NIH grant funding

Michael S. Bloom, PhD, MS, FACE

College of Public Health

GCI-Health

Maternal obesity linked to 64% increase in childhood obesity risk

Mary Cunningham — Mon, 22 Jun 2026 15:16:36 +0000

Maternal obesity linked to 64% increase in childhood obesity risk Mary Cunningham Mon, 06/22/2026 - 11:16

The roots of childhood obesity may begin in the womb.

New research led by the 91�� College of Public Health found that children whose mothers entered pregnancy with obesity were 64% more likely to become overweight or obese by age 3. Excessive weight gain during pregnancy was associated with a 39% increase in that risk.

Participant in George Mason's cohort of NIH's Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO). Photo by Evan Cantwell/Office of University Branding

“Our findings suggest that childhood obesity risk may not develop in a single, uniform way, but maternal health before and during pregnancy may play a larger role than many people realize,” said study lead author Hua Min, associate professor in the Department of Health Administration and Policy.

Different pregnancy-related weight factors appeared to matter at different stages, with excess pregnancy weight gain more closely linked to infant weight and maternal obesity more strongly associated with weight later in toddlerhood.

Researchers also found that excess pregnancy weight gain was common, affecting about four in 10 mothers in the study.

Published in the International Journal of Obesity, the research is among the largest and most ethnically diverse U.S. longitudinal studies to examine how maternal weight may influence obesity risk in early childhood. Researchers tracked nearly 3,000 mother-child pairs, using data from a Northern Virginia birth cohort participating in the National Institutes of Health’s Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program.

The George Mason research team included Michael S. Bloom of the Department of Global and Community Health, and Grace Lawrence, Alma Fuller and Kathi C. Huddleston of the School of Nursing.

Why this matters

Researchers in George Mason's cohort of NIH's Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO). Photo by Evan Cantwell/Office of University Branding

Childhood obesity remains one of the most pressing health challenges in the United States. The study notes that nearly 90% of children with obesity at age 3 will continue to be overweight or obese into early adulthood. Those early patterns can carry long-term consequences, increasing risks for diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and other chronic health problems.

Researchers say the findings reinforce the importance of maternal health before and during pregnancy—not just for pregnancy outcomes, but also for a child’s long-term health trajectory. The findings also suggest that obesity risk may develop differently across populations, with patterns varying among demographic groups.

Study details

Findings were based on the First Thousand Days of Life Study, a Northern Virginia birth cohort participating in the ECHO Program, which examines how early-life experiences affect child health. George Mason was selected as an ECHO research site in 2019.

Researchers enrolled 2,899 mother-child pairs in Northern Virginia between 2012 and 2019, following families from pregnancy through age 3.

Key findings include:

Children whose mothers were obese before pregnancy were 64% more likely to be overweight or obese by age 3.

For every one-point increase in maternal pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI), childhood overweight/obesity risk increased by about 4%.

Children whose mothers gained excessive weight during pregnancy were about 39% more likely to be overweight or obese by age 3.

About 41% of mothers in the study gained more weight during pregnancy than recommended by national guidelines.

Excess weight gain during pregnancy showed stronger links to higher weight earlier in infancy, while maternal weight before pregnancy became more strongly associated with higher child weight later in early childhood.

The associations between maternal weight factors and childhood obesity differed between Hispanic and non-Hispanic families, suggesting that obesity risk may develop differently across populations.

Key Takeaways

Maternal obesity and excessive pregnancy weight gain were both linked to higher childhood obesity risk.
Researchers found obesity risk patterns varied across developmental stages and demographic groups.
An NIH-supported George Mason study followed nearly 3,000 Northern Virginia mother-child pairs from pregnancy through age 3.

In This Story

Dr. Kathi Huddleston, PhD, MSN

Topics

Maternal Health

Child Health

Maternal Child Health

Emily Ihara, PhD, MSW, FGSA

GCI-Health

$3 million NIH grant funds national study of Medicare Advantage’s benefit expansion into social supports

Taylor Thomas — Thu, 26 Feb 2026 12:47:22 +0000

$3 million NIH grant funds national study of Medicare Advantage’s benefit expansion into social supports Taylor Thomas Thu, 02/26/2026 - 07:47

Today, more than half of older Americans receive their Medicare coverage through private Medicare Advantage plans. In 2020, that program made a sweeping policy shift, allowing those plans to offer supplemental benefits beyond traditional medical care, including groceries, meal deliveries, utilities, transportation, pest control, and air filters.

Jeah Jung, professor in the Department of Health Administration and Policy. Photo provided

Now, with an approximately $3 million R01 grant from the National Institute on Aging, 91�� health economist Jeah Jung will lead a national study to evaluate whether those benefits reduce adverse health events and improve functional outcomes.

“Health-related social needs, such as food security, housing quality, reliable transportation, and social support, are increasingly recognized as important contributors to individuals’ health,” said Jung, a professor in the Department of Health Administration and Policy. Despite the wide rollout of the new initiative to meet those needs, she said, “there is currently no information or evidence of how many people are using it, how they’re using it, and whether it’s actually bringing the intended outcomes.”

As of 2025, 55% of Medicare beneficiaries, or 34.4 million Americans, were enrolled in Medicare Advantage, the private alternative to traditional Medicare. According to Jung’s data analysis, more than 30% of Medicare Advantage plans adopted non-medical supplemental benefits by 2025. Meanwhile, she found that more than 90% of dual-eligible special needs plans—serving low-income beneficiaries enrolled in both Medicare and Medicaid—adopted the benefits.

“This is a really large-scale initiative by Medicare to address unmet social needs and see whether that helps maintain and improve beneficiaries’ health outcomes as well,” Jung said. “With an investment of this size, we want to see evidence on how it’s working and who it’s reaching so the policy can be refined in the future.”

Using secure Medicare administrative data, Jung’s five-year project will examine whether the availability of non-medical benefits is associated with changes in emergency department visits, hospitalizations, and whether patient can remain in their homes and communities rather than enter nursing homes. The study will also analyze who uses the new benefits, and whether uptake differs by demographics, such as race, ethnicity, sex, health risks, and area-level socioeconomic factors.

The project will also include contributions from Emily Ihara, professor and chair of the Department of Social Work in the College of Public Health. Researchers from Oregon Health and Science University and Dartmouth College are serving as co-investigators.

In This Story

Jeah Jung, PhD, MPH

Key Takeaways

A $3 million National Institute on Aging grant will fund a national study of Medicare Advantage’s benefit expansion into social supports such as food assistance, transportation, and other non-medical benefits.
Led by 91�� health economist Jeah Jung, the five-year study will use Medicare administrative data to examine whether these benefits reduce emergency visits, hospitalizations, and nursing home entry.
The findings will provide national evidence on who is using these benefits and whether this large-scale federal effort is working as intended.

Discover more Research at George Mason

Topics

GCI-Grand Challenge Initiative

GCI-Health

With NIH grant, George Mason researcher refines AI storytelling tool for dementia care

Taylor Thomas — Tue, 28 Oct 2025 12:50:12 +0000

With NIH grant, George Mason researcher refines AI storytelling tool for dementia care Taylor Thomas Tue, 10/28/2025 - 08:50

In This Story

Kyeung Mi Oh, PhD, MSN, RN, FAAN

For people living with early memory loss, recalling and sharing life stories can be a powerful act. It’s the idea behind “reminiscence therapy,” an approach for treating dementia that uses personal memories to boost mood, cognition, and connection.

Kyeung Mi Oh. Photo provided.

Now, 91�� nursing professor Kyeung Mi Oh is working to make that therapy more accessible for diverse communities. She’s serving as co-principal investigator on a new $2.9 million grant from the National Institute on Aging to refine the LifeBio Memory app, an artificial-intelligence platform that helps older adults capture their memories and share them with caregivers.

Earlier versions of the LifeBio Memory app have reached nursing homes and assisted-living facilities nationwide, with residents showing greater engagement and fewer symptoms of depression. The new phase brings the app into community settings—with older adults living at home with a caregiver—and expands to multiple languages and cultural contexts, including English, Spanish, and Korean.

A nurse scientist with expertise in gerontology, Oh leads the project’s community-based research arm. “We want to see how storytelling technology can improve quality of life and relationships for both the older adult and the caregiver,” she said. “When people talk about their past, they often smile. It strengthens social support and emotional closeness.”

Over the next three years, Oh’s team—including co-principal investigator Lisbeth Sanders, founder and CEO of LifeBio Inc.—will conduct usability testing followed by a randomized controlled trial with 84 caregiver–care recipient pairs.

While LifeBio’s engineers refine the app’s AI features, such as automatically generating digital life-story books and multimedia “memory videos,” Oh is studying what happens when people use it. The research will examine psychosocial outcomes such as loneliness, depression, and relationship quality, alongside overall quality of life.

“We’re working to make LifeBio Memory accessible for people of different languages and cultural backgrounds, so older adults can tell their life stories in their own voices,” Oh said. “By adapting the platform with AI to reflect cultural nuances, we hope to help a wide range of adults with early memory loss stay connected to family and caregivers, improve their quality of life, and ease feelings of loneliness or depression that can speed cognitive decline.”

If the project is successful, researchers say it could offer a widely scalable, affordable tool for dementia support that’s available for people to use in their own homes and in their own languages.

Topics

Dementia

Aging

Older Adults

Artificial Intelligence

Nursing Faculty

grants

GCI-Grand Challenge Initiative

$3 million National Institute on Aging grant will provide much-needed support to underserved dementia caregivers

Taylor Thomas — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 13:11:07 +0000

$3 million National Institute on Aging grant will provide much-needed support to underserved dementia caregivers Taylor Thomas Wed, 10/15/2025 - 09:11

More than 7 million Americans live with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD), supported by 12 million unpaid family caregivers whose contributions are valued at $413 billion annually. As the U.S. population continues to age, the number of people with dementia and their caregivers will nearly triple by 2050. Innovative solutions to support family caregivers are urgently needed.

Y. Alicia Hong. Photo provided.

Now, with a $3 million R01 grant from the National Institute on Aging (NIA), 91�� digital health intervention researcher Y. Alicia Hong is poised to change that. Hong led an interdisciplinary team to develop the Wellness Enhancement for Caregivers (WECARE) as a culturally tailored, digital health intervention to enhance caregiving skills and improve the well-being of dementia caregivers. The new grant will allow her team to further refine WECARE using artificial intelligence (AI) and evaluate it with a randomized controlled trial.

“WECARE is one of the first personalized digital interventions for dementia caregivers,” said Hong, a professor in the College of Public Health's Department of Health Administration and Policy. "Though it is designed for Chinese American dementia caregivers, it can be adapted for other groups and serve the growing demand for digital support for dementia caregivers in an aging society

The seven-week program will provide participants with informational ADRD multimedia content, quiz games, social networking with other caregivers, personalized feedback, and additional individualized resources. WECARE’s success will be evaluated by measuring the depressive symptoms reported by participants. The project also intends to identify barriers to and facilitators of WECARE’s adoption and long-term use.

This resource comes at a critical time as the aging population grows, and more people with ADRD require caregivers. Additionally, most family caregivers have chronic conditions due to prolonged and intensive dementia caregiving, causing an increased need for resources that sustain the health of family caregivers.

Hong’s grant titled “WECARE: A Personalized Intervention for Underserved Chinese American Dementia Caregivers” will take place from September 2025 to August 2030, for a total of $3,088,427. WECARE is directly responsive to NIA’s priority of effective interventions for ADRD-affected populations.

Hong studies the intersection of health services delivery and consumer informatics. Her work explores chronic care and self-care solutions through innovative digital technologies to improve patient-centered outcomes and enhance health care accessibility. Hong’s research focuses on implementation and dissemination science and leveraging digital technologies to enhance health services delivery.

In This Story

Y. Alicia Hong, PhD

Grand Challenge Initiative

Learn more

Topics

Artificial Intelligence

Helen Chin receives NIH grant to study associations between air pollution and the onset of puberty

Jennifer Pocock — Tue, 04 Feb 2025 17:24:57 +0000

Helen Chin receives NIH grant to study associations between air pollution and the onset of puberty Jennifer Pocock Tue, 02/04/2025 - 12:24

Funding will advance research on children’s health using data from the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) program

Helen Chin, Assistant Professor, Global and Community Health

Helen Chin, an assistant professor in Department of Global and Community Health at 91��, received a new grant from the National Institutes of Health’s ECHO Opportunities and Innovation Fund to study the impacts of air pollution exposure on child development. 

Chin’s work will focus on how exposure to air pollutants before birth and as infants—key developmental periods—might relate to the timing of puberty in children. It will also examine the role childhood body mass index (BMI) may contribute.

“There are growing concerns about how puberty is starting earlier in children and the impacts this might have on childhood and long-term health,” says Chin. She received the grant in November 2024.

The ECHO Opportunities and Innovation Fund is an NIH-funded grant mechanism to support early career investigators who propose projects that introduce new research, tools, and technologies in the ECHO Program. Chin will collaborate with Global and Community Health professor Michael Bloom and researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina ECHO site.

Chin is a recognized expert in reproductive epidemiology and environmental factors that can negatively impact reproductive health. Her work on exposure to environmental endocrine disruptors and reproductive outcomes has earned several awards for research excellence.

ECHO is a national collaborative consortium funded by the NIH that supports long-term research on pediatric health with its mission “to enhance the health of children for generations to come.” It brings diverse participant populations from across the country together to standardize and pool data on a large scale that can then support research at a broader and more nuanced level than individual smaller studies ever could.

Chin’s award adds to the $1.78 million in annual ECHO funding awarded to the college since January 2020, adding to George Mason’s ongoing leadership, innovation, and successful relationships with its participants. George Mason’s School of Nursing has been a collection site for ECHO since 2020.

ECHO data have already informed research that examines toxic metal buildup in mothers, how school lunches impact obesity in children, and the disparities in sleep patterns in children of different races and ethnicities.

In This Story

Helen Chin, MPH, PhD

Topics

Child and Adolescent Health

Air Pollution

Michael S. Bloom, PhD, MS, FACE

Strategic Direction

New study finds associations between use of skin care products and exposure to potential developmental toxicants

mthomp7 — Wed, 04 Sep 2024 13:15:40 +0000

New study finds associations between use of skin care products and exposure to potential developmental toxicants mthomp7 Wed, 09/04/2024 - 09:15

In This Story

Use of skin care products is associated with exposure to phthalates and phthalate-replacement chemicals in young children, according to the new and first-of-its-kind study at 91��'s College of Public Health.

A new study led by primary investigator Michael S. Bloom, professor in the Department of Global and Community Health at George Mason’s College of Public Health, has found that use of skin care products including lotions, hair oils, hair conditioners, ointments, and sunscreen is associated with higher levels of phthalates in children’s urine. The associations depend in part upon the child’s racial and ethnic identity and their sex as assigned at birth. The study was co-authored by two George Mason Master of Public Health alumni, Juliana Clark and Kelly Garcia.

A new study led by primary investigator Michael S. Bloom has found that use of skin care products including lotions, hair oils, hair conditioners, ointments, and sunscreen is associated with higher levels of phthalates in children’s urine. Photo by Michelle Thompson/College of Public Health

“This is the first study to suggest that different skin care products used by young children may differentially increase exposure to endocrine-disrupting phthalates and phthalate replacements in young children,” said Bloom.

Phthalates and phthalate-replacement compounds are endocrine-disrupting chemicals, meaning they may interfere with the body’s hormones. Exposure to these chemicals in early childhood has been associated with neurodevelopmental, reproductive, and metabolic disease concerns in previous studies. Some of these chemicals are often used as carriers for the active ingredients in skin care products; others may be used in plastic packaging.

The study collected medical data from 630 children between the ages of 4 and 8 from 10 different sites across the United States, including a clinical examination and a urinalysis. The child’s parent or guardian was also asked to complete a survey within 24 hours prior to the child’s examination, which included questions regarding the child’s sociodemographic information (race/ethnic identity, sex assigned at birth, etc.). It also asked parents to list all the skin care products, including lotions, soaps, shampoos, oils, and cosmetics, that were applied to the child’s skin in the 24 hours prior to their examination, with as much specificity as possible regarding the product type and brand or generic name.

“We found associations between recent use of different skin care products and higher concentrations of phthalate and phthalate-replacement compounds,” said Bloom. “There were different relationships between the use of skin care products and the endocrine-disrupting chemicals in children depending on their racial and ethnic identities and their sex assigned at birth. We also found that distinct patterns of using multiple skin care products were predictive of higher concentrations of phthalates and phthalate replacements.”

While Bloom and his team say that further studies are necessary to confirm these findings, the results suggest that children in different racial and ethnic groups may experience different levels of risk for exposure to phthalates. In particular, they found the highest levels of phthalates and phthalate replacements in the urine of non-Hispanic Black participants. The differences may correlate to brand availability and preferences, methods and timing of product application, and/or the frequency of use by children with different racial and ethnic identities.

“The results can inform policies to address the use of endocrine-disrupting chemicals in skin care products that may be used on children and to help advise parents’ decisions about using products to limit their children’s exposure to potential developmental toxicants,” said Bloom.

“Impact of skin care products on phthalates and phthalate replacements in children: the ECHO-FGS” was published online in Environmental Health Perspectives in September 2024. This research was funded by the U.S. National Institute of Health (NIH) Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) study.

Additional authors include: Juliana Clark, 91��; John L. Pearce, Medical University of South Carolina; Pamela L. Ferguson, Medical University of South Carolina; Roger B. Newman, Medical University of South Carolina; James R. Roberts, Medical University of South Carolina; William A. Grobman, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center; Anthony C. Sciscione, Christiana Care Health System; Daniel W. Skupski, New York Presbyterian Queens Hospital; Kelly E. Garcia, 91��; John E. Vena, Medical University of South Carolina; Kelly J. Hunt, Medical University of South Carolina; the ECHO-FGS study group.

Topics

Master of Public Health

Environmental Chemicals

Tech Talent Investment Program (TTIP)

College of Public Health receives NIH grant to pilot AI chatbot for African Americans with depression

Mary Cunningham — Mon, 10 Jun 2024 17:03:05 +0000

College of Public Health receives NIH grant to pilot AI chatbot for African Americans with depression Mary Cunningham Mon, 06/10/2024 - 13:03

In This Story

Farrokh Alemi, PhD

Janusz Wojtusiak, PhD

Kevin Lybarger

As a leader in innovative health solutions, 91��’s College of Public Health received a National Institutes of Health (NIH) AIM-AHEAD program grant to pilot an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot for Black and African Americans with depression. Professor Farrokh Alemi will enhance his first-of-its-kind, evidence-based artificial intelligence tool to address the medication needs of African Americans with depression.

Professor of Health Informatics Farrokh Alemi

The existing AI tool recommends antidepressants for 16,775 general-population patient subgroups, each representing a unique combination of medical history. For each of these subgroups, the current project will analyze the effectiveness and appropriateness of the recommendations for African Americans, using the NIH All of Us database and existing published literature.

To the researchers' knowledge, this is the first research focused on developing and evaluating an antidepressant recommendation system for Black and African American people.

“Antidepressant medications are a first-line treatment for depression; however, a majority of depressed patients do not experience improvement with their first antidepressant. Additionally, minority populations, including Black and African Americans, are not well represented in antidepressant studies, contributing to reduced antidepressant effectiveness in these populations,” said Alemi. “There is a significant need to synthesize available evidence regarding antidepressant effectiveness and provide personalized treatment recommendations, and this project addresses a major gap in the management of Black and African Americans with depression.”

Researchers will develop a Knowledge-enhanced Antidepressant Recommendation Dialogue System (KARDS), which will engage users in a back-and-forth conversation to acquire the patient information needed to identify the appropriate antidepressant medication. The AI will provide the patient with a list of recommended medications, list of the relevant studies, and an explanation for the medication decisions. The system will automatically send the patient’s clinician a brief point-of-care recommendation and explanation, with an option to examine a complete record of the conversation and the supporting evidence.

“Chatbots—or patient-facing dialogue systems like the one we will create—hold transformative potential for the health care sector and are increasingly prominent in psychiatric applications, predominantly through therapy-bot implementations,” said Alemi. “Our chatbot will help improve the detailed, time-consuming, medical history intake process, and provide point-of-care summary and prescription recommendations to the patients’ clinicians. The chatbot will make patients more comfortable because the natural language modality provides an intuitive, empathetic, stigma-free interface.”

Once the AI chatbot is developed, the team will test the dialogue system with Black and African American patients to evaluate system functionality and user preferences. Additionally, the project will train a Black or African American doctoral or master’s student in AI, expanding the available workforce and building the community’s capacity to address AI.

Alemi will lead the research team, which includes Janusz Wojtusiak, a George Mason professor of Health Informatics and the director of the Machine Learning and Inference Laboratory, and Kevin Lybarger, a George Mason assistant professor in the Department of Information Sciences and Technology in the College of Engineering and Computing. All three members have collaborated previously to diagnose COVID at home from presenting symptoms.

The $70,906 grant is part of the NIH’s AIM-AHEAD (Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning Consortium to Advance Health Equity and Researcher Diversity) program, which aims “to establish mutually beneficial and coordinated partnerships to increase the participation and representation of researchers and communities currently underrepresented in the development of AI/machine learning models and enhance the capabilities of this emerging technology, beginning with electronic health record data.”

Innovate for Good is an ongoing series that examines how George Mason faculty in the College of Public Health are harnessing technology to improve health outcomes.

If you have stories to share as part of the Innovate for Good series, email Mary Cunningham at mcunni7@gmu.edu.

Topics

Artificial Intelligence

Professor receives nearly $500,000 National Institutes of Health grant to study children born with congenital eye disease

Mary Cunningham — Mon, 27 Mar 2023 17:34:21 +0000

Professor receives nearly $500,000 National Institutes of Health grant to study children born with congenital eye disease Mary Cunningham Mon, 03/27/2023 - 13:34

In This Story

Chair of the Department of Global and Community Health Carolyn Drews-Botsch continues her study of unilateral congenital cataracts by studying the risks and benefits of prolonged patching in preschool-aged children.

Children with unilateral congenital cataracts (UCC) are born with cloudy or opaque vision in one eye that, if left untreated, can result in blindness. The condition is treated, as it is in adults, by removing the lens. Glasses, contacts, or implanting an artificial lens are needed to replace the focusing power of the natural lens. Occlusion therapy, also known as patching, is when the child wears a patch covering one eye and it is needed to strengthen the eye after treatment. However, even with the best treatment, about half of these children will remain legally blind in the treated eye. Further, it can be difficult for parents to get children to wear the patch consistently for the required amount of time.

With a $457,00 (directs and indirects) National Institutes of Health R21 grant, Carolyn Drews-Botsch, professor and chair of the Department of Global and Community Health, is studying the effects and benefits of patching in preschool aged children.

“The ultimate goal is to advise parents and health care providers about how to improve visual acuity and how long to continue patching if a child is born with a unilateral congenital cataract,” said Drews-Botsch. “Even with patching, a high proportion of children do not develop usable vision in the treated eye. Therefore, the usefulness of extended patching in eyes destined to have poor vision is unclear, and the costs of therapy need to be weighed against possible benefits.”

Currently, children treated for UCC are advised to patch the unaffected eye for 50% of waking hours throughout the first 5-6 years of life and often into the elementary school years. Adherence to this guideline can be difficult for parents and children, and there are few evidence-based tools to help families. Additionally, vision improvement is not a guarantee with patching, so it could ultimately negatively affect the child. Even with early surgery and consistent patching, relatively few children develop adequate vision by the time they enter school.

The project, “Secondary Analyses of data from the Infant Aphakia Treatment Study: Patching in Children with Unilateral Congenital Cataracts and Poor Visual Acuity,” leverages unique secondary data collected in the Infant Aphakia Treatment Study (IATS). Researchers will provide guidance on how to establish patching habits that may improve outcomes, and conduct cost and benefits analysis of patching in the latter part of preschool. Researchers will determine whether it is possible to accurately identify children who will ultimately have little usable vision in their affected eye using information collected in the first four years of life and if prolonged patching in children who ultimately will not see well impacts their quality of life.

The IATS is a randomized controlled trial designed to compare two treatments for UCC: leaving children without a lens in their eye (aphakic) so that they need to wear glasses or a contact lens versus implanting an artificial lens (pseudophakic) at the time of cataract surgery. The primary study is one of the largest currently available cohorts of children treated for UCC and has provided important evidence about outcomes in these children prior to school entry.

Drews-Botsch and fellow researchers Scott Lambert from Stanford University, Marianne Celano and George Cotsonis from Emory University, and Genie Hartmann from Akron Children’s Hospital have worked with the IATS for over 15 years. Assistant Professor in the Department of Global and Community Health Jaffer Zaidi is new to the team.

Topics

Public Health

GCH Faculty

public health research

Children's Health

College of Humanities and Social Sciences

Striving for a better understanding of late autism diagnosis

sbrown79 — Fri, 21 Oct 2022 20:38:14 +0000

Striving for a better understanding of late autism diagnosis sbrown79 Fri, 10/21/2022 - 16:38

91�� researcher Allison Jack recently received an Autism Center of Excellence (ACE) Network award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for her research efforts aimed at understanding why some autistic individuals receive very late diagnoses, or none at all.

Allison Jack. Photo by Sierra Guard/Creative Services

NIH’s ACE Program funds large research projects to understand and develop interventions for autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This project is a collaboration between multiple universities, hospitals, and organizations.

“When we have people getting these late diagnoses that limit their ability to access a lot of supportive services,” said Jack, an assistant professor in Mason’s Psychology Department, “we were also noticing in our data that these individuals who had these late diagnoses were reporting much poorer quality of life with greater anxiety and depression.”

Jack has worked on the longitudinal project since its inception, starting as a postdoctoral fellow studying with Yale’s Kevin Pelphrey. Pelphrey, Jack and Lauren Kenworthy, director at Children’s National’s Center for Autism Spectrum Disorders, are the three MPIs on the project.

During the early phases of the project, their team looked at children between the ages 8-17. “We tried to describe autistic girls, their brains, their genetics, and their behavior. Are they different from autistic boys in any way? Are they different from neurotypical kids?”

The following phase of the project was disrupted by COVID. “It ended up being a lot of online follow-ups with these kids who had come in the first five years of the project,” said Jack. “They were getting older, and we were following them into adolescence and the transition into adulthood to see how these youth were doing over time.”

Allison Jack. Photo by Sierra Guard/Creative Services

A tangible product their team hopes to have at the end of their research will allow patients to be diagnosed who are routinely missed by current methods.

“Ultimately, the tool will be a concise series of questions that an individual and/or caregiver can answer via a smartphone, web page, or via pencil and paper,” said Pelphrey, who is part of the Child Study Center at the Yale School of Medicine. “This tool will provide a diagnostic access point for adolescents and adults at risk for late diagnosis.”

“Dr. Jack started with us and was instrumental in making this project successful,” said Pelphrey. “She’s been the primary author on several of the most important and impactful papers to come out of this work. It’s been an honor to watch her professional development.”

The award is special, said Jack, due to its highly competitive and high-profile nature.

This is the project’s third round of funding since 2012. "The sites that are working on east centers or east networks tend to get thought of as premiere locations for autism research nationwide, so this is a pretty big deal in the autism world!” said Jack.

Topics

Institute for Biohealth Innovation

Psychology Department

autism spectrum disorder