CSDE Affiliate Claire Rothschild (Population Services International) released an article with co-authors in BMJ Global Health, titled “Preference-aligned fertility management among married adolescent girls in Northern Nigeria: assessing a new measure of contraceptive autonomy“. Universal access to sexual and reproductive healthcare—including family planning (FP)—is a global priority, yet there is no standard outcome measure to evaluate rights-based FP program performance at the regional, national or global levels. Authors collected a modified version of preference-aligned fertility management (PFM), a newly proposed rights-based FP outcome measure which they operationalized as concordance between an individual’s desired and actual current contraceptive use, within a cohort of married adolescent girls in Northern Nigeria. The study found that PFM captured meaningful discordance between contraceptive use desires and behaviours in this cohort. Observed discordance provides actionable insights for program intervention to better support people to achieve their self-identified contraceptive preferences.
*New* NSF Workshop on Behavior Maintenance Approaches in Clinical and Community Settings (6/4/24)
Registration is now open for the Behavior Maintenance Approaches in Clinical and Community Settings Workshop! The event will occur on Tuesday, June 4th from 8:00am to 12:30 (PST). See the workshop agenda here. This is the fourth workshop in the series, “An Action Agenda: Promoting the Science and Practice of Health Behavior Maintenance,” hosted by the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR) and the Adherence Research Network at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). After this workshop, high-level summaries and contact information for speakers will be available for workshops 1-4 on the OBSSR website. Registration closes on Monday, June 3.
Agenda Highlights:
Session 1:
Lived Experiences and Clinician Insights: Hear from people with chronic conditions who have successfully maintained healthy behaviors and from clinicians who will discuss the multi-level approaches and resources that support these efforts.
Session 2:
Examples of Successful Programs: Learn about successful programs implemented in real-world clinical and community settings. Speakers will discuss opportunities and challenges for advancing these programs.
You can view the full workshop agenda on the OBSSR website.
Swanson Evaluates Cluster Analysis as a Means to Identify Communities of Interest for Legislative Redistricting
CSDE Affiliate David Swanson (Sociology, UC Riverside) co-authored new research in Papers in Applied Geography, titled “Using cluster analysis to identify communities of interest for purposes of legislative redistricting: A case study of parishes in Louisiana“. The use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology has been found to limit the kinds of communities that can in principle achieve political representation through redistricting because the process excludes “communities of interest” (COIs) that cannot be mapped. Authors argue that these limits can be overcome using empirically based variables to define a COI in conjunction with an empirically based classification system, cluster analysis.
Heath Co-authors New Working Paper on Women’s Political Participation
CSDE Affiliate Rachel Heath (Economics) co-authored a policy research working paper with the World Bank, titled “Gender, Social Support, and Political Speech: Evidence from Twitter“. Despite evidence that women’s political preferences differ from those of men, women are less likely to participate in political and social discussions on Twitter and other social media. Following recent evidence that in-person social support matters for women’s political participation, women are hypothesized to form similarly supportive communities online. This paper tests this hypothesis using data from Twitter.
The collected data comprises 451 hashtags on a broad range of (non-mutually exclusive) topics: social, gender, racial, LGBTQ, religion, youth, education, economic, health, COVID, climate, political, security, entertainment and lifestyle, and the Middle East and Northern Africa. The empirical results indicate that women are more likely to participate when the debate(s) feature female influential voices. This finding supports the potential role of mutual support in bolstering women’s participation in important debates.
*New* NIH Seeks Input on Structural Racism Impacts on Brain and Behavioral Health (Due 6/14/24)
The NIH issued a Request for Information (RFI) on identifying and addressing gaps in (1) the impact of structural racism on brain, cognitive (such as learning, memory, attention, decision-making), and behavioral function across the lifespan and (2) the role of structural and systemic racism on the conduct of brain and behavioral health research. This RFI seeks input from healthcare providers, scientific research communities, patient advocacy groups, people with lived experience of brain or behavioral health disorders (such as substance use and mental health disorders), educators, and other interested parties. All responses must be submitted electronically on the RFI submission website by June 14th.
*New* Call for Papers: Workshop on Autocratic Elements in Migration Policy (Due 6/15/24)
Katharina Natter and Lieneke Slingenberg are pleased to invite paper proposals for the 1.5-day interdisciplinary workshop: “Who rules over migrants? Autocratic elements in migration policies”, that will take place at the University of Leiden on 14 and 15 November 2024. They aim to bring together political scientists and legal scholars to examine the variegated uses of autocratic policy tools in migration policy across the Global North and South, with a particular attention to how these uses relate to political regime contexts and to policy outcomes. See a pdf version of the call here.
Have an idea for an NIH application? Here is when/what/who to email about your idea!
At a recent meeting, Rebecca Clark, chief of the Population Dynamics Bureau (PDB) at NICHD, provided useful insights on how researchers developing new proposals should contact officials at NIH. Her remarks were focused on PDB at NICHD, but the advice seems broadly generalizable to other institutes as well. She states: If you have specific aims, please send them to just one PDB Program Officers in one email. (NB: Do not send separate emails to each program officer within a branch, since they all confer and collaborate on any incoming inquiries.)
All potential applicants, including those who have prepared specific aims, should send responses to the following items and attach to the email inquiry:
1. One- or two-page description of your proposed project, including:
(a) What is the research topic? What is the primary research question and why is it important to answer this research question? What research gap will this research address?
(b) Describe the relevance of this research to public health. How will this research—directly or indirectly—enhance human health, lengthen life, or prevent or reduce illness or disability?
(c) What are the specific hypotheses? Specify the dependent and independent variables; Describe the expected relationship between each of the dependent and independent variables; Discuss the mechanisms through which the independent variables affect the dependent variables.
(d) What methodology will be used? Why is this methodology appropriate to address the hypotheses? What data collection methods will be used? If existing data are to be used, describe the data set.
(e) Estimated budget (direct costs).
(e) A timeline.
2. In addition, for K (career) and F (fellowship) awards and supplements, include:
(a) your disciplinary background and institutional affiliation;
(b) the name, disciplinary background, research interests, and institutional affiliation of your primary mentor, your secondary mentor (if you have one), and other advisors;
(c) the types of training and career development you plan and how this training and development will advance your ability to do your proposed research.
And if you’re wondering how to find an appropriate contact in the first place—the answer is to explore the web pages for the NIH institutes that seem most relevant. They all differ from one another, but, for instance, for NICHD you can turn to this page, and click on “Find a Program Officer” in the right-hand menu.
Besides the above…..
The CSDE Development Core is here to help, too.
As always, the CSDE development core team, Steve Goodreau (goodreau@uw.edu) or Sara Curran (scurran@uw.edu), are happy to help you in preparing these documents and figuring out who to contact at NIH.
Many CSDE-Relevant Grant Opportunities at NICHD!
The NICHD has listed many grant opportunities that should be of interest to CSDE affiliates. Check out the list here. If you are interested, CSDE can help you with providing ‘eyes’ for feedback on the narrative, contacting a program officer, more formalized mock review panel of experts to provide feedback on a penultimate draft, a summer grant writing program, or scientific methods consultations. We’re happy to support your science! Just ask!
New Research by Bratman and Colleagues Emphasizes the Olfactory Pathway Between Nature and Human Well-being
CSDE Affiliate Gregory Bratman (College of the Environment) released an article with co-authors in Science Advances, titled “Nature and human well-being: The olfactory pathway“. The world is undergoing massive atmospheric and ecological change, driving unprecedented challenges to human well-being. Olfaction is a key sensory system through which these impacts occur. The sense of smell influences quality of and satisfaction with life, emotion, emotion regulation, cognitive function, social interactions, dietary choices, stress, and depressive symptoms. Exposures via the olfactory pathway can also lead to (anti-)inflammatory outcomes. Authors integrate perspectives from a range of health, social, and natural systems to provide an overview of this unique sensory system and its role in the pathway between natural environments and human well-being. This fascinating research was supported by a Population Planning Research Grant (PPRG) from CSDE. This research was also featured in an article by UW News, where Bratman discusses the project’s significance.