The College of Public Health and Health Professions hosted its 31st annual Research Day in conjunction with Public Health Day on April 6, featuring 176 poster and oral presentations by undergraduate students, graduate students and postdoctoral fellows and associates.
Oral presentations were given by master’s in public health candidates who presented on their culminating projects and the top health professions and top public health graduate students. Mona Fouad, M.D., M.P.H., the senior associate dean of diversity and inclusion and a professor and director of the division of preventive medicine at University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine, provided the keynote address, “Building Capacity in Health Disparities Research.”
Fouad has contributed to the science of health disparities through major studies to identify variability in cancer care and outcomes based on race, gender and age. She has developed nationally emulated models in recruitment and retention of minorities in clinical trials and innovative community-based approaches to reducing racial disparities in breast and cervical cancer. The director of the UAB Minority Health & Health Disparities Research Center, Fouad has been the driving force behind interdisciplinary research efforts for understanding problems related to cancer screening and cancer risk factors in the deep south. Her work in translating science into practice has improved health outcomes in minority and other vulnerable populations.
“This was our first combined Research and Public Health Day along with the College of Medicine Diversity Day,” said Linda B. Cottler, Ph.D., M.P.H., PHHP’s associate dean for research and chair of the department of epidemiology in the College of Public Health and Health Professions and the College of Medicine. “It is exciting to showcase the efforts that are being conducted by students and their faculty mentors. Their work spans multiple disciplines, cultures, countries, populations and topics.”
Top two abstracts
Yunan Xu, department of epidemiology
“HIV Virological Failure Modifies the Association Between Body Mass Index and Hypertension Among Persons Living with HIV: A Cross-sectional Analysis of the Florida Cohort Data”
Mentor: Xianguang “Jim” Chen, M.D., Ph.D., F.A.C.E.
Kavya S. Kamalamma, department of physical therapy
“Characterization of Walking Performance and Prediction of Loss of Ambulation in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy”
Mentor: Krista Vandenborne, Ph.D., P.T.
Additional abstract winners
Yiyang Liu, department of epidemiology
“Cannabis Use Increases Cocaine Dependence in Female Cocaine Users but Does Not Increase its Progression Speed”
Mentor: Linda B. Cottler, Ph.D., M.P.H., F.A.C.E.
Janae Kirsch, department of clinical and health psychology
“Circadian Rest-Activity Rhythms and Fatigue in Gynecologic Cancer”
Mentor: Deidre B. Pereira, Ph.D.