CHHS Research

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.

Congratulations to Dr. Danielle Catona, Assistant Professor in the Department of Global and Community Health, for recently receiving a Stearns Center grant for implementing alternative assessment strategies. The grant will allow Catona to conduct research on alternative assessment strategies for GCH 380: Public Health Research Methods. GCH 380 is an important aspect of the college’s accredited MPH program, and Catona’s research will provide valuable insight on improving it.

In the first national study to assess use of e-cigarettes among adults with disabilities, George Mason University’s College of Health and Human Services researchers found that e-cigarette use was more than twice as likely among adults with a cognitive disability (12.0%), an independent living disability (11.0%), or two or more disabilities (9.2%), compared to adults without disabilities (4.8%)

New George Mason University Study finds that health care professionals with a greater personal ability to respond to change experienced lower rates of burnout when their work environments offered strong communication, teamwork, and leadership support. This is one of the first studies to explore the effect of individual and organizational capacity for change on burnout among health care professionals.

National Institutes of Health-funded randomized clinical trial is the largest study to-date to compare thresholds for blood transfusions in premature babies, offers guidance for health care providers.