Doctoral Dissertation Research: Influences of Physiological Stress on Microbiome, Metabolism, and Health in Nurses

肠道微生物群，或驻留在人类消化道的微生物群落，会受到应激条件的影响，并会影响心脏代谢健康。本研究以护士、一线工作人员为研究对象，探讨人类-微生物群-健康相互作用对不同工作条件的敏感性。这个项目试图了解与一线分娩相关的健康风险因素，结果可能会为护理实践提供参考。个人个人健康信息直接与护士参与者共享，结果与该项目医院研究网站的护士科学家和领导人共享，使该网站有可能为护士提供更好的健康结果。该项目还为本科生、护士科学家、护理领导和护士参与者创造了跨学科培训、数据共享和出版的机会。大多数项目合作者都是来自STEM研究历史上代表性不足的群体的学者。护理通常与极度紧张的条件和不良的心脏代谢健康结局有关，包括冠心病(CHD)、代谢紊乱、肥胖和胃肠道不适，特别是在轮班/夜班和高压力医院环境中。该项目比较了从事不同类型轮班工作的一群护士的生物标记物和调查数据。通过对护士的横断面抽样调查，研究人员测量了轮班和非轮班护士的微生物多样性/组成、炎症、肠道通透性和新陈代谢指标。调查数据被用来记录饮食、活动水平、社会经济状况、人口统计学和倒班工作条件，以评估这些因素如何调节代谢和微生物结果。生物样本和问卷是从一年多没有从事轮班工作的重点小组收集的，从他们轮班工作的第一个月开始，然后每月抽样四个月。据预测，随着护士开始轮班工作，轮班护士和非轮班护士的肠道菌群组成将有所不同。最终，该项目的结果旨在阐明一线轮班劳动可能得到体现的方式之一。该奖项反映了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。

The gut microbiome, or the community of microorganisms residing in the human digestive tract, is affected by stressful conditions and can influence cardiometabolic health. This research project investigates the ways in which human-microbiome-health interactions are sensitive to different work conditions through focusing on nurses, frontline workers who experience the metabolic and energetic stress of prolonged shift work conditions. This project seeks to understand the health risk factors associated with frontline labor and results may inform nursing practices. Individual personal health information are shared directly with nurse participants, and results are shared with Nurse Scientists and leaders at the project’s hospital research site, empowering this site to potentially offer better health outcomes for nurses. This project also creates cross-disciplinary training, data-sharing, and publishing opportunities for undergraduate students, nurse scientists, nursing leaders, and nurse participants. Most project collaborators are scholars from groups historically underrepresented in STEM research. Nursing is commonly associated with extremely stressful conditions and poor cardiometabolic health outcomes, including coronary heart disease (CHD), metabolic disorders, obesity, and gastrointestinal complaints, especially in rotational/night shifts and in high stress hospital environments. This project compares biomarker and survey data from a cohort of nurses as they engage in differing types of shift work. Using a cross-sectional sample survey of nurses, the investigators measure both shift and non-shift nurses’ indicators of microbial diversity/composition, inflammation, intestinal permeability, and metabolism. Survey data are used to record diet, activity level, socioeconomic status, demographics, and shift-work conditions to assess how these factors may mediate metabolic and microbial outcomes. Biological samples and questionnaires are collected from a focused group who have not engaged in rotating shift work in over a year, starting in their first month of shiftwork, followed by monthly sampling for four months. It is predicted that gut microbiome composition among shift work and non-shift work nurses will differentiate as nurses begin shiftwork. Ultimately, the results of this project aim to illuminate one of the ways in which frontline shift labor may become embodied.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.