Research & Scholarship
Policies & Forms
Starting January 1, 2021, any faculty member who plans to submit an intramural or extramural grant either as the principal investigator (PI), Co-PI, Co-investigator (Co-I) or Collaborator needs to comply with the following timeline. PI, Co-PI or Collaborator is defined as lead investigator and/or project director.
The expected proposal preparation period, including routing through the AU system, is 6 months. If your timeframe is shorter than 6 months, please negotiate a new timeline during the initial project meeting with Dr. Pao-Feng Tsai and AU Research Administrators.
Please contact Pao-Feng Tsai, PhD, RN, FAAN, Professor and Associate Dean for Research for further information.
Please contact Pao-Feng Tsai, PhD, RN, FAAN, Professor and Associate Dean for Research for further information.
Email: tsaipaofeng@auburn.edu
Phone: 334-844-6807
Faculty Research and Scholarship
Chrissy Feeley
Title: Relationship between sleep and biopsychosocial outcomes in children with type 1 diabetes and their parents
Dr. Feeley’s research examines the relationship between sleep and biopsychosocial outcomes in children with type 1 diabetes and their parents. She is interested in how sleep (or lack of sleep) may affect how children and their parents report and experience stress, anxiety, and depressive symptoms, as well as how it may affect diabetes self-management and outcomes such as A1C and the percent time in range. Dr. Feeley is also interested in how the parent-child dyad influences each other and their outcomes, with a focus on future interventions aimed at improving sleep.
Hae Sagong
Title: Facilitators and barriers of influencing factors of frailty in Korean older immigrants
Older immigrants face many difficulties accessing health-related resources compared to other age or native-born populations and this leads to a higher possibility of frailty. Dr. Sagong’s study is to find the facilitators and barriers for managing health and associations among factors of frailty in Korean older immigrants. The findings will give an insight into their experience in the U.S as an immigrant and provide guidance for the development of a future frailty intervention program for Korean older immigrants.
Katilya Ware
Title: Engaging African American women in the south in patient centered maternal health research
Dr. Ware was recently awarded funding to engage African American women, their families, faith-based leaders, and health experts in patient centered maternal health research. She plans to use findings from this project to develop potential solutions to improve maternal health outcomes in African American women. Information gathered from Dr. Ware’s work with maternal health in minority communities will be used to improve practice, achieve desired outcomes for patients, and increase dialogue between families and health care providers.
Pao-Feng Tsai
Title: A study of a multiple component intervention to decrease myofascial pain syndrome
Myofascial pain syndrome of the low back is highly prevalent and results in pain and suffering in patients. This study plans to pilot test a home intervention program consisting of posture training, core muscle training, stretching exercises, stress reduction methods and communication strategies to improve physical activity. Dr. Tsai also works with Drs. Fruge and Sagong to investigate the effects of Magnetic Mitohormesis Therapy on physical performance and function, and quality of life in frail older adults.
Sarah Watts
Title: Engage and train stakeholders to participate in patient-centered research to reduce obesity in Hispanic women
Prevalence rates of obesity among Hispanic women in the US continues to increase, placing them at higher risk for the development of health conditions. However, addressing this problem is challenging due to lack of resources and research, especially in the rural South. The project will train stakeholders from Lee County, Alabama, to engage in designing and promoting future research efforts in the rural South. After their participation in the workshops, stakeholders will take part in brainstorming sessions and establish a research community, which will serve as the infrastructure for research efforts once the project ends.
Drew Fruge
Title: Manipulating the gut microbiome for disease prevention and improved quality of life
Dr. Fruge is pursuing research projects that are encompassed by the goal of manipulating the gut microbiome through diet and physical activity for disease prevention. His most recent studies have explored the gut-brain axis and assessed relationships between the microbiome and mood disturbance.
In 2023 he plans to conduct a series of studies in healthcare workers aimed to better understand relationships between health behaviors and risk for chronic disease and to determine the best approaches to change lifestyle behaviors for both day and night shift workers.
Morgan Yordy
Title: Improving health outcomes by incorporating animal assisted interventions (AAI) in the K–12 school setting
Dr. Yordy’s study was to examine the impact and benefits of the human-animal bond in school settings, while increasing collaboration and communication between school counselors and school nurses to ultimately improve student outcomes. Yordy expanded her research by traveling to the University of Arkansas to further investigate the application of animal-assisted activities to promote inclusion of children with mental health and developmental concerns at community events.
Tiffani Chidume
Title: Promoting older adult fall prevention education and awareness in a community setting: A nurse-led intervention
Dr. Chidume’s fall prevention project was intended to bring awareness and improve the health outcomes of older adults in the community. Falls are one of the most expensive medical conditions to treat. The implementation of fall prevention toolkits (FPTs), such as fall risk screenings and fall prevention education (FPE), have become progressively important in reducing fall incidents. This project was to implement a FPT to older adults that attended mobile community clinics. Results showed that fall risk assessment tool mean scores decreased over the one-month period.
Caralise Hunt
Title: Doggone Diabetes: An intervention to promote physical activity among people living with diabetes
Dr. Hunt’s study was to increase physical activity among people living with diabetes/prediabetes through a community walking program implemented with animal assisted therapy dogs. Specific objectives included: 1. implement a walking program that includes adults living with diabetes or prediabetes walking with dogs from an established animal assisted therapy program; 2. increase and sustain physical activity in participants to 150 minutes per week. Her recent study involves a literature review to identify current knowledge and gaps related to treatment of insulin resistance.
Linda Gibson-Young
Title: Asthma control, health disparities, and social-economical factors in childhood asthma management in rural Alabama
Dr. Gibson-Young’s research examines child asthma and family impact of asthma in day-to-day management of this chronic condition. She is interested in demographic and family variables influencing management of asthma and collects data through school-based health education and annual community camp experiences. Findings center on the significance of intervening with schools and rural communities to address child and family variables. Dr. Gibson-Young has also spent the past 25 years connecting with asthma researchers in Alabama and beyond.
Animal Assisted Therapy
Morgan Yordy
Title: Improving health outcomes by incorporating animal assisted therapy (AAT) in the K–12 school setting
Funding Agency: CNS Institute Research Grant
Duration: 2020-2021
Role: PI
Purpose: (1)To examine the impact of Animal-Assisted Therapy (AAT) intervention on participants’ knowledge, skills and behavior (use of AAT) and (2)To examine the School Counselor and School Nurse collaboration, based on the collaborative model by Tuttle et al. (2018).
Diabetes Research