n = 6,501) to examine links between upstream social determinants of health, allostatic load during pregnancy, and risk of hypertensive disorders during pregnancy. Our model results demonstrated that the social environment exerted stronger effects on allostatic markers than did individually, behaviorally mediated dietary, exercise, or smoking pathways. Demographic aspects of the social environment (e.g., household income, partnered status) were the most salient predictor of hypertensive risk across groups, but showed stronger effects among Black women.
Shah Co-authors Paper on Data Integration for Interdisciplinary Environmental and Social Science Research
CSDE Affiliate Sameer Shah (Environmental and Forest Sciences) has just published a co-authored paper in Environmental Research Communications that details the challenges and opportunities in linking environmental and social sciences data to address climate change. They argue that the integration of physical and social science data can enable novel frameworks, methodologies, and innovative solutions important for addressing complex socio-environmental problems. Unfortunately, many technical, procedural, and institutional challenges hamper effective data integration – detracting from interdisciplinary socio-environmental research and broader public impact. The evidence for their claims is based on the experiences of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and their Early Career Researchers.
NIMHD Grant Program for Minority Health and/or Health Disparities
Knox, Jones-Smith, and Co-authors Publish New Research on Seattle’s Sweetened Beverage Tax
CSDE Affiliates, Melissa Knox (Economics), Jessica Jones-Smith (Public Health), and co-authors published their article “Seattle’s sweetened beverage tax implementation and changes in interior marketing displays” in the Journal of Public Health Policy, where they assessed changes in interior marketing displays within large food stores before and after the implementation of Seattle’s SSB tax. The authors used Poisson difference-in-difference (DID) models to estimate whether presence and variety of interior beverage marketing displays in Seattle changed from before to after the tax compared to displays in non-taxed comparison area stores, overall, and by beverage type.
Recent Published Research by Goodreau & Colleagues Highlights Growing Divergence in Sexual Behaviors & STIs
CSDE Affiliate Steven Goodreau (Anthropology) and co-authors recently published their article “Changes in Sexual Behaviors with Opposite-Sex Partners and Sexually Transmitted Infection Outcomes Among Females and Males Ages 15–44 Years in the USA: National Survey of Family Growth, 2008–2019” in the journal Archives of Sexual Behavior. Rates of reported gonorrhea and chlamydial infections have increased substantially over the past decade in the USA and disparities persist across age and race/ethnicity. Authors aimed to understand potential changes in sexual behaviors, sexual network attributes, and sexually transmitted infection (STI) screening that may be contributing to these trends. They analyzed data from 29,423 female and 24,605 male respondents ages 15–44 years from the National Survey of Family Growth, 2008–2019. They used survey-weighted linear or logistic regression to evaluate linear temporal trends in sexual behaviors with opposite-sex partners, network attributes, and STI testing, treatment, and diagnosis. Significant declines were observed in condom use at last vaginal sex, mean number of vaginal sex acts, proportion of condom-protected sex acts in the past 4 weeks, and racial/ethnic homophily with current partners among males and females from 2008–2010 through 2017–2019. Among males, mean number of female partners in the past 12 months and concurrency also declined, while the percent reporting ever having sex with another male increased. Past-year testing for chlamydia and any STI increased among females. Research is needed to understand how these changes interact and potentially contribute to increasing reported gonorrhea and chlamydia diagnoses and identify avenues for future intervention.
Bekemeier and Co-authors Publish Article on Health Policy Codesign
CSDE Affiliate Betty Bekemeier (Psychosocial & Community Health) and co-authors published their article “Strategies for enacting health policy codesign: a scoping review and direction for research” in the journal Health Science. Strategies for supporting evidence-informed health policy are a recognized but understudied area of policy dissemination and implementation science. Codesign describes a set of strategies potentially well suited to address the complexity presented by policy formation and implementation. Authors examine the health policy literature describing the use of codesign in initiatives intended to combine diverse sources of knowledge and evidence in policymaking. They find that policy codesign is theoretically promising and is gaining interest among diverse health sectors for addressing the complexity of policy formation and implementation. The maturity of the science is just emerging.
New Research by Williams & Colleagues on Medication for People with Co-occurring Substance Use Disorders
CSDE Affiliate Emily Williams (Health Services) and co-authors recently published their work “Impact of an intervention to implement provision of opioid use disorder medication among patients with and without co-occurring substance use disorders” in the Journal of Substance Use and Addiction Treatment. Co-occurring substance use disorders (SUDs) are common among people with opioid use disorder (OUD) and known to hinder receipt of medications for OUD (MOUD). The Veterans Health Administration’s (VA) Stepped Care for Opioid Use Disorder Train the Trainer (SCOUTT) initiative was implemented in primary care, mental health, and pain clinics in 18 VA facilities, and was found to increase MOUD receipt. This study assessed the SCOUTT initiative’s impact among patients with and without co-occurring SUDs.
Evaluating PrEP and Maternal Child Health in Kenya Subject of Recent Publication by John-Stewart & Co-authors
CSDE Affiliate Grace John-Stewart (Global Health) and co-authors published their research “Implementation determinants and strategies in integration of PrEP into maternal and child health and family planning services: experiences of frontline healthcare workers in Kenya” in Frontiers in Reproductive Health, where they conducted focus group discussions (FGDs) with healthcare workers (HCWs) in maternal and child health (MCH) and family planning (FP) clinics offering PrEP in a large implementation project in Kisumu, Kenya. Delivery of PrEP to adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) and to pregnant women through MCH and FP clinics is scaling up in Kenya. Evaluation of implementation challenges and strategies is critical to optimize delivery.
Berridge and Co-authors Publish Work on AI Companion Robots and Preferences of Older Adults
CSDE Affiliate Clara Berridge and co-authors recently released their research “AI Companion Robot Data Sharing: Preferences of an Online Cohort and Policy Implications” in the Journal of Elder Policy, where they report peoples’ perspectives on small AI companion robots for older adults, along with attendant issues related to facial expression and conversation data collection and sharing. Policymakers have recognized the urgent need to create AI data protections, yet the interests of older adults have thus far not been well represented. Data are from a cross-sectional survey of an online cohort of the Oregon Center for Aging & technology at Oregon Health & Science University, with a response rate of 45% and analytic sample of 825 (mean age: 63.9, rang: 25-88). Logistic regressions examined relationships between comfort and data sharing preferences with socio-demographic characteristics. Just over half (52.3%) were somewhat or very comfortable with an artificial companion robot during the pandemic and 45.2% were under normal circumstances.