Health Behavior | Tania B. Huedo-Medina, PhD

In health research, it is important to consider interactions among behavior, environment, biomarkers, and working with multiple levels of data to examine interactions among variables. Dr. Huedo-Medina’s research focus involves modeling the factors that influence health behavior and change to understand determinants of health prevention and intervention. This is done by using advanced statistical techniques that integrate individual-level psychological processes, biological influences, and a broad range of social environmental factors. In this pursuit, Dr. Huedo-Medina has collaborated with a diverse range of scholars from other health-related disciplines in order to apply the most advanced methodological and statistical techniques available in psychology and the health and biologically related fields. Dr. Huedo-Medina draws on these experiences to work on methodological and statistical aspects that help to advance the discipline of applied statistics.

One of Dr. Huedo-Medina’s current goals in Health Behavior Research is to apply multilevel mediation/moderation modeling techniques to complex health topics such as obesity and other immunology-related diseases that can be triggered by our health style behaviors, e.g., diet and exercise. One particular focus is on celiac disease, a disease with multiple layers including genomics, environment, and biological factors. Celiac disease and gluten sensitivity describe the spectrum of manifestation of a serious condition that appears to be affecting an increasing proportion of the population, producing a host of co-morbidities that have a significant impact on public health.

Health Behavior Research Areas