EMA Assessment of Biobehavioral Processes in Human Pregnancy
Description: PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This proposal addresses what is arguably the most important public health issue in maternal-child health in our nation - adverse pregnancy and birth outcomes related to shortened gestation/preterm birth and reduced fetal growth/low birth weight. Several lines of animal and human evidence converge to convincingly suggest that maternal psychosocial stress-related processes in pregnancy represent an important and potentially modifiable risk factor for adverse birth outcomes and subsequent child and adult health outcomes. However, despite many years of empirical research and findings, key questions still remain to be answered about the nature, mechanism and timing of effects of prenatal stress. We argue that the critical first step towards translating prenatal stress findings from the population to the individual level is to develop ways to identify which subgroup(s) of pregnant women (under what circumstances/ context, and at which time/stage in gestation) are particularly susceptible to the detrimental effects of prenatal stress. We propose that newer, innovative technologies and methods based on real-time, ambulatory, repeated sampling of psychological, behavioral and biological states (i.e., ecological momentary assessment (EMA)) can be adapted successfully to achieve this objective. The scientific significance of this research is that it will clarify psychobiological mechanisms that are likely determinants of individual vulnerability for stress-related adverse birth outcomes. The public health impact is that it will increase the sensitivity and specificity of biopsychosocial risk assessment and provide an empirical basis for the development and evaluation of comprehensive intervention strategies to prevent or manage stress in pregnancy and reduce its adverse health consequences in the mother and her unborn child. The objectives, approach, and outcomes of our proposed research are consistent with the emphasis placed by the NIH on clinical translational research and the aspiration in Systems Biology to progress towards the new P4 medicine (predictive, preventive, personalized, participatory) of the future.
Funding type: research
Funder scheme: R01
Start date: 2010-02-01
End date: 2016-01-31
Investigator: PATHIK D WADHWA
Institution: UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-IRVINE
Funded outputs count: 95
Funder award ID: R01HD060628
OpenAlex ID: G6180666630