Obesity, Nutrition, and Physical Activity
Our faculty research obesity, nutrition (including breastfeeding) and physical activity. Faculty research in this area involves multilevel community-based interventions, with a particular focus on enhancing health equity and reducing racial and ethnic disparities for underserved populations.
Preventing and managing chronic diseases like HIV and diabetes.
Our faculty focus on research topics with behavioral and social issues towards improving health outcomes often associated with chronic diseases. Interventions are created to decrease the longer term risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and hypertension, as well as shorter term markers such as biochemical markers such as hemoglobin A1C, blood sugar, cholesterol, triglycerides and anthropometric or clinical measures such as blood pressure, waist circumference and weight measures. Additionally, long-term risk of many types of cancer are studied.
Some infectious diseases, such as HIV and Hepatitis C have become chronic in their treatment plans. In addition to these health outcomes, shorter term behaviors of screening for chronic diseases as or adherence to clinical care guidelines are often targeted.
HIV, Sexually Transmitted Infections, and Reproductive Health
HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases are on the rise in Rhode Island—there is both the need and opportunity to develop HIV-related research activities in Providence. Our faculty have a comprehensive HIV, STI and reproductive health research portfolio in collaboration with various domestic and international partners and funding agencies.
Current research focuses on uptake and adherence to antiretroviral medications for the prevention and treatment of HIV; documenting prevalence, incidence, and determinants (psychosocial, behavioral, biological and structural) of HIV and STI emergence and transmission in various at-risk populations; characterizing social, sexual and drug networks to better understand how connections (e.g., homophily, multiplexity), distributions (e.g., centrality, density), and segmentation (e.g., cohesion) potentiates HIV risk and infection; developing and testing integrated psychosocial treatment and HIV risk reduction interventions; development, evaluation, and implementation of interventions to modify behaviors that heighten an individual's vulnerability to becoming infected, or infecting others, with HIV; and research that advances health among myriad at-risk populations in resource-limited settings. A substantial body of research in BSS focuses on addressing alcohol, drug, and tobacco use in HIV prevention and care.
Current studies in this topic are being conducted across several continents, including Asia, Africa, North America, South America, and Europe.
