Investigators Receive New Grants and Begin Pilot Studies
Investigators affiliated with the Center for Health Research (CHR) received a number of grants to continue or begin new research projects. In addition to these funded projects, researchers have launched new pilot studies in preparation for larger grant submissions.
New Grants
See the list below for all grants and funding CHR-affiliated faculty received during fall quarter.
| PI | Project Title | Sponsor | GDO # | Amount Awarded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Phelan, Suzanne | Meal time interactions and risk of obesity in toddlers | DHHS - National Institutes of Health (NIH) via Temple University | 16-042 | $148,965 |
| Pilolla, Kari | Strawberries and Health in Post-Menopausal Women: Is the way to the heart through the gut? | California Strawberry Commission | 18-009 | $80,000 |
| Tseng, Marilyn | Immigrant enclaves: Conferring health advantages or creating health disparities in Chinese immigrants? | DHHS - National Institutes of Health (NIH) via Fox Chase Cancer Center | 17-477 | $68,303 |
| Ventura, Alison | A Pilot-Feasibility Study of a Home-based Intervention to Reduce Obesity Risk for Bottle-fed Infants | DHHS - National Institutes of Health (NIH) | 17-456 | $173,125 |
| Ventura, Alison | Developmental trajectories of dyadic feeding interactions during infancy and their association with rapid weight gain | DHHS - National Institutes of Health (NIH) | 17-458 | $364,380 |
| Ventura, Alison | Understanding predictors of overfeeding during infant feeding | DHHS - National Institutes of Health (NIH) | 18-119 | $69,250 |
Pilot Studies
Augmented Reality
Meaningful computer-generated images can influence people to make healthy food choices, according to a new pilot study completed by CHR faculty and students. Professors Brennan Davis in business, Jonathan Ventura in computer science and software engineering, and Suzanne Phelan in kinesiology and public health teamed up with staff and 12 students to study the choices of nearly 300 marketing students who were asked to choose between an apple and a frosted cookie.
Participants looked at the two food choices through an iPad screen that overlaid either clip art images or augmented reality (AR) images near the food. The apple was seen with images that were healthy, such as a healthy heart, and the cookie with unhealthy images, including an unhealthy heart.
Results indicated that the AR health messages were more effective than clip art images in influencing participants to choose the apple. Also, the AR images appeared most effective when they weren’t moving. Moving images may have distracted participants from associating the images with the food choices.
The study was funded by Cal Poly’s Research, Scholarly and Creative Activities Grant program (RSCA), which encourages new professors to continue research beyond the classroom. Faculty supervised student research assistants who helped the 300 participants as they viewed the images, completed a survey and made the food choice.
Virtual Reality
Research shows that lifestyle intervention programs can help promote short term weight loss, but local investigators want to know if virtual reality can help participants keep this weight off in the long term. Investigators Suzanne Phelan in kinesiology and public health, Jim Werner in art and design, and a team of staff and students hope to answer this question through a pilot study that includes traditional intervention programs paired with virtual reality.
Researchers are in the process of recruiting 24 participants with overweight or obesity. Half will randomly be placed into a program where they receive information on weight loss over five weeks through weekly group meetings. The other half will receive the same information and meetings but will also be given an iPhone virtual reality app that allows them to practice what they learned in the meetings. These five-minute virtual reality scenarios were written and created by the investigators, staff and students.
At the end of the five weeks, investigators hope to determine the feasibility of the study and whether it can be run at a larger scale.