Assistant Professors Yonaira Rivera and Megan Threats recently received highly competitive NIH Loan Repayment Program (LRP) awards.
The NIH Loan Repayment Programs (LRPs) are, according to the NIH website, “a set of programs established by Congress and designed to recruit and retain highly qualified health professionals into biomedical or biobehavioral research careers. The escalating costs of advanced education and training in medicine and clinical specialties are forcing some scientists to abandon their research careers for higher-paying private industry or private practice careers.”
The aim of Rivera’s study is to explore engagement with and dissemination of cancer (mis)information among U.S. Latinos on multiple social media applications (apps).
Rivera was awarded a Health Disparities LRP through the National Cancer Institute for her project titled “Contextualizing cancer (mis)information engagement and dissemination among adult Latino social media users.” The “LRP award will provide me with the support necessary to continue focusing on this important research by ensuring rigorous mentoring by top scholars in cancer prevention and control, health communication, and implementation science,” Rivera said.
Threats was awarded a Health Disparities LRP through the National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities for her project titled “Addressing health disparities among sexual minorities of color with informatics.” Threats said, "By diminishing the burden of student loan debt, the NIH can support my decision to fully commit to science. The LRP award will better position me to achieve my long-term goal of becoming a full professor who produces scientifically relevant and timely research."
The LRPs assist researchers by repaying an annual portion of their “qualified educational debt in return for a commitment to engage in NIH mission-relevant research.”
Below are descriptions of the NIH projects Rivera and Threats will be working on during the next two years.
Assistant Professor, Communication
The aim of Rivera’s study is “to explore engagement with and dissemination of cancer (mis)information among U.S. Latinos on multiple social media applications (apps).”
Building on her doctoral dissertation, Rivera said this project “is the first and essential step in a program of research, making substantial contributions to scientific knowledge relating to engagement on social media platforms, and applied studies regarding how to best communicate cancer information on these platforms.
“Findings will be theory- and hypothesis-generating, providing insights to specific attributes in cancer (mis)information that attract user engagement across multiple social media platforms, and how Latinos assess the veracity of this information when they encounter it – both of which are instrumental to developing culturally-relevant, evidence-based social media cancer communication interventions tailored to the Latino community in New Jersey and beyond.
Ultimately, Rivera said, “the proposed research and training in this LRP award will provide me with the foundation necessary to develop theory-driven implementation science projects that serve the help reduce cancer health disparities among Latinos.”
Assistant Professor of Library and Information Science
The purpose of Threat’s research is to investigate the feasibility, acceptability, and efficacy of leveraging informatics to reduce disparities in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and human papillomavirus (HPV) prevention and care engagement among sexual and gender minorities of color (SGMOC).
Her program of research uses a psycho-socio-cultural and human-centered design approach to develop, test, and evaluate the efficacy of novel health information technologies and informatics interventions aimed at improving health outcomes among SGMOC.
To advance her research, over the next two years she will conduct an exploratory study to identify factors associated with sexual health service use (related to HIV and HPV prevention) among sexual minority women of color, and assess the acceptability of using conversational artificial intelligence (e.g., chatbots) and social computing technologies to optimize sexual health services use.
The purpose of Threat’s research is to investigate the feasibility, acceptability, and efficacy of leveraging informatics to reduce disparities in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and human papillomavirus (HPV) prevention and care engagement among sexual and gender minorities of color (SGMOC).
She will also implement a multi-phase study to develop and test the usability of a novel, videogame prototype designed to improve uptake of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), patient-clinician communication, health literacy, and self-efficacy for social support building among sexual minority Black men.
These proposed research activities relate to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) support for “leveraging health information technology to address minority health and health disparities” by “increasing access to care, improving patient-clinician communication, and health outcomes for minority health and health disparity populations in the U.S.”
Discover more about the Communication and Library and Information Science Departments at the Rutgers School of Communication and Information on the website.
