Center Events

Large and Small Life Events among Overweight and Obese Black and Latino Adults in a Behavior Change Trial
Carol Devine, Division of Nutritional Sciences and Elaine Wethington, Human Development

Monday, February 22, 2016
12:00-1:00PM
Beebe Hall, 2nd floor conference room

It is widely believed that stressor exposure can negatively affect health. However, the impact of stressors on health behaviors is not well understood. Professors Wethington and Devine developed an interval life events (ILE) measurement method, which assesses exposure to both major stressors (life events) and minor stressors (hassles), for use in clinical trials or observational studies. They evaluated this method in the Small Changes and Lasting Effects (SCALE) trial. SCALE is a community-based intervention promoting small changes in diet and physical activity among overweight and obese African-American and Hispanic adults to discover how stressors interfere with behavior change or trial participation. In their talk Wethington and Devine will report on their findings.

Professor Elaine Wethington (human development; sociology; Weill Cornell Medicine) studies stress and social support processes across the life course. She is co-principal investigator on SCALE, a weight loss intervention with low income Black and Latino adults in New York City, and co-director and MPI for the Translational Research Institute for Pain in Later Life (TRIPLL).

Professor Carol Devine, Division of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell, studies how food choices over the life course are shaped by life transitions, social roles, and the lived environment. She is co-investigator on SCALE.