Current Projects

Diabetes and Mental Health Initiative

The Diabetes and Mental Health Initiative aims to contribute interdisciplinary, integrative research on the complex ways that mental health intersects with diabetes risk, self-management, and prognosis across the lifespan.

Aging, Transitions over the Lifespan and Suicide (ATLAS) Study

The ATLAS Study aims to leverage existing population-based surveys to examine how major life transitions relate to suicide risk.

Richmond Stress and Sugar Study

The goal of the Richmond Stress and Sugar Study (RSASS) is to examine how stress, and the ways our bodies respond to stress, contribute to racial/ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in type 2 diabetes.

A public health approach to understanding suicide risk in long-term care

The goal of this study is to use data from the National Violent Death Reporting System to examine the correlates of suicide in later life in relation to long-term care (e.g., residing in or housing transitions related to independent living, assisted living, nursing homes).

YMCA logo

Strengthening a community-engaged research partnership to promote diabetes self-management in Richmond

The goal of this community-engaged research partnership is to examine the psychosocial predictors of participation in, and clinical outcomes of, the YMCA of Greater Richmond’s Diabetes Control Program.

The Mood and Immune Regulation in Twins (MIRT) Study

The objective of this study is to evaluate the role environmental and genetic contributions, and their interaction, in the relationship between major depression and type 2 diabetes in later adulthood.

Genetic, social, and developmental epidemiology of drug use disorders

The goal of this study is to examine how contextual factors and policies related to migrant settlement relate to later risk of drug use among immigrants to Sweden.

 

Recently completed projects

Center for Integrative Approaches to Health Disparities (CIAHD) Project 3: Reducing ethnic group disparities in cardiovascular and mental health disorders

The goal of CIAHD is to support interdisciplinary research on the causes of, and potential remedies to, social disparities in cardiovascular disease (CVD). Within this Center, the goal of Project 3 is to examine how stress, poor health behaviors, and mental health contribute to disparities in CVD.

Diabetes, depression, and the contextual environment: A multi-level analysis

The objective of this study was to prospectively investigate the dynamic roles of the contextual environment, familial genetic risk, and their interplay on the development of comorbid type 2 diabetes and depression.