Undergraduate students Mabry Smyer, Reagan Russell, and Trishya Pagadala are working on a research study looking at the affect of COVID on pregnancy and parenting, particularly by race.
“We’re creating a study that’s looking at how COVID has played out differently for mothers based on race. This includes people who have had children in the past three years and just generally how their pre- or post-natal care has been affected,” said Smyer, a pre-med neuroscience student going into her sophomore year.
HPM’s Marian Jarlenski is the faculty advisor for this project through Pitt’s Honors College and they received IRB approval to do their recruiting through social media, mainly through the Center for Women’s Health Research and Innovation and the help of their center manager, Iris Olson. The center runs out of General Internal Medicine at Pitt Medicine and Jarlenski is the associate director.
Their goal is ultimately to get data – “a lot of data!” said Smyer, and write a paper. They are also using some of their funding to create a website and they intend to update that website in the future, either as an extension of this project or perhaps in a follow-up project. “Basically, we want to have a study that is sustainable and that is reflected on in the future,” Smyer explained.
They are recruiting study participants in the coming weeks via social media. Participate in the study by taking the survey.
Center for Women’s Health Research and Innovation
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7/27/2021