From the PI
It’s been a long time coming – thank you everyone for your patience as we work through challenges and continue scheduling study visits!
Although we do not yet have results to report, my goal with this newsletter is to keep you apprised of the current research and share information on the comings and goings of this work. Too frequently, data are collected from communities and the community is quickly put on the back burner; I am striving to keep engaged with the community to the best of my (introverted) ability and to share our successes, challenges, and findings.
To share a little background with you this work, I initially received funding in 2020 at the start of the pandemic. Not surprisingly, recruiting study participants for in-person study visits was not a viable option for several years. Beginning in Fall 2022, with vaccinations, boosters, and other COVID-related mandates being lifted, I felt comfortable with bringing in study participants. Little did I expect the other challenges indirectly caused by the pandemic. These primarily included supply chain issues that meant I was unable to obtain all of the study supplies needed (for example, the vials for the blood draw and for blood storage) until December 2022. Fortunately, we were finally able to do a “soft opening” in February 2023 once everything was in place and rolled out a larger recruitment of study participants after we ironed out some of the wrinkles in the first few study visits.
For what it’s worth, I was the first participant in this study so I too fasted, donated blood and hair, and saw my skeleton. Admittedly, I was so anxious during the study visit (beyond just study participant anxiety… I was really nervous that I did not have the right study protocol in place) that I should probably have my blood pressure readings redone.
We ran into yet another hiccup shortly after our big recruitment roll-out. We were short a phlebotomist! This unfortunate set back meant that we were unable to schedule any study visits for several weeks. Finally, just as the fall semester was wrapping up, we got into a roll with study visits and are continuing to schedule them through the summer. We will be doing another big recruitment push now that folks are back in the area.
The Anatomy of a Study Visit
Hi everyone! Rebecca here – I’m a second-year Epidemiology M.S. student here at UMass, and I’m also a Research Assistant (RA) on the Pioneer Valley Stress Study. I attended undergrad here and have been involved with this study since Fall 2022. If you’ve had a study visit, you’ve probably met me! I’m here to run through what a typical study visit for the stress study looks like.
- You’ll come in having fasted for ~8 hours. I’ll grab you a snack, and we’ll head to the exam room where our amazing phlebotomist will do your blood draw!
- Right afterward you’ll have time to break your fast, and I’ll head into the other room to start spinning your blood in the centrifuge (more details on this in an upcoming newsletter).
- While I’m starting that process, you’re finishing up your DEXA scan. This is a body scan that can show you detailed information about your body’s composition, including how much your bones weigh!
- We finish up the study visit with a couple of surveys and a few more measurements, including blood pressure and waist/hip circumference. I also take a small hair sample to be sent to another lab to be tested for cortisol.
When I first started as an RA, the hair collection was the scariest part of the study visits for me, since I was scared of giving people a bald spot. But now I’m proud to call myself an amateur hairdresser!
From Nicole: I was the first hair sample that Rebecca had to collect and I have very short hair and yet, Rebecca managed to not give me a bald spot! Rebecca may have a second calling if this public health research thing doesn’t work out.