NEWS

YRG is Back!

YRG is Back!

Our weekly Young Research Group meetings have started back, and we are working on a ton of exciting projects. It’s a privilege to be working with so many talented undergraduates, MPH students, and doctoral students from Anthropology to Statistics. Here’s to a great year!

Casey and Hayley Return from Field Work in Kenya

Casey and Hayley Return from Field Work in Kenya

This past summer, undergraduates Casey Benzaken and Hayley Platt spent two months in Kisumu, Kenya, working with Pamoja Community Based Organization. Under the guidance of fellow YRG member and Pamoja founder Patrick Mbullo, Casey and Hayley helped collect data for a mixed-methods study about pre-exposure 

YRG Impresses at ASN 2018

YRG Impresses at ASN 2018

This year, many members from YRG presented at the annual American Society for Nutrition meeting in Boston, MA. Northwestern students who presented posters were able to apply the skills they had recently learned from Dr. Young’s new course on data analysis, results dissemination, and scientific communication.

  • Harris J, Santoso MV, Bezner Kerr RN, Kassim M, Mollay C, Martin H, Mtei K, Kalonga J, Mtinda E, Young SL. A Women’s Hours of Household and Non-farming Work, But Not Agriculture Work, is Positively Associated with Child’s Dietary Diversity Scores in Rural Tanzania. American Society of Nutrition Annual Meeting. Boston, MA. June 2018.  [Finalist for the American Society for Nutrition’s Emerging Leaders in Global Nutrition Poster Competition]
  • Lin A, Santoso MV, Collins SM, Bezner Kerr RN, Kassim M, Mollay C, Martin H, Mtei K, Kalonga J, Mtinda E, Young SL. He said, she said: intra-household disparities in water insecurity experiences between men and women in Tanzania. American Society of Nutrition Annual Meeting. Boston, MA. June 2018.
  • Smith, SN, Santoso MV, Bezner Kerr RN, Kassim M, Mollay C, Martin H, Mtei K, Kalonga J, Mtinda E, Young SL. Timely participatory dissemination improves study implementation and data interpretation: lessons from an agriculture and nutrition participatory study in Tanzania. American Society of Nutrition Annual Meeting. Boston, MA. June 2018.
  • Olmos SM, Santoso MV, Garigipati P, Benzaken C, Beck A, Umuhire E, Young SL. Systematic literature review of the relationship between women’s empowerment and child nutrition indicates women’s empowerment is important but poorly defined and measured. American Society of Nutrition Annual Meeting. Boston, MA. June 2018.
  • Hassan B, Santoso MV, Bezner Kerr RN, Kassim M, Mollay C, Martin H, Mtei K, Kalonga J, Mtinda E, Young SL. Male attendance at antenatal care clinic visits is not associated with involvement in childcare of child dietary diversity in Singida, Tanzania. American Society of Nutrition Annual Meeting. Boston, MA. June 2018.
  • Clark K, Santoso MV, Miller JD, Collins SM, Onono M, Young SL. Food insecurity is positively associated with infant morbidity symptoms at three months of age in Nyanza, Kenya. American Society of Nutrition Annual Meeting. Boston, MA. June 2018.
  • ​Santoso MV, Bezner Kerr RN, Kassim M, Mollay C, Martin H, Mtei K, Kalonga J, Mtinda E, Young SL. Food insecurity exacerbates depression among women more than among men in rural Tanzania. American Society of Nutrition Annual Meeting. Boston, MA. June 2018.

 

Dr. Young with Shanna Smith, a Cornell undergraduate.
Maggie Presents on Water Insecurity and Infant Feeding Practices

Maggie Presents on Water Insecurity and Infant Feeding Practices

In late March, Maggie Butler presented “Unbreastfed”: The far-reaching consequences of water insecurity for infant feeding” at the 13th Breastfeeding and Feminism International Conference in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Maggie shared preliminary qualitative analyses from 11 of the 28 sites in the Household Water Insecurity 

Maggie Awarded Travel Grant for Upcoming Breastfeeding Conference

Maggie Awarded Travel Grant for Upcoming Breastfeeding Conference

Maggie Butler received the Buffet Institute for Global Studies’ Graduate Student Conference Travel Award to travel to and present at the Breastfeeding and Feminism International Conference in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. She will be sharing preliminary qualitative analyses from the HouseholdWater Insecurity Experiences (HWISE) study in 

Vidya and Sera Receive the Resnick Family Social Impact Award!

Vidya and Sera Receive the Resnick Family Social Impact Award!

Vidya Venkataramanan, a postdoctoral fellow, and Prof. Sera Young recently received a grant from the Resnick Family Social Impact Fund from the Institute for Sustainability and Energy (ISEN) at Northwestern University. The proposal was entitled, “Understanding and Quantifying Experiences of Water Insecurity Locally and Globally.” This award will enable Vidya to mentor 6-8 undergraduate and graduate students from January 2018 to June 2020 on two water insecurity projects.

For the “global,” Vidya and other members of the Household Water Insecurity Experiences (HWISE) team will train and work with a team of 3-4 students to clean quantitative data and to qualitatively analyze open-ended questions from surveys. For the “local,” Vidya will train and work with another team of 3-4 students to collect and analyze qualitative and quantitative data on people’s experiences with chronic urban flooding in the community of Chatham, in Chicago’s South Side. This team will evaluate a flood mitigation and green infrastructure intervention called RainReady Chatham, implemented by the Center for Neighborhood Technology, a local non-profit organization.

Chicago Mayor Commends Collaborative Water Research Projects

Chicago Mayor Commends Collaborative Water Research Projects

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel was at the signing of an MOU that outlines ways to increase collaboration between Northwestern University and Ben-Gurion University’s Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research at the at the Water Technology & Environment Control (WATEC) Conference in Israel. The mayor’s comments about interdisciplinary 

Pica Among Hispanic Women Living in the US

Pica Among Hispanic Women Living in the US

Our article “Pica is prevalent and strongly associated with iron deficiency among Hispanic pregnant women living in the United States” recently published in the journal Appetite. Structured interviews (n=187) were conducted with pregnant Hispanic women living in Salinas Valley, California, during their antenatal care visits; hemoglobin, serum