Rachel Liu-Galvin, a public health Ph.D. student in health services research at the University of Florida College of Public Health and Health Professions, received two awards for her research during the 2025 annual meeting of the North American Primary Care Research Group held in late November in Atlanta.
Liu-Galvin’s study on systemic inflammation among people with normal weight obesity received a Distinguished Paper Award. Published in Frontiers in Medicine, the study found individuals with both normal body weight and high body fat percentage had greater odds of experiencing chronic inflammation, which may put them at risk for developing cardiometabolic disease.
“Our findings suggest that, in primary care settings, body fat percentage — alongside body mass index — may help identify patients with elevated cardiometabolic and inflammatory risk who could otherwise be misclassified by BMI alone,” Liu-Galvin said.
A second paper received a NAPCRG Clinical Pearls Award. For this study, Liu-Galvin and colleagues examined the effect of U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendations for diabetes screenings released in 2015. The researchers found the recommendations have been associated with better detection of undiagnosed prediabetes, particularly among patients without health insurance or who are experiencing poverty. Study findings were published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
“I hope the findings will contribute to ongoing discussions about the effectiveness of national screening guidelines and help identify opportunities to strengthen prevention efforts, particularly among populations facing barriers to accessing health care,” Liu-Galvin said.