Research across sociology, psychology, and medicine have found that certain differences in the way doctors speak with patients can improve patient communication about presenting problems, increase patient satisfaction, and even enhance physiological responses to treatment. Collecting transcripts of conversations between patients and their doctors would provide a wealth of qualitative information that could be analyzed... more »

More than 1 in 5 Americans meet lifetime criteria for alcohol use disorder and 1 in 10 Americans meet lifetime criteria for a drug use disorder. Most individuals never seek treatment and most reduce their alcohol or drug use in the absence of treatment. Research on the biological, psychological, and social risk factors for developing and recovering from alcohol/drug use disorders is critical. Annual assessments of DNAm,... more »

There are strong areal relationships with the rate of heart disease. the Allofus design can help distinguish individual genetic risk and behaviors from the role of social factors. it is essential, however, that the data set include sufficient areal data and information (such as zip code and census track) to support such analyses. The information that links to societal level data needs to be collected repeatedly and... more »

For communities that have sustained (1+ years) ambient and community exposure levels above EPA and/or state environmental agency health-based annual guideline concentrations (e.g. US vs. Tonawanda Coke 10-CR-219-S with increased residential neighborhood levels of PAH's and aldehydes). For these communities seeking research on the increased relative risk of rare disease outcomes, like leukemia, best served by the scale... more »

By crossing several kinds of data, also related to the social, demographic, educational and economic conditions, AoU is a unique opportunity to understand with unprecedented precision the role of the social determinants of health. In particular it could disentangle the links among poor health-poor education-poor economic conditions-poor neighborhood-unhealthy lifestyle, and indicate which kind of policies and social reforms... more »

Focusing recruitment on communities with a disproportionate burden of environmental exposures, develop and test a multi-level model to ascertain the burden of autoimmune inflammation, autoimmune disease, and reactive airway attributable to environmental factors at the 1) community/neighborhood, 2) household, 3) personal, 4) internal body burden, and 5) inflammatory biomarker response levels over time. Ascertain how genetic... more »

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Obesity and breast cancer are leading cause of morbidity and mortality. Evidence strongly suggests that certain periods of life, including those during fetal development and pregnancy, influence risk of breast cancer later in life. Environmental chemicals may increase breast cancer risk-especially during pregnancy-by mimicking estrogen and other hormones. Epigenomic signatures present in the placenta uniquely capture... more »

To answer important physical and mental health questions we need to understand the trajectory of the individuals and the trajectories of the places they have lived (residential histories). If exposure equals space x time (over the life courses) we need data on the timing, sequence and duration of residence in specific contexts (places). How we define/measure place is important for (retro)prospective work and will enables... more »

Midurethral sling surgery (MuSS) outcomes are inconsistent. We lack knowledge of outcome moderators. This study will identify a prospective subcohort of women aged 18+ with incident successful and unsuccessful MuSS. Hypothesized moderators of MuSS outcome spanning the social ecological model (e.g., urinary microbiome, comorbidities, BMI, physical activity, race, occupation, income) will be compared across those with successful... more »

Healthy People (HP) 2020 defines social determinants of health (SDH) as “conditions in the environments in which people live, learn, work, play, worship, and age that affect a wide range of health, functioning, and quality-of-life outcomes and risks.” AoU can capture this data on their 1 million+ participants and address many unanswered questions, including: Can more personalized definitions of SHD be developed that... more »

Which social determinants of health (SDH) or what combination carry the greatest risk for the development of top chronic diseases?Developing a SDH risk calculator can guide clinical practice, community resource allocation, and prevention efforts. Use evidence-based SDH variables to develop a predictive model for 10yr risk of developing most common chronic diseases. Test model in a diverse sample <18 years of age over... more »

We are constantly exposed to environmental exposures such as air pollution, allergens, and man-made chemicals. AoU offers a unique opportunity to collect such exposures both passively (e.g., linking to local environmental data) and actively (e.g., using novel mHealth devices to measure new data from individual AoU participants). These can be overlaid with behavioral, clinical, genomics, and biological data in AoU to assess... more »

Midurethral sling surgery (MuSS) outcomes are inconsistent. We lack knowledge of outcome moderators. This study will identify a prospective subcohort of women aged 18+ with incident successful and unsuccessful MuSS. Hypothesized moderators of MuSS outcome spanning the social ecological model (e.g., urinary microbiome, comorbidities, BMI, physical activity, race, occupation, income) will be compared across those with successful... more »

The goal would be to examine the associations between multiple environmental stressors (air pollutants, temperature, etc) on chronic disease risk, and how these associations are modified by inherent characteristics, lifestyle factors, and the built and natural environments. This would require current & historical residential/work addresses and appending environmental data. This would provide more information on how these... more »