Doctoral Dissertation Research: Impacts of acculturative stress on diet change and metabolic status among young adults

这个博士论文项目研究了关于搬迁如何随着时间的推移影响年轻人的饮食行为和生理的生物文化问题。科学家们观察到，压力增加和饮食变化都与一些城市重新安置的人口的新陈代谢功能较差有关。然而，导致这些变化的社会条件，以及压力和饮食变化的互动影响，往往没有得到充分的研究。利用现有的调查数据、新的数据和生物采样，这项研究将推进关于塑造人类生物变异的生物社会机制的基础知识。该项目的成果将有助于解释不同社会健康差距的根本原因，并可能为公共卫生研究和政策提供信息。该项目还将支持学生培训、国际研究合作和科学推广活动。人类学的生物文化研究包括关于营养转型的生理后果的问题，在营养转型中，高度加工、缺乏营养的快餐取代了当地的食品体系。其他研究补充了这项工作，说明了适应新社会的挑战，包括新的食物系统。该项目提出，融入新社会的社会压力会导致压力，并加速饮食变化，从而对年轻人的生理健康产生负面影响。调查人员利用之前收集的调查数据，从参与者在儿童时期重新安置的时候开始，并通过调查、访谈和健康评估对他们进行成年后的跟踪调查。通过这种混合方法的方法，该项目在追踪和比较饮食和生理如何相互作用以及对新的社会条件做出反应方面具有独特的地位。将这些分析与健康评估相结合，可以进一步澄清社会压力是如何在生命过程中对健康结果进行分层的。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This doctoral dissertation project examines biocultural questions about how relocation affects young adults' dietary behaviors and physiology over time. Scientists have observed that elevated stress and diet change are each associated with poorer metabolic function for resettled populations in some urban settings. However, social conditions that induce these changes, and the interactive impacts of stress and diet change, are often underexplored. Using existing survey data, new data, and biological sampling, this research will advance fundamental knowledge about biosocial mechanisms that shape human biological variation. Outcomes of this project will assist with interpreting root causes of health disparities in diverse societies and may inform public health research and policy. This project will also support student training, international research collaborations, and science outreach activities.Biocultural research in anthropology includes questions about the physiological consequences of the nutrition transition in which highly processed, nutrient-poor fast food supplants local food systems. Other research complements this body of work by illustrating the challenges of adapting to a new society, including a new food system. This project proposes that social pressure to integrate into a new society induces stress and accelerates diet change to negatively impact young adult physiological well-being. Investigators leverage previously-collected survey data from when participants relocated as children, and follow up with them in adulthood using surveys, interviews, and health assessments. With this mixed-methods approach, the project is uniquely positioned to trace and compare how diet and physiology interact and respond to new social conditions. Pairing these analyses with a health assessment can further clarify how social pressures "get under the skin" to stratify health outcomes over the life course.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.