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，在一些城市环境中，压力增加和饮食改变都与重新安置人口的代谢功能下降有关。然而，导致这些变化的社会条件，以及压力和饮食变化的相互影响，往往没有得到充分的探索。利用现有的调查数据、新数据和生物抽样，本研究将推进形成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中健康差异的根本原因，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。人类学中的生物文化研究包括关于营养转变的生理后果的问题，在这种转变中，高度加工的、缺乏营养的快餐取代了当地的食物系统。其他研究通过说明适应新社会（包括新的食物系统）的挑战来补充这一工作。该项目提出，融入新社会的社会压力导致压力，加速饮食变化，对年轻人的生理健康产生负面影响。调查人员利用先前收集的调查数据，从参与者小时候开始搬迁，并在成年后通过调查、访谈和健康评估对他们进行随访。通过这种混合方法，该项目具有独特的定位，可以追踪和比较饮食和生理如何相互作用，并对新的社会条件做出反应。将这些分析与健康评估相结合，可以进一步阐明社会压力如何“深入人心”，从而在整个生命过程中对健康结果进行分层。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值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.