The FRESH Study is a two-year longitudinal observational cohort study with 2nd-year undergraduate students at UC Santa Cruz. Our goal is to gain a better understanding of student nutrition and factors related to cardiovascular and metabolic health as defined by the American Heart Association’s Life’s Essential 8™.
What is Life’s Essential 8™?
The American Heart Association has identified 8 factors referred to as Life’s Essential 8™ that are important for ideal cardiovascular and cardiometabolic health. These factors include sleep, diet, physical activity, nicotine exposure, blood pressure, blood glucose, cholesterol and weight status.
Why is this study important?
This is the first study in the United States to examine nutritional status in relation to Life’s Essential 8™ factors in college students. Findings from this study could have important policy implications for higher education.
Who else is part of the FRESH team?
Heather E. Bullock (PhD) is a Co-Principal Investigator on the FRESH Study. She is the Director of the Center for Economic Justice and Action (CEJA), co-director of Research and Evaluation on UC Essential Needs, and professor of psychology at UC Santa Cruz. Her research examines women’s pathways in and out of poverty and homelessness, women’s experiences with public assistance programs, and how classism, racism, and sexism influence policy attitudes and the treatment of low-income women and their families.
Gwen Chodur (PhD, MSPH, RDN) is a postdoctoral scholar working on the FRESH Study. Her research focus is in understanding the mechanisms linking social exposures such as food insecurity and stress to chronic disease development and more importantly, how to effectively interrupt increased chronic disease risk trajectories. Gwen is a first-generation college student who completed a PhD in Nutritional Biology at UC Davis. She also holds a MSPH from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and earned a BS from the Pennsylvania State University.
Co-investigators:
- Michael Grander (Phd, MTR, CBSM, FAASM)
Assistant Professor
University of Arizona
- Chuck McCulloch (PhD, MS, MA)
Professor
University of California, San Francisco
Undergraduate Research Assistants:
- Abi Shepherd
- Piper Mahn
- Cali Kimura
- Emily Burich
- Sanjana Iyengar
- Piper Yohman
How is this study funded?
This study is supported by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute
(R01HL164727).