Danielle Hawkins

A new College of Public Health study led by Raedeh Basiri in the Department of Nutrition and Food Studies used new methods to help individuals with prediabetes who had obesity and overweight lose weight without following a weight-loss diet. The study didn’t focus on a reduction in calories or an increase in physical activity. Instead, it focused on healthy eating and personal goal setting based on how the body responds to different types of foods. They found that using continuous glucose monitoring devices (CGMs) along with personalized nutrition therapy doubled participants’ weight loss and fat reduction. This suggests that when participants can see the effects of foods on their blood glucose, they follow the recommendations more seriously.

The College of Public Health congratulates Sanja Avramovic for receiving a Teaching Excellence Award from the Stearns Center for Teaching and Learning and John Cantiello for being recognized as an Online Teacher of Distinction by the Stearns Center.  

How do environmental factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic, air pollution, chemical exposures, social, genetic, and neighborhood exposures influence obesity and asthma rates? The College is exploring this question as it collaborates in the ECHO program, a seven-year initiative funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Supersized alcopops are ready-to-drink flavored alcoholic beverages that have up to five times the alcohol content of beer and appear to be marketed toward young drinkers. A new George Mason University study led by Dr. Matthew Rossheim found that calls to U.S. poison control centers for supersized alcopops disproportionately involved underage drinkers compared to calls for other alcohol products. Better regulation of their alcohol content and retail availability is urgently needed to protect youth.

As we mark the one-year milestone of the COVID-19 pandemic, the College of Health and Human Services has published a special report capturing the many ways in which College faculty, staff, and students rose to the occasion over the past year. Learn more about the College’s contributions in Academics and Instruction, University Response and Service, Community Response and Practice, and Research. Thank you to everyone in the College for their dedication and service over the past year. It is nearly impossible to convey the full impact your work has had on our students, the University, and our community.

A new George Mason University College of Health and Human Services study is one of first individual-level studies to track movements and symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Janusz Wojtusiak led the study—one of the first individual-level studies to track movements and symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic.

New research led by George Mason University’s College of Health and Human Services faculty Dr. Michelle Williams assessed African American breast cancer survivors’ risk factors and knowledge about cardiovascular disease in the Deep South. They found that although African American breast cancer survivors have a higher prevalence of CVD risk factors, their knowledge about CVD is low.

How can we better understand how people move during the pandemic and how they spread COVID-19? Janusz Wojtusiak, associate professor of health informatics and director of the Machine Learning Inference Lab is leading one of the first individual-level studies on social distancing.

A study led by Dr. Kenneth Griffin of George Mason University’s College of Health and Human Services and researchers at National Health Promotion Associates (NHPA) finds that the Cadet Healthy Personal Skills (CHiPS) program shows promise in reducing unwanted sexual contact in military academies. The intervention, which was rigorously tested with more than 800 cadets during their first year at the academy, addresses a critical gap in evidence-based interventions.

New George Mason University study is first to examine unmet basic menstrual health needs, (often called ‘period poverty’) and associations with depression among college students. More than 14% of participants reported lack of access to menstrual products in the past year, and 10% reported period poverty every month. Women who experienced period poverty were more likely to report symptoms suggestive of moderate or severe depression.