Intervention Research Advancing Care Excellence Lab

NIH, R56
Mary Gerend, PhD at FSU College of Medicine: Principal Investigator 
Nicole Ennis, PhD: Co-Investigator

Using a rigorous experimental approach, this project works to identify mechanisms through which weight discrimination harms health. Findings will facilitate the long-term goal of this research: developing interventions to decrease the negative health consequences of weight discrimination. As a step toward this goal, this project proposes three experiments in which a diverse sample of adults with obesity will be randomly assigned to experience (vs. not experience) weight discrimination in a controlled experimental setting. Drawing on previous research and our pilot data, the interpersonal contexts chosen for these studies simulate situations in which people with obesity commonly experience weight discrimination in their daily lives (e.g., health care and employment settings). Exposure to weight discrimination (vs. control) is hypothesized to result in elevated responses on early-stage mechanisms that culminate in poor cardiovascular health (e.g., impaired self-regulation, cognitive vigilance to signs of social disapproval, higher negative emotion, more social withdrawal and comfort eating, increased cortisol secretion and inflammation). This research will identify novel and highly modifiable targets for interventions designed to reduce the negative health effects of weight discrimination and, at a broader level, this work will provide critical insight into mechanisms that underlie adverse health effects of other common forms of social stigma such as discrimination due to race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or social class.

NIH, R21
Nicole Ennis, PhD: Principal Investigator

The long-range goal of this work is to improve our understanding of the consequences of medical marijuana use in later life. A study that examines older adults’ pre-exposure to medical marijuana and systematically tracks medical marijuana initiation, dosage, and psychomotor functioning is needed. Thus, the current study will test medical marijuana use as the exposure variable in adults age 50 and older and simulated driving performance (i.e. errors in response time, attention, and executive functioning tasks that predict on-road performance) as the primary outcome. Medical marijuana use is increasing among adults 50 and older. Both the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the National Institute on Aging (NIA) have identified the need to understand how habitual use of medical marijuana affects psychomotor functioning in real-world tasks such as driving. The current proposal will address this question by examining medical marijuana use in the context of driving performance among adults 50 and older.