Nurse researchers from the School of Nursing will investigate health equity with the receipt of seven grant awards totaling over $1.2 million from July to October 2024.
“At UConn Nursing, our research focus is on health equity across the lifespan. Multi–contextual factors influence health beginning early in life and accumulate over time contributing to health inequities,” says Victoria Vaughan Dickson, dean of the School of Nursing. “To achieve health equity, research eliminating health disparities among diverse populations is a nursing research priority, especially as these populations grow in number and proportion.”
Zuri, the trauma-informed sexual health app
Assistant professor Christina Ross’ research focuses on understanding how youth-serving professionals can address adolescents’ sexual and reproductive health (SRH) needs, promote their positive development by using their internal and external assets, and significantly lower the rates of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and unintended pregnancies. Ross is particularly interested in health promotion and risk reduction among vulnerable adolescents locally and globally, SRH, and health disparities.
During her time at the University of Virginia, Ross knew that her niche was in sexual health but wanted to find her focus. She says that preventing sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies is well understood, but there is still a disproportionate gap in sexual health education and an elevated risk amongst Black adolescent females. Furthermore, that gap widens when examining young women and girls in foster care.
“Most girls go to biological parents for support on topics like dating, understanding their bodies, and contraceptive use, but in the foster care system, these girls don’t know who to turn to,” says Ross. “Some rely on partners or social media or peers. A lot of these girls also struggled with mental health, abuse, and neglect. I took this information and decided to work on intervention.”
At first, Ross worked with the Department of Social Services (where? In Virginia? Federal?) to study these inequities, but there was limited support. Then, when Ross came to Connecticut, she continued her work and teamed with the School of Fine Arts at UConn. Together with Joel Salisbury and Ting Zhou of the Digital Media and Design department, she is currently developing a digital app called Zuri, initially funded by the STEAM Innovation Grant through UConn.
Most recently, Ross, principal Investigator and fellow, was awarded $500,000 over a 3-year period from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation in support of the Betty Irene Moore Fellowship Program for Nurse Leaders and Innovators.
The goal of this project, Assessing the Feasibility of Zuri App to Promote Sexual Health, is to develop and study this culturally sensitive, trauma-informed mobile health application. This app promotes safe sex, communication with partners about sexual needs, and contraceptive-use negotiation skills among Black female adolescents and young women and girls in foster care.
Zuri is a sexual self-efficacy app, something that is totally different than what already exists. There is a profound need for an app like this that is culturally sensitive. – Dr. Ross
In this app, the user can create an avatar that looks like them – choosing skin tone, hair, clothes – that acts as a “digital big sister.” There are games, video content, and different learning modules around pregnancy, STIs, and hygiene. The end goal is for users to feel comfortable communicating about their needs to caregivers, partners, and providers, which will empower them to make informed decisions about their own bodies when it comes to sexual health. The aim is for the app to be free for all users, increasing the availability of evidence-based resources that build self-efficacy and remove barriers to health care access.
While the app is in development, Ross and her team are collecting preliminary data from potential users ages 18 to 23 to inform the design of a prototype. The target demographic for this app is Black adolescent females ages 13 to 18 in foster care and out of foster care, but this focus group of caregivers and young adults allows retroactive research into what they have experienced.
During this phase, data helps users make better choices. Feedback from other institutions like the National Institute of Health (NIH) may allow the team to apply for consent waivers as they enter the next phase of the study. In addition, this grant provides professional development opportunities that will assist Ross in exploring these health inequities further.
There will be a randomized control trial after launch, which is estimated for spring of 2025. Dr. Ross and her team are working with the Digital Experience (DX) Group and the UConn Accelerate Program, which helps student and faculty innovators commercialize their ideas.
Ross’s team includes Sherry Pagoto, professor in the Department of Allied Health Sciences and director of the Center for Health and Social Media (mentor); Elizabeth Aparicio, associate professor of Behavioral and Community Health at the University of Maryland; and Ting Zhou, assistant professor in the School of Fine Arts Digital Media and Design department (collaborator). Joel Salisbury, director of the DX Group, is spearheading app development.
Early testing of a support intervention for Black breast cancer survivors
Assistant professor Maurade Gormley is developing and conducting early testing of a peer-led support intervention for Black breast cancer survivors experiencing distress in the survivorship period, supported by a K23 Training Career Development Award funded by the National Institute of Nursing Research, part of the National Institutes of Health, totaling nearly $500,000.
Building upon her clinical experience as a pediatric oncology nurse, Gormley’s research aims to optimize the psychosocial health and well-being of cancer survivors as they face the unique challenges of a cancer diagnosis and experience health disparities.
“Survivorship begins at the time of diagnosis, but after treatment ends, many people experience psychosocial challenges and may feel lost in translation as they work to establish a new normal,” Gormley says.
“Therefore,” Gormley continues, “our goal is to optimize well-being during this survivorship phase, which often involves less frequent support and structure from the health care system.”
Gormley points out that Black breast cancer survivors have a 41% higher mortality rate than white women and experience worse psychosocial outcomes, such as greater distress and lower health-related quality of life. Psychosocial support interventions can reduce distress among breast cancer survivors.
However, these interventions are often not culturally sensitive to Black breast cancer survivors who are not only underrepresented in breast cancer research, but also report inadequate supportive care and the need for greater emotional and informational support from other Black breast cancer survivors.
Therefore, Gormley aims to design an intervention that will be delivered by peers who share similar backgrounds and experiences with the patients in hopes of fostering the strongest possible connections and support. The intervention will be co-designed with other Black breast cancer survivors to identify the preferred content, format, and delivery of the intervention. Once the intervention is finalized, it will be tested in a randomized controlled trial.
Gormley’s team for this award is comprised of Nancy Redeker, senior associate dean for research and professor at UConn School of Nursing (primary mentor); Adana Llanos, associate professor of epidemiology at Columbia University (co-primary mentor); Crystal Park, professor in the UConn Department of Psychological Sciences at UConn (co-mentor); Keith Bellizzi, professor of gerontology in the UConn Department of Human Development and Family Sciences (co-mentor); Stephen Walsh, associate professor and biostatistician at UConn School of Nursing (collaborator); and Dr. Andrew Salner, medical director of the Hartford HealthCare Cancer Institute (consultant).
Other Funding Awarded to the School of Nursing
NRSA F31 Fellowship Grant examines effects of disadvantaged and equitable neighborhoods on sleep in young children
Pre-doctoral student Hannah Scheibner received a National Research Services Award (NRSA) F31 Fellowship grant from the National Institute of Health. Her project aims to inform future community and family-level interventions and policy to reduce health inequities related to structural racism.
Scheibner’s mentorship team is led by Nancy Redeker, senior associate dean for research and professor at UConn School of Nursing (sponsor); and includes Eileen Condon, assistant professor at UConn School of Nursing (co-sponsor); Chuanrong Zhang, professor in the UConn Department of Geography (co-sponsor); and Dr. Sangchoon Jeon, senior research scientist at Yale University (collaborator/statistician).
Dr. Gee Su Yang awarded not just one, but two recent grants
Assistant professor Gee Su Yang is principal investigator on two grant-funded studies, The first grant explores the impact of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) on cognitive function in older cancer survivors.
The primary objective of this longitudinal pilot study is to examine changes in cognitive function, as well as genetic and neurodegenerative factors that best predict cognitive changes among older adults with cancer on ICIs compared to cancer survivors not treated with ICIs. This is a $60,000, one-year project Yang is collaborating with Dr. Upendra Hegde (co-principal investigator), professor of medicine, UConn Health Neag Comprehensive Cancer Center Division of Hematology and Oncology; Dr. Breno Satler Diniz (co-principal investigator), associate professor of psychiatry, UConn Health UConn Center on Aging; and Nancy Redeker (co-principal investigator), senior associate dean for research and professor at UConn School of Nursing.
Yang (principal investigator) was also awarded $48,000 for her pilot research: Aromatase Inhibitor-Associated Musculoskeletal Symptoms and Gut Microbiome Patterns in Black and White Breast Cancer Survivors. As part of the 2024-2025 Breast Cancer Project with the Connecticut Breast Health Initiative, this study will examine the influence of racial differences on gut microbiome patterns and lifestyle, including diet, physical activity, and stress, that may predispose breast cancer survivors receiving aromatase inhibitors to musculoskeletal pain.
“Connecticut is one of the U.S. states with the highest incidence rate of new breast cancer,” says Yang. “I recently attended a CT Breast Health Initiative event that recognized survivors, volunteers, donors, and health care providers for their dedication to raising breast cancer awareness and seeing how much effort they put into promoting screening, prevention, and improving survivorship in our community was inspiring. I appreciate their contributions and the opportunity to support their efforts through research.”
InCHIP grants awarded to Drs. Ruth Lucas and Eileen Carter
Associate professor Ruth Lucas (principal investigator) received a two-year, $10,000 faculty seed grant to revise and expand the Breastfeeding Self-Management (BSM) intervention modules to better meet the needs of women most impacted by breastfeeding inequities. The project title is WIC Partnership to Revise and Expand Pain Self-Management Intervention with Breastfeeding Women. Lucas is working with Shayna Cunningham (co-investigator), assistant professor of Public Health Sciences at UConn School of Medicine.
InCHIP also awarded a two-year $10,000 Community-Engaged Health Research Seed Grant to assistant professor Eileen Carter (principal investigator) and her team to determine the acceptability of penicillin allergy testing in school-based health centers as perceived by parents and primary care providers in school-based health centers. Carter is supported by Dr. Kelsey Kaman, assistant professor of Pediatrics Division of Pulmonology, Allergy, and Sleep Medicine at Yale School of Medicine.
