Candidate: The K01 candidate, Dr. Gloria Luong, has been an Assistant Professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies at Colorado State University (CSU) since August 2015. Career Development Plan: Her previous training formed a strong foundation in emotion regulation, health, and aging topics, but the K01 mechanism would propel Dr. Luong to the next stage of her career and enable her to reach her long-term career goals of becoming an independent investigator. Dr. Luong's immediate career goal is to acquire mastery in cardiovascular stress physiology, as well as in advanced quantitative methods, which would allow her to model how multivariate stress processes predict health outcomes across adulthood. Envi- ronment: CSU provides an ideal environment for the training and research activities ? Dr. Luong has access to critical resources, lab space, equipment, collaborations, and home mentors (Drs. Manfred Diehl and Frank Dinenno) that will ensure the success of the career development program. In addition, because Pennsylvania State University (PSU) offers leading-edge training in advanced quantitative methods, Dr. Luong will learn these techniques from her off-site mentors, Drs. Nilam Ram and Sy-Miin Chow. Research: Dr. Luong's long- term research goals are to delineate the role of stressor characteristics (e.g., lab vs. daily life, chronic vs. acute) and responses (e.g., affective, physiological) on health outcomes and develop evidence-based pro- grams to modify negative health trajectories. The current proposal's specific aims are to investigate age differ- ences in how: (1) stress responses become more decoupled across stressor modality (lab vs. daily life); (2) such decoupling of stress responses is related to poorer health; and (3) repeated stress exposure alters stressor-health links.
Aims 1 and 2 will be achieved via the analysis of existing longitudinal measurement burst data: the Multi-Method Ambulatory Assessment (MMAA) project.
Aim 3 will be tested with the collection of new pilot data of repeated assessments of stressor responses. Both datasets will include affective and cardiovascu- lar responses to a psychosocial laboratory stressor and daily life stressors. MMAA participants (N=92) com- pleted a mental arithmetic stressor (including affective and heart rate variability (HRV) reactivity), followed by a 24-hour ambulatory assessment period of HRV and 6 ecological momentary assessments (EMA) of stressors and momentary affect in daily life. Baseline stress responses will be linked to health indicators (e.g., health conditions) concurrently and prospectively (1 and 4 years later). The pilot study (N = 180 stratified by younger and older adults; gender; and European Americans and Latinos/Hispanics) will include 7 days of EMA surveys (of momentary affect and daily stressors) and ambulatory physiological data (physical activity, heart rate varia- bility, and sleep patterns) with 3 repeated lab stressors with affective and cardiovascular responses on days 2, 4, and 6. Stress responses will be linked to self-reported and objective health indicators (e.g., endothelial func- tion via flow-mediated vasodilation), elucidating age differences in stressor-health pathways.
Exposure to psychosocial stressors is associated with greater long-term mental and physical health problems and mortality risk, but the mechanisms underlying these links are not clear. This research helps to explain the pathways between stressors and health, and the extent to which these linkages may differ with age. The knowledge gained from this research will help to identify people most at risk for developing poor health and well-being and for designing high-leverage interventions to alter negative health trajectories.
