Preventing Health Challenges, Addressing Community Needs

The call to address human health needs takes many forms at Baylor. Researchers may study molecules and cells to find treatments for disease, examine waterways for pollution or search for connections between diet and health. These important endeavors are far from the only approaches, however, to health research at Baylor.

Still other researchers are connected to distinct communities of people. Some communities are united by a common city or background, while others are brought together by age or need. Meet four Baylor professors living out Baylor’s Christian mission as they address issues like mental health, aging, disease screening, food insecurity and health communication, both close to home and around the world.

Cancer Screening Toolkits 

Cervical cancer is known as the “disease of the poor.” Matt Asare, Ph.D., assistant professor of public health, seeks to serve women in low- and middle-income countries, where women are six times more likely to develop cervical cancer than other nations. Through the development of home-based, self-collected toolkits, Asare seeks to provide resources that help women be proactive in their own care and avoid preventable health challenges. A grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will fund these efforts to develop, distribute and study toolkits in Ghana, with hopes to grow their footprint in nations of need.

Health Communication

Anyone who has visited the doctor in recent years — whether in-person or virtually — can see that the ways patients and doctors share information are changing. New technologies ensure both patients and providers are adapting together. Ashley Barrett, B.A. ’07, M.A. ’09, Ph.D., associate professor of communication, studies these ever-evolving relationships through a National Science Foundation CAREER Award with the goal of improving patient outcomes. Through data collected over a five-year period, Barrett will develop interventions to help healthcare providers better communicate with patients and with those who make the technologies used in healthcare settings. 

Preventing Falls for Senior Adults

When Brian Garner, Ph.D., associate professor of mechanical engineering, first developed MiraColt, he did so for children with autism. The MiraColt is a medical-grade mechanical device that accurately simulates a horse’s movements, which are shown to benefit children with developmental disorders. Senior adults may benefit as well. Falls are the leading cause of fatal and non-fatal injury among senior adults. MiraColt users in tests at a Waco senior living community demonstrated improvement in fall-risk indicators and showed improved core muscle strength. Doctoral students at Baylor will advance this research to understand the connections and potential to help seniors avoid future falls.

Native Americans and Resiliency

Native Americans experience disproportionately higher incidences of childhood trauma, which is in part related to historical traumas suffered by their people. These experiences could contribute to a higher incidence of mental and physical health conditions, including depression, cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Annie Ginty, Ph.D., associate professor of neuroscience, co-leads an NIH-funded team partnering with the Blackfeet Nation community in Montana to mitigate the health effects of trauma. The grant builds on a successful 2016 study, in which social-connectedness interventions demonstrated a distinct decrease in cortisol stress hormone levels. Now, Ginty partners alongside a group of 400 Blackfeet adults to study cardiovascular data and develop additional interventions in a community-based participatory approach to address these needs.

Food Access and Health

To improve access to healthy, affordable food, communities sometimes need a helping hand to better understand the factors that make healthy food hard to come by and develop solutions together. Katie Janda-Thomte, Ph.D., assistant professor of public health, does just that, studying community data across a variety of factors, from transportation to faith networks and more. Currently, Janda-Thomte is part of a team evaluating the Double Up Food Bucks expansion in Texas, an incentive that doubles the amount of fresh produce an individual utilizing the SNAP program can acquire. Through it all, her goal is to equip individuals and communities to improve health outcomes through access to healthy food.