{"id":87974,"date":"2014-01-09T09:00:18","date_gmt":"2014-01-09T14:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=87974"},"modified":"2015-12-14T11:05:44","modified_gmt":"2015-12-14T16:05:44","slug":"med-students-research-reinforces-commitment-to-global-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2014\/01\/med-students-research-reinforces-commitment-to-global-health\/","title":{"rendered":"Med Student\u2019s Research Reinforces Commitment to Global Health"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Dylan<\/a>
UConn medical student Dylan Graetz works with research assistant Vaishali Jadhav in India to test an adolescent girl for anemia. (Photo provided by Dylan Graetz)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The academic year has been a remarkable one so far for UConn School of Medicine student Dylan Graetz.<\/p>\n

\u200bIn September, the fourth-year MD\/MPH student was named the first recipient of the Gerard N. Burrow, M.D., Scholarship. The scholarship, created to honor retired long-time UConn Health Center trustee, director and board chair Dr. Gerard Burrow, is intended to provide support for meritorious students who demonstrate great promise. In October, Graetz presented an abstract, \u201cBollywood's Effect on Body-Image and Dietary Habits of Adolescent Girls in Mumbai, India,\u201d at the American Association of Pediatrics\u2019 annual national conference in Orlando, Fla. Her presentation was not only well-received by her audience, but named the conference\u2019s Best Global Abstract.<\/p>\n

\u200bThe abstract that the A.A.P. honored was based on research made possible by funding provided to Graetz by the UConn School of Medicine. The funds enabled Graetz to travel to India in spring 2012 to conduct a four and one-half month study among adolescent girls in the slums of Mumbai. \u00a0Graetz had spent two years designing the study with assistance from her major advisor, Stephen Schensul, director of UConn Health\u2019s Center for International Community Health Studies. Schensul, who also conducts research in Mumbai, says such funding is vital to students\u2019 education.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese kinds of funds to build the opportunities for students to do really good work globally are essential now,\u201d Schensul says. \u201cAny good medical school is now recognizing the importance of the global experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Dylan<\/a>
Dylan Graetz, SOM '15 (Chris DeFrancesco\/UConn Health Center Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u200bThe goal of Graetz\u2019s research was to assess the prevalence of anemia among impoverished girls and explore whether there was a connection between anemia and gender discrimination. In the process of interviewing girls, she did find, as expected, that many of them were anemic. But she also discovered something that came as a surprise: One-third of the poor, urban girls she interviewed were actually depriving themselves of food.<\/p>\n

\u200b\u201cI didn\u2019t expect to find a lot of girls dieting or skipping meals in an effort to lose weight,\u201d Graetz says. \u201cThere is literature about dieting in affluent communities, but not in slums.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u200bWhile she cannot say specifically that the girls were dieting in an attempt to look like actresses they saw on television, \u201cOver 80 percent of the girls interviewed had a T.V. in their home and over 70 percent watched it daily, and in the qualitative interviews many of them described their ideal image of beauty as based on television,\u201d Graetz says. \u201cIt is also true that the beauty image portrayed by Bollywood has gotten skinnier over time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe girls just stop eating,\u201d Graetz says. \u201c\u2019Skinny jeans\u2019 have come to the slums of Mumbai.\u201d<\/p>\n

Graetz found, based on World Health Organization BMI criteria, \u201cFifty-one percent of girls studied were underweight, 43.3 percent were within the normal range, and 5.1 percent were overweight or obese. In contrast, only 26.1 percent of girls surveyed considered themselves underweight, while 35 percent of girls thought they were average and 38 percent of girls described themselves as \u2018overweight\u2019 or \u2018very overweight.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Graetz described her research in the presentation she went on to give at the A.A.P. conference to an audience of experienced and accomplished medical and epidemiological professionals.<\/p>\n

\u200bOf her research in India, Graetz says, \u201cThe trip changed my life and my career. All of this reinforced my dedication to underserved communities abroad and at home.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u200bBecause of her experience, she has made global health a priority and plans to seek out residency programs that will enable her to travel and conduct research. The Burrow Scholarship, she says, will help fund travel to interviews for residency programs with global health tracks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Gerard N. Burrow, M.D., Scholarship enables us to recruit and support promising medical students like Dylan Graetz,\u201d says Dr. Suzanne Rose, senior associate dean for education. \u201cStrong student support is critically important for any top-tier medical school. We are grateful to the many donors who gave generously to establish this scholarship in Dr. Burrow\u2019s honor. Their extraordinary support directly affects the quality of UConn\u2019s medical class.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis scholarship has validated my work and encouraged me to think about future projects and a return trip to India,\u201d Graetz says. She also believes that her overseas experience will make her a better doctor.<\/p>\n

\u201cPhysicians are trusted with people\u2019s stories,\u201d Graetz says, \u201cand some of the stories I learned in India are the most personal and vulnerable I have ever heard.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Follow\u00a0the UConn Health Center<\/a> on\u00a0Facebook<\/a>,\u00a0Twitter<\/a> and\u00a0YouTube<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dylan Graetz, the first recipient of the Burrow Scholarship, has received national recognition for her research in to the dietary habits of young girls in India. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":87978,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[179,1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[45],"class_list":["post-87974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uconn-health","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-30 15:09:27","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87974"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87974\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":107145,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87974\/revisions\/107145"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/87978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87974"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=87974"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=87974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}