Gerend studies Black, Latina, and sexual minority women health discrimination

Dec 14, 2022

Mary Gerend, Ph.D., and her co-authors Cylena Stewart, medical student, and Karen Wetzel, graduate student, have studied intersectional issues regarding weight, race, and sexual discrimination. Relatively little is known of how weight discrimination interacts with other forms of negative bias. 

The study identified several key factors regarding the amplification of negative treatment and health consequences regarding socially marginalized women with high body weight. 

Read the study here.

News of the Week

College of Medicine research gains vast media attention

Recent peer-reviewed and published research from the Florida State University College of Medicine has received national and world attention, as evidenced by a wide range of media hits and web-generated numbers.

Most recently, the Dec. 8 article FSU research links common sweetener with anxiety, published on our website and disseminated by Florida State University News, generated 353,748 page views and 333,194 unique page views in the first five days. Equally impressive, readers were spending nearly four minutes, on average, with the article.

The research produced by lead author Sara Jones, who recently completed her Ph.D. in biomedical sciences under the guidance of professor and co-author Pradeep Bhide, was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS). It generated a global audience from the science and medical communities and as of Dec. 14, was in the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric for PNAS, which also provides a complete list of related articles. 

A sampling of that list, including links, can be found below.

A recent study led by Angelina Sutin, professor in the college’s Department of Behavioral Sciences and Social Medicine, found that the COVID-19 pandemic appeared to cause personality changes in young adults. The study, published in PLOS ONE, generated wide-reaching media attention.

“This research has by far received the most media coverage of any papers from our lab,” said Sutin. “It was featured in many prominent news outlets, both in the U.S. and abroad. It was also a number of firsts for us in terms of media coverage: 

“The first time the New York Times featured an article focused specifically on our work; the first time a news alert went out about our work; and the first time we had our work made fun of by Stephen Colbert.”

Data collected by Altmetric for PLOS ONE supports Sutin’s assertion, as the study generated 419 news stories from 367 outlets worldwide, which also includes articles from virtually every U.S. television network. 

“I think the broad media coverage of our study reflects a general interest in trying to understand how the pandemic has changed us and who changed the most,” she said. “It has been a great opportunity to be able to communicate our findings with the public and gratifying for there to be so much interest in our findings from all over the globe.”

A list of linked articles is also included below.

Aspartame and Anxiety Research Articles

healthnews.com, Dec. 14, 2022
A Common Artificial Sweetener Is Linked to Anxiety-like Behavior

sciencealert.com, Dec. 14, 2022
A Popular Sweetener Has Been Linked to Increased Anxiety in Generations of Mice

The News International, Dec. 14, 2022
Artificial sweetener might be linked to anxiety: study

onlymyhealth.com, Dec. 12, 2022
Artificial Sweetener May Cause Anxiety, Reveals Study

The Jerusalem Post, Dec. 11, 2022
Commonly-used artificial sweetener linked to anxiety

labroots.com, Dec. 11, 2022
Artificial Sweetener Linked to Anxiety-Like Behavior in Mice

tekdeeps.com, Dec. 9, 2022
Aspartame causes anxiety in mice

The Independent (UK), Dec. 9, 2022
Commonly used sweetener found linked to anxious behavior in mice

Personality Changes Linked to COVID Articles

The New York Times, Oct. 25, 2022
Did the Pandemic Change Your Personality? Possibly.

cbsnews.com, Oct. 10, 2022
Did the pandemic change our personalities?

cnbc.com, Oct. 6, 2022
Young adults are now more neurotic, less agreeable, study finds: The pandemic may have ‘disrupted maturity’

npr.org, Oct. 5, 2022
Personalities don’t usually change quickly but they may have during the pandemic

Smithsonian Magazine, Sept. 30, 2022
Has the Pandemic Changed Your Personality?

nbcnews.com, Sept. 28, 2022
Pandemic may have made young adults more neurotic and less agreeable

cnn.com, Sept. 28, 2022
People experienced some key personality changes during the pandemic

Millender and Wong Examine Dating Violence Among Adolescents

Jan 01, 2022

Eugenia Millender and Frank Wong are joined by other researchers in studying the lasting effects of adolescent dating violence (ADV) on youth well-being and development in Panama. Their findings conclude that a majority of the participants experienced some form of ADV at least once on an emotional, physical, or sexual front, though the proportions differed based on gender. The high report rate of ADV in urban public schools in panama support the need for programs to address ADV.

Read the Study

Zhe He Publication on Cognitive Training for Older Adults

Nov 17, 2022

Dr. Zhe He, with others, have proposed that developing cognitive training interventions for those with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), Alzheimer's disease, and other forms of dementia will require lapses in adherence to be predictable. This is so that such interventions can be engaged in at optimal points in time. This is one of the earliest studies done to predict older adults' daily adherence to cognitive training programs with advanced machine learning techniques. 

Read the study

African American Alzheimer's Caregiver Pilot Study Outcome

Nov 01, 2022

Dr. Robert L. Gluecklauf (et al.) analyzed the outcomes of the African American Alzheimer's Caregiver Training and Support Project 2 pilot. The objectives being analyzed included caregiver depression, health status, burden, quality of relationships, and social support within a 12-week training program of skill-building and problem-solving sessions. 

Overall, the results of the study were promising with a larger sample size being needed to confirm the reliability of these methods. 

Read the study

Ennis Study Assesses Tuberculosis Risk among HIV Patients

Aug 04, 2022

Nicole Ennis, Ph.D., along with others, examined the factors linked with tuberculosis among people who lived with HIV in Florida via medical documentation and self-reporting. Tuberculosis prevalence was higher in self-reporting than in documentation, with the highest self-reporting demographic being older, homeless African Americans. 

The use of self-reporting combined with screening test confirmation would help in establishing the true prevalence of tuberculosis and associated risk factors of those living with HIV. 

Read the Study

Nair-Collins on the Social Status of Brain Death

Mar 17, 2022

Michael Nair-Collins puts forth this essay regarding the definition of the irreversible coma and brain death. The essay emphasizes the aspect of compulsorily applying the status of "corpse", socially and legally, to a living human body. 

Read the Essay

Pickett and Sheffler on Black Sleep Health

Aug 18, 2022

Scott M. Pickett and Julia L. Sheffler of Florida State University's Department of Behavioral Sciences and Social Medicine were involved with an initiative to examine the link between poor sleep health, obesity, and addictive-like eating behaviors in African American and Black people. The results point towards intervention being necessary for abnormal eating behaviors when excessive daytime sleepiness is observed. 

Read the Study

Hou Publishes Neurofibromatosis Study

Dec 09, 2022

Individuals with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) and plexiform neurofibromas (PNs) have a higher risk for and are more vulnerable to socioemotional difficulties. Though, there is little known about exactly how socioemotional functioning changes throughout a lifespan and the things that predict such changes. 

Yang Hou, Ph.D., was part of a group studying such effects. Their findings indicated that individualized patient care and consideration for the socioeconomic background of a child should be uniquely met. Though ultimately, the results suggest further longitudinal study is needed.

Read the study.