Integrative Physiology

'Your love will be your legacy'

Rachel Sauer — Wed, 23 Jul 2025 13:30:00 +0000

'Your love will be your legacy' Rachel Sauer Wed, 07/23/2025 - 07:30

Sarah Kuta

Losing her father to pancreatic cancer inspired �� Boulder undergraduate Giovanna Ruffolo to raise money for cancer research and pursue a career in medicine

Giovanna Ruffolo was a senior in high school when her dad died of pancreatic cancer.

While other students were looking forward to prom and graduation, Ruffolo was navigating a web of tangled emotions—shock, disbelief, sadness, anger, uncertainty.

“Losing a parent is probably the most intense pain someone can feel in their entire life,” she says. “It’s a terrible, terrible pain.”

Giovanna Ruffolo (second from right) with her brothers Leo (left, a 2024 �� Boulder graduate) and Joey (second from left, a �� Denver student) and their mom, Rosanna. (Photo: Giovanna Ruffolo)

Mostly, though, she just felt numb. Heading off to college so soon after her father’s death was the last thing she wanted to do. But she knew education was important to her dad, so she pushed through the pain and enrolled at �� Boulder.

Now a senior studying integrative physiology and psychology, Ruffolo is preparing for a career in medicine so that, someday, she can help support families just like hers. She hopes to work in pediatric oncology, providing compassionate care to children who are fighting cancer.

As a Buff, Ruffolo is also honoring her father’s legacy by raising money and awareness for cancer prevention research, an initiative she started just after her father got his diagnosis.

“I just want people to know they have a support system and a network that hates cancer as much as they do—that they’re not alone,” she says.

Helping others

Life was rolling along for the Ruffolo family when they got the news that would change their lives forever. In 2017, their beloved patriarch, John Ruffolo, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, a disease that is often fatal.

“It hit us like a bus,” says Ruffolo.

Pancreatic cancer is the third-leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States, according to the National Institutes of Health. Between 2015 and 2021, the five-year survival rate was just 13.3 percent—much lower than other types of cancer. In 2025, the American Cancer Society estimates 67,440 people will be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and 51,980 people will die from the disease.

“It’s the cancer that really gives cancer its bad name,” Ruffolo says.

Prospect Ridge Academy High School Students participate in a cancer fundraiser organized by Giovanna Ruffolo in 2019. (Photo: Giovanna Ruffolo)

Ruffolo was just 14 at the time, but she felt compelled to take action. As a sophomore at Prospect Ridge Academy High School, she created TeamRuffolo, a student-led initiative to raise money and awareness for cancer research.

In November 2018, her school hosted a “Purple Out”—a one-day event in which students were encouraged to wear purple to show their support for the cancer community and donate whatever they could toward prevention research. Students, teachers and administrators raised more than $1,000 for the American Cancer Society that day, and Ruffolo went home feeling inspired and hopeful.

She organized similar fundraisers at her high school in 2019 and 2020 (though the initiative had to go virtual because of the COVID-19 pandemic).

“It was such a wonderful feeling,” she says. “A lot of these people didn’t even know my dad, but they were still so supportive. Seeing people come together not only for him, but just to say, ‘You’re not alone,’ was tremendous for all of us.”

Balancing act

Meanwhile, despite undergoing various treatments and surgeries, her father’s cancer continued to progress. Four years after his diagnosis, he succumbed to the disease in January 2021 at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Center.

Ruffolo was utterly devastated, but she knew she had to finish high school and get a college degree for her dad. And, wherever she ended up next, she wanted to continue her awareness-raising and fundraising events to support other cancer patients and their families.

�� Boulder participants run in the Stronger Together Annual 5K at �� in 2024, the event's most successful year. (Photo: Giovanna Ruffolo)

At �� Boulder, Ruffolo has thrown herself into her studies, with an ultimate goal of working in the medical field. From her father’s experience, Ruffolo learned first-hand that cancer affects more than just the body—it also influences a patient’s mind, spirit and emotions. With that in mind, she’s majoring in integrative physiology and psychology to create her own pre-health pathway.

“My father had trouble grasping being diagnosed with a terminal disease, as anyone rightfully would,” she says. “I want to understand people’s behaviors and thoughts better, so that when someone is going through a hardship, I can better support them.”

To further build her skill set, Ruffolo also completed ��’s emergency medical technician (EMT) program, an online, non-credit specialization that prepares students for national registry testing. She has also worked as a research assistant at �� Boulder and Children's Hospital Colorado.

In addition, Ruffolo has taken on a leadership role with the �� Boulder chapter of the American Medical Student Association, spending three years on the executive board before being elected president for the 2025-26 school year. Through the student group, Ruffolo has carried on her TeamRuffolo efforts—now called Stronger Together—by organizing 5-kilometer run/walk events to raise money for the American Cancer Society.

She is also a journey leader with New Student & Family Programs, where she helps incoming freshmen navigate the �� Boulder experience. Balancing her studies with her extracurricular activities—while also supporting her family and honoring her father’s legacy—has been challenging. But, for Ruffolo, it all comes back to staying true to herself.

“Pretty much my tippy-top value is helping others,” she says.

In class, Ruffolo has never been afraid to ask questions and speak up—even when that means talking about her father’s death in a large lecture hall full of hundreds of students. Jennifer Stratford, a �� Boulder teaching associate professor of psychology and neuroscience, says Ruffolo’s willingness to be vulnerable has opened the door for other students to share their experiences.

John Ruffolo died from pancreatic cancer in 2021. (Photo: Giovanna Ruffolo)

“She just kind of became an ambassador and a face for students who have lost parents,” says Stratford. “I’ve had a lot of feedback from students about how much they appreciated her bravery and how much they identified with some of the struggles she’d been through. It’s a once-in-a-decade or once-in-a-lifetime experience to see a single student have an impact on so many of her classmates.”

‘Your love will be your legacy’

Since high school, Ruffolo estimates she’s helped raise more than $20,000 for the American Cancer Society. And she’s not done yet. She hopes the �� Boulder AMSA chapter will continue organizing the 5K run/walk fundraisers, and that she’ll be able to host similar events during the next phase of her educational journey.

For now, Ruffolo is focused on finishing up her studies so she can graduate in the spring of 2026. From there, she hopes to continue her education in the medical field, likely as a doctor or physician assistant specializing in pediatric oncology.

“I really want to serve that specific community,” she says. “You’re treating little people who have lots of emotions and a little body. They get very scared easily. You really have to be empathetic and treat them and their families with kindness. I love the idea of sitting down with people, holding their hands, talking to them—not just giving them a death sentence, walking out the door and saying, ‘Best of luck.’”

That approach stems directly from her father’s experiences. As he neared the end of his life, Ruffolo remembers him breaking down and talking about how scared he was. She hopes to be the kind of practitioner who will help people like her dad move forward through their pain and fear, while also treating their underlying illness.

“Your love will be your legacy,” she says. “In a world where there’s no cure for cancer, investing your time in others is the only way you can live forever. And loving other people—giving them kindness and empathy—is one of the best ways to help fight any disease.”

Losing her father to pancreatic cancer inspired �� Boulder undergraduate Giovanna Ruffolo to raise money for cancer research and pursue a career in medicine.

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Top image: Giovanna Ruffolo (right) and her late father, John, representing Colorado cancer patients and survivors at Mile High Stadium at an event sponsored by the American Cancer Society in 2019. (Photo: Giovanna Ruffolo)

What rats can tell us about the opioid crisis

Rachel Sauer — Mon, 14 Jul 2025 13:30:00 +0000

What rats can tell us about the opioid crisis Rachel Sauer Mon, 07/14/2025 - 07:30

Blake Puscher

�� Boulder scientists estimate the heritability of opioid use disorder with a rodent study

Opioid use disorder is an ongoing global health crisis. In the United States alone, almost 108,000 people died from drug overdose in 2022, and about 75% of those deaths involved opioids.

Although many factors contribute to this crisis—and there are many approaches to addressing it as a result—one important line of research is into the genetic factors that increase people’s risk for developing an opioid use disorder (OUD). Once these risk factors are known, doctors may be able to prescribe opioids more strategically to people at higher risk of OUD, and such individuals could make more informed choices.

In recently published research, scientists from the University of Colorado Boulder—including Eamonn Duffy, Jack Ward, Luanne Hale, Kyle Brown and Ryan Bachtell of the Bachtell Laboratory, and Andrew Kwilasz, Erika Mehrhoff, Laura Saba and Marissa Ehringer—tested the influence of genetics on opioid-related behaviors, which include OUD. Specifically, they looked at its heritability by conducting an experiment in which rats were given the ability to self-administer oxycodone, a semi-synthetic opioid that is used medically to treat pain.

�� Boulder researchers tested the influence of genetics on opioid-related behaviors, specifically looking at its heritability by conducting an experiment in which rats were given the ability to self-administer oxycodone, a semi-synthetic opioid that is used medically to treat pain. (Photo: Jon Anders Wiken/Dreamstime.com)

Experimental design

More than 260 inbred rats from 15 strains were used for the study. In this case, an inbred strain is defined as a population produced by 20 or more generations of brother-sister mating. This was important for the study because the rats within inbred strain are isogenic: “They’re almost like clones; their genomes are identical, except for the X and Y chromosomes between males and females,” Duffy explains.

Like the use of identical-twin research involving humans, this makes the results more reliable. In a twin study, most differences between twins are caused by their environment, so researchers can determine the genetic influence on a trait by how much it varies. Similarly, within an inbred strain, most individual differences are caused by sex differences, and this provides insight into the importance of biological sex to a given trait. Between inbred strains, differences are attributable to either the strains’ different genes, sex differences, or a combination of the two.

The animals in the study could self-administer the oxycodone using levers, so their behaviors could be measured. There were two retractable levers in the testing chamber: one active, which would give the rats a dose of oxycodone after being pulled, and one inactive, which would do nothing.

After the active lever was pulled, there was a cooldown period of 20 seconds, during which time pulling the lever would not dispense another dose. Regardless of whether pulling a lever had an effect, it would be recorded. This allowed researchers to measure two substance-use behaviors in addition to the total amount of oxycodone consumed. These variables were referred to as “timeout responding” and “lever discrimination.”

Timeout responses were pulls on the active lever that happened during the cooldown period. Lever discrimination was a measure of how often rats pulled the inactive lever. Both essentially tracked the rats’ ability to self-administer substances in a regulated manner, although lever discrimination could have other associations. Attempting to get more oxycodone very quickly (timeout responding) and attempting to get it in an illogical way (low lever discrimination, especially once the animals had time to learn how the levers worked) are signs of dysregulated drug use.

These measures are important in addition to total dosage because the rats naturally consumed more oxycodone as they developed a tolerance to the drug, making it difficult to characterize their drug use on that basis alone. “With addiction,” Duffy says, “it’s a complicated story. They’re developing tolerance, and they’re showing dysregulated use.”

Push the lever, get the oxycodone

The tests were split into two phases: acquisition and escalation. Although the number of daily doses the rats received generally increased over time, especially between the two phases, their self-administration behaviors varied significantly by strain.

For example, in the escalation phase, the females of one strain pushed the lever for a total oxycodone dose of less than 100 mg/kg, whereas rats of another strain took a total of about 300. There was also variation between males and females within a strain, though not always: In some strains, males and females consumed a similar amount of oxycodone, while in others, consumption was notably divergent, with males consuming around 200 mg/kg more oxycodone overall.

Once the genetic factors that increase people's risk for developing an opioid use disorder (OUD) are known, doctors may be able to prescribe opioids more strategically to people at higher risk of OUD, and such individuals could make more informed choices. (Photo illustration: iStock)

This is evidence for a strain-sex interaction, meaning that the rats’ substance-use behaviors were determined by a combination of genetic background and biological sex, not either alone, according to the researchers. Although the obvious explanation for this would be different genes encoded on the sex chromosomes of the various strains, this isn’t necessarily the case.

“Some of our collaborators in San Diego have performed several genetic mapping studies,” Duffy says, “and they found that the Y chromosome didn’t appear to play much of a role in regulating behavioral traits.”

It is possible that X-chromosome genes are a greater factor. However, the biggest influence would probably be sex hormones or related differences, Duffy adds. For example, according a separate study, the sex hormone estradiol can increase oxycodone metabolism indirectly by raising the concentration of a protein in the brain.

Moreover, Duffy says, “there could be developmental aspects to the sex difference, so seeing if they’re exposed to testosterone versus estrogen as they’re growing up, that may affect how their brain is wired.”

Several other strains showed notably divergent behaviors. Some strains were fairly stable in their use, while others increased their oxycodone intake rapidly during the acquisition phase. Lever discrimination also varied by strain, with one strain increasing its lever discrimination quickly, for example, while another failed to increase its lever discrimination much over time.

The biggest discovery that emerged from the research was the discovery of how heritable several behaviors related to opioid use are.

The influence of genetics

Heritability is a measure of what part of the variation in a group is due to genetic or heritable characteristics.

“With heritability,” Duffy explains, “when you’re looking at everything that goes into some kind of trait, like opioid use disorder, the average genetic component will be your heritability. You also have environmental influences, which could be things such as diet.”

Taking OUC as an example, variation might be understood qualitatively in terms of how destructive the effects of drug use are on individuals, from having minimal effect on people’s lives to potentially causing overdoses and death, Duffy adds.

If the heritability of OUD were 0, the fact that some people use the drug safely and others die because of it would be explained entirely by non-genetic factors. If the heritability of OUD were 1, this fact would be explained entirely by genetics. However, as with most traits, OUD appears to be caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors.

According to the study, measures of oxycodone intake ranged between 0.26 and 0.54 heritability. The high end of this range is total oxycodone intake over the course of the experiment, while the low end is change in intake (increase in intake over the acquisition phase). The other behavioral phenotypes had heritability scores of 0.25 to 0.42, with timeout responding being more heritable than lever discrimination.

“�� half of that variability is due to genetic background,” Duffy says, referring to total intake. “That’s really strong heritability.” However, because these data come from rats, the heritability of these behavioral phenotypes may be different in humans. “We’re not going to capture everything about OUD in a rat model, but we can capture specific aspects and use that to put together a bigger picture.

“OUD is hard to study in humans because there aren’t as many people using opioids as alcohol or nicotine, and of that smaller population, we also have people using several types of drugs, so it’s harder to calculate these heritability values, but I believe ours do fall within the range for opioid dependence and opioid use disorder in humans.”

“With addiction, it’s a complicated story. They’re developing tolerance, and they’re showing dysregulated use.”

It's also important to recognize that heritability is a population-level statistic. This means that it does not represent the chance for any individual to develop a trait, even if that trait could be inherited from the individual’s parents. However, a higher heritability of some trait would correspond to a greater resemblance between parents and offspring in that respect throughout the population, Duffy says.

What genes contribute to OUD?

While it is useful to know how heritable opioid use disorder is, meaningfully assessing the risk for individuals requires knowing what genes contribute to it. This study doesn’t identify these genes, but progress has already been made to this end.

“There’ve been a number of studies in humans that have found that these SNPs, or single nucleotide polymorphisms, are associated with your risk of developing conditions like opioid dependence or opioid use disorder,” Duffy says. “There’s another group that is performing some genetic mapping in outbred rats, and that’s going to be the next stage of this project for us as well.”

One potential gene influencing OUD in mice is an SNP in the Oprm1 gene, which is explained in the study to affect the brain’s response to reward-related behavior generally and analgesics like oxycodone specifically. Common Oprm1 SNPs have also been associated with dysregulated use of an opioid in humans, specifically heroin.

Once relevant SNPs are identified, however, the situation remains complex. “It’s not going to be a simple answer,” Duffy says. “Like, you have this one SNP in Oprm1 and that’s going to increase or influence your risk for OUD. It’s probably going to be a multitude of SNPs, and those additive effects are going to influence the risk for this disorder.”

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�� Boulder scientists estimate the heritability of opioid use disorder with a rodent study.

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Communities working together for better air

Rachel Sauer — Thu, 06 Mar 2025 19:32:50 +0000

Communities working together for better air Rachel Sauer Thu, 03/06/2025 - 12:32

Jenni Shearston

Colorado is tackling air pollution in vulnerable neighborhoods by regulating five air toxics

The Globeville, Elyria-Swansea and Commerce City communities in metro Denver are choked by air pollution from nearby highways, an oil refinery and a Superfund site.

While these neighborhoods have long suffered from air pollution, they’re not the only ones in Colorado.

Now, Colorado is taking a major step to protect people from air pollutants that cause cancer or other major health problems, called “air toxics.” For the first time, the state is developing its own state-level air toxic health standards.

�� Boulder researcher Jenni Shearston studies chemical exposure and health, measuring and evaluating the impact of air pollution on people’s well-being.

In January 2025 Colorado identified five air toxics as “priority” chemicals: benzene, ethylene oxide, formaldehyde, hexavalent chromium compounds and hydrogen sulfide.

The state is in the process of setting health-based standards that will limit the amount of each chemical allowed in the air. Importantly, the standards will be designed to protect people exposed to the chemicals long term, such as those living near emission sources. Exposure to even low amounts of some chemicals, such as benzene, may lead to cancer.

As a researcher studying chemical exposure and health, I measure and evaluate the impact of air pollution on people’s well-being.

Colorado’s new regulations will draw on expert knowledge and community input to protect people’s health.

Communities know what needs regulation

In your own community, is there a highway that runs near your house or a factory with a bad odor? Maybe a gas station right around the corner? You likely already know many of the places that release air pollution near you.

When state or local regulators work with community members to find out what air pollution sources communities are worried about, the partnership can lead to a system that better serves the public and reduces injustice.

For example, partnerships between community advocates, scientists and regulators in heavily polluted and marginalized neighborhoods in New York and Boston have had big benefits. These partnerships resulted in both better scientific knowledge about how air pollution is connected to asthma and the placement of air monitors in neighborhoods impacted the most.

In Colorado, the process to choose the five priority air toxics included consulting with multiple stakeholders. A technical working group provided input on which five chemicals should be prioritized from the larger list of 477 toxic air contaminants.

The working group includes academics, members of nongovernmental organizations such as the Environmental Defense Fund – local government and regulated industries, such as the American Petroleum Institute.

There were also opportunities for community participation during public meetings.

At public hearings, community groups like GreenLatinos argued that formaldehyde, instead of acrolein, should be one of the prioritized air toxics because it can cause cancer.

Additionally, formaldehyde is emitted in some Colorado communities that are predominantly people of color, according to advocates for those communities. These communities are already disproportionately impacted by high rates of respiratory disease and cancer.

Other members of the community also weighed in.

“One of my patients is a 16-year-old boy who tried to get a summer job working outside, but had to quit because air pollution made his asthma so bad that he could barely breathe,” wrote Logan Harper, a Denver-area family physician and advocate for Healthy Air and Water Colorado.

How is air quality protected?

At the national level, the Clean Air Act requires that six common air pollutants, such as ozone and carbon monoxide, are kept below specific levels. The act also regulates 188 hazardous air pollutants.

Individual states are free to develop their own regulations, and several, including California and Minnesota, already have. States can set standards that are more health-protective than those in place nationally.

Four of the five chemicals prioritized by Colorado are regulated federally. The fifth chemical, hydrogen sulfide, is not included on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s hazardous air pollutant list, but Colorado has decided to regulate it as an air toxic.

State-level regulation is important because states can focus on air toxics specific to their state to make sure that the communities most exposed to air pollution are protected. One way to do this is to place air pollution monitors in the communities experiencing the worst air pollution.

For example, Colorado is placing six new air quality monitors in locations around the state to measure concentrations of the five priority air toxics. It will also use an existing monitor in Grand Junction to measure air toxics. Two of the new monitors, located in Commerce City and La Salle, began operating in January 2024. The remainder will start monitoring the air by July 2025.

When Colorado chose the sites, it prioritized communities that are overly impacted by social and environmental hazards. To do this, officials used indexes like the Colorado EnviroScreen, which combines information about pollution, health and economic factors to identify communities that are overly burdened by hazards.

The Commerce City monitor is located in Adams City, a neighborhood that has some of the worst pollution in the state. The site has air toxics emissions that are worse than 95% of communities in Colorado.

Air toxics and health

The five air toxics that Colorado selected all have negative impacts on health. Four are known to cause cancer.

When state or local regulators work with community members to find out what air pollution sources communities are worried about, the partnership can lead to a system that better serves the public and reduces injustice.

Benzene, perhaps the most well known because of its ability to cause blood cancer, is one. But it also has a number of other health impacts, including dampening the ability of the immune system and impacting the reproductive system by decreasing sperm count. Benzene is in combustion-powered vehicle exhaust and is emitted during oil and gas production and refinement.

Ethylene oxide can cause cancer and irritates the nervous and respiratory systems. Symptoms of long-term exposure can include headaches, sore throat, shortness of breath and others. Ethylene oxide is used to sterilize medical equipment, and as of 2024, it was used by four facilities in Colorado.

Formaldehyde is also a cancer-causing agent, and exposure is associated with asthma in children. This air toxic is used in the manufacture of a number of products like household cleaners and building materials. It is also emitted by oil and gas sources, including during fracking.

Hexavalent chromium compounds can cause several types of cancer, as well as skin and lung diseases such as asthma and rhinitis. A major source of hexavalent chromium is coal-fired power plants, of which Colorado currently has six in operation, though these plants are scheduled to close in the next five years. Other sources of hexavalent chromium include chemical and other manufacturing.

Finally, long-term exposure to hydrogen sulfide can cause low blood pressure, headaches and a range of other symptoms, and has been associated with neurological impacts such as psychological disorders. Some sources of hydrogen sulfide include oil refineries and wastewater treatment plants.

Jenni Shearston is an assistant professor in the Department of Integrative Physiology.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Colorado is tackling air pollution in vulnerable neighborhoods by regulating five air toxics.

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Studying the ‘cause of causes’ affecting cardiovascular health

Rachel Sauer — Tue, 21 Jan 2025 15:08:47 +0000

Studying the ‘cause of causes’ affecting cardiovascular health Rachel Sauer Tue, 01/21/2025 - 08:08

Chris Quirk

�� Boulder researchers find that socioeconomic status is a key indicator of heart health

Cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of death in the United States, significantly affects those of lower socioeconomic status. In addition, members of historically marginalized groups—including Black, Indigenous and Asian populations—suffer disproportionately. Therefore, public health advocates and policy makers need to make extra efforts to reach these populations and find ways to reduce their risk of cardiovascular disease.

These are the findings of researchers Sanna Darvish and Sophia Mahoney, PhD candidates in the University of Colorado Boulder Department of Integrative Physiology. Their recent paper on socioeconomic status and arterial aging—written with �� Boulder co-authors Ravinandan Venkatasubramanian, Matthew J. Rossman, Zachary S. Clayton and Kevin O. Murray—was published in the Journal of Applied Physiology.

Researchers Sanna Darvish (left) and Sophia Mahoney (right), PhD candidates in the �� Boulder Department of Integrative Physiology advocate for making extra efforts to reach historically marginalized populations and find ways to reduce their risk of cardiovascular disease.

Darvish and Mahoney conducted a literature review of cardiovascular disease, looking specifically at how it affects various demographics. Their focus was on two physiological features that are predictors of cardiovascular issues: endothelial dysfunction—a failure of the lining of blood vessels that can cause a narrowing of the arteries—and stiffening of arteries.

“It’s pretty well established that individuals of lower socioeconomic status have increased risk for many chronic diseases, but our lab focuses on the physiological and cellular mechanisms contributing to that increased risk,” Darvish explains. “We’re looking at what studies have been conducted, looking at blood vessel dysfunction, arterial dysfunction in these marginalized groups that then will predict their risk for cardiovascular disease.”

Exercise as therapy

Beyond the clinical findings, Darvish and Mahoney cite four social determinants of health regarding cardiovascular disease across ethnic and racial groups: environmental factors, like proximity to pollution or access to green spaces; psychological and social factors, such as stress or structural racism; health care access; and socioeconomic status.

While each of the four has different facets that contribute to overall cardiovascular health, the authors found that socioeconomic status was the “cause of causes,” and thus the most important indicator to examine in their goal of recommending effective therapies.

“It became clear to us that socioeconomic status really played a role in every single aspect of social determinants of health,” says Mahoney. “So, our paper naturally centered around socioeconomic status as we realized that it was the most integrated and affected the rest of the determinants of health.”

To help overcome the barriers to better cardiovascular health among those in lower socioeconomic groups, Darvish and Mahoney recommend exercise.

“Exercise is well established as first line of defense, especially aerobic exercise,” says Mahoney. “It’s easy for us to say that in Colorado, but there are plenty of barriers to people everywhere who do not have access to resources.”

“Exercise is well established as first line of defense, especially aerobic exercise,” says �� Boulder researcher Sophia Mahoney. “It’s easy for us to say that in Colorado, but there are plenty of barriers to people everywhere who do not have access to resources.”

One option the researchers propose is high-intensity interval training (HIIT), which packs a robust aerobic effort into workouts as brief as five or 10 minutes. The authors also recommend inspiratory muscle strength training (IMST), during which users breathe into a simple handheld device that inhibits air flow and get a simulated aerobic workout that also strengthens the diaphragm. Previous research has demonstrated that just a few minutes of IMST therapy a day can reduce blood pressure and the risk of cardiovascular disease.

Reducing research barriers

One thing Darvish and Mahoney hope their study will do is galvanize researchers to include more diverse populations in their research. While investigating the existing literature for their review, the two were dismayed to find few studies that included or focused on populations from the lower socioeconomic echelons.

There are structural reasons for that, Darvish explains. Time is an issue, as those lower on the socioeconomic ladder often work more hours and have more demands on their non-work time. In addition, transportation can be an obstacle, as research facilities may not be near neighborhoods with more diverse populations. “We pay our participants an appropriate amount for their participation, but not all clinical trials do,” Darvish says.

“Another thing we are doing is instituting a lift service through our lab, to drive people in from their homes in Denver to our lab in Boulder, and we hope this will help improve access for more people to participate.”

Language barriers can be another impediment, as all release forms and study literature would need to be translated for those who don’t speak English. Darvish and Mahoney say it is important that researchers work to overcome these structural barriers. “Our lab is working to do all we can to reduce biases, and include these diverse populations,” says Mahoney. “We need to practice what we preach and start with ourselves.”

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�� Boulder researchers find that socioeconomic status is a key indicator of heart health.

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There’s a reason it’s called ‘graveyard’

Rachel Sauer — Thu, 19 Dec 2024 23:37:14 +0000

There’s a reason it’s called ‘graveyard’ Rachel Sauer Thu, 12/19/2024 - 16:37

Chris Quirk

In a study she conducted while she was a �� Boulder postdoctoral researcher, Elizabeth Holzhausen and colleagues find a link between night-shift work and prostate-cancer risk

More workers than ever before can take advantage of flexible schedules. But some in health care, emergency services, manufacturing and other occupations are often constrained to regular overnight shifts. Epidemiologist Elizabeth Holzhausen had questions about the serious health risks associated with night shift work, specifically regarding prostate cancer.

Holzhausen, who worked as a postdoctoral associate in the University of Colorado Boulder Department of Integrative Physiology before recently becoming an assistant research professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, is coauthor—along with Jinyoung Moon of the College of Natural Sciences, Seoul National University, and Yongseok Mun of the Hallym University Kangnam Sacred Heart Hospital in Seoul—of a study examining the prevalence of prostate cancer in men who regularly work the night shift.

While a postdoctoral associate in the �� Boulder Department of Integrative Physiology, Elizabeth Holzhausen studied the prevalence of prostate cancer in men who work the night shift.

They also examined whether the number of years on that shift increased the risk to employees. Their paper was recently published in the journal Heliyon.

For the study, Holzhausen and her colleagues conducted a meta-analysis, examining a large number of studies that looked at prostate cancer incidence and its possible relationship to night-shift work. One motivation for the meta-analysis was that there had been mixed results regarding any correlation between prostate cancer and night-shift workers in past studies. Holzhausen and the research team hoped to settle the matter with a rigorous meta-analysis.

Previous research has shown that working the night shift can present numerous health hazards. Along with heightened cancer risk, night shifts can increase the probability of heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and sleep disorders in workers.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, 13% of men will get prostate cancer, and approximately 3% of men die from the disease, which is more likely to strike older men. Definitive current figures are difficult to find, but the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that in 2018, close to 4% of employees worked the night shift, including approximately 2.5 million men.

Prostate cancer and the night shift

In their study, Holzhausen and her co-authors found that there was a link between increased incidence of prostate cancer and night-shift work. They also determined that the longer men worked the night shift, the higher the risk became. The study showed that workers on the night shift for just one year had a 1% increase in prostate cancer risk, but for workers who had 30 years of overnight shifts, that risk jumped to 39%.

“I was surprised about the magnitude of the findings,” says Holzhausen. “There are a lot of people who work the night shift, so this is especially impacting people who work this shift over a long period of time.”

As Holzhausen explains, the disruptions to the body from shift work are significant: “There are several cancers that have been associated with night-shift work, and one of the big things is that we know lack of sleep and circadian misalignment can reduce the functioning of the immune system,” she says. “As a result, [the body’s] surveillance for cancer cells could be impacted if someone is doing chronic night-shift work.”

One of the challenges of the study was controlling for outside factors across a number of different studies that used different methods. A large chunk of the paper describes how the researchers achieved that.

"There are several cancers that have been associated with night-shift work, and one of the big things is that we know lack of sleep and circadian misalignment can reduce the functioning of the immune system."

“We were very rigorous about what studies we included," says Holzhausen. "Studies where the exposure was maybe nursing or some occupation that could be night-shift work, but they didn't explicitly identify if they were doing night-shift work, were excluded. We only looked at studies where specifically night-shift work was the exposure.”

The researchers also included studies that controlled for socioeconomic status to remove it as a variable in the study. "Nearly all of the studies included in our meta-analysis considered socioeconomic status. We did not analyze socioeconomic status explicitly and aren’t able to make inferences about different socioeconomic strata," says Holzhausen.

"However, the aim in adjusting for socioeconomic status is to estimate the impact of night-shift work on risk of prostate cancer independent of socioeconomic status. In other words, the results we observed are unlikely to be due to differences in socioeconomic status between day- and night-shift workers."

Holzhausen says that since night-shift work is probably not going away anytime soon, night-shift workers should be proactive in mitigating the potential risks: “Get additional screenings for prostate cancer, and take other measures that we know can help prevent prostate cancer, like eating a healthy diet, maintaining a healthy weight, limiting alcohol and not smoking.”

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In a study she conducted while she was a �� Boulder postdoctoral researcher, Elizabeth Holzhausen and colleagues find a link between night-shift work and prostate-cancer risk.

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Seminar to tackle misconceptions, highlight benefits of protein

Anonymous — Thu, 18 Jan 2024 22:11:03 +0000

Seminar to tackle misconceptions, highlight benefits of protein Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 01/18/2024 - 15:11

�� Boulder nutritionist Nicole Stob will discuss this vital macronutrient during the Jan. 29 Let’s �� Well seminar

Are you getting enough protein in your diet?

If you are like most Americans, you probably are—but then again, it’s understandable if you don’t know for sure, according to Nicole Stob, a nutritionist and assistant teaching professor in the University of Colorado Boulder Department of Integrative Physiology.

“What I find is that a lot of students, or just people in general, think they are not consuming enough protein, when, in fact, if they are consuming meat, it’s actually pretty easy to get enough in your diet,” she says.

Stob will share insights regarding the benefits of protein, the types of protein, the ideal protein intake for special populations, and some misconceptions about protein during her upcoming Let’s �� Well seminar, “Protein: Is it for me? Pro tip: It’s for everyone.”

Nicole Stob, a nutritionist and �� Boulder assistant teaching professor of integrative physiology, will discuss the importance of protein during a Jan. 29 Let's �� Well presentation.

The seminar is scheduled as a Zoom presentation starting at 1 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 29. The event is free, but registration is required.

The Let’s �� Well speaker series are offered with �� staff, students and interested community members in mind. The series is an offshoot of Be Well, a wellness initiative launched by the College of Arts and Sciences.

In her presentation, Stob says she will emphasize why protein is important, beyond simply building or maintaining muscle mass.

“I think the average person probably doesn’t realize how much protein does in the body,” she says. “Most people think about protein as it relates to muscles; building muscle mass or maintaining muscle mass, but that’s just one of the things it does in the body. It’s part of the immune system and it’s part of everything else in the body as well.”

Recommended daily protein

The recommended daily protein consumption for individuals depends upon several factors, including their age and how active they are, Stob says. For average American adults, who tend to be fairly sedentary, nutritionists recommended 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight. For someone in that category who weighs 70 kilograms (roughly 154 pounds), for example, the suggested daily protein intake would be about 56 grams.

Given that one 3-ounce hamburger (about the size of a deck of playing cards) has about 25 grams of protein, Stob says it’s not hard for the average American to meet their recommended protein intake.

“Again, a lot of people who think they are not getting enough protein probably are. That’s probably the biggest misconception when it comes to protein.” she says. “Like with many things in nutrition, the answers aren’t always immediately clear because there’s just so much misinformation out there.”

When most people think of protein, Stob says, they tend to think of animal-based foods, such as meat, poultry and eggs, but there are plenty of plant-based foods offering healthy protein as well.

“Protein is found in both animal- and plant-based foods. The difference is that animal-based ones tend to be better absorbed. It gives you more amino acids, the building blocks of proteins,” Stob explains. “But you can get protein from plants, too. So, someone who is a vegetarian or vegan isn’t out of luck; it is possible to get enough protein and maintain a healthy diet.”

For those who opt for a vegetarian or vegan diet, Stob says she generally recommends they eat plant-based foods rich in protein, such as soy, peas, legumes and beans.

“I’m always telling the college kids, when they go to Chipotle, ‘Get extra beans on your bowl,’ because they have a good amount of protein and they’re a great source of fiber, too. They are a great food and really underrated, if you ask me.”

A whole-person approach

In her presentation, Stob says she will spend a bit of time talking about how certain groups require extra protein.

I think the average person probably doesn’t realize how much protein does in the body. Most people think about protein as it relates to muscles; building muscle mass or maintaining muscle mass, but that’s just one of the things it does in the body. It’s part of the immune system and it’s part of everything else in the body as well.”

“Because Boulder is such an active community, I will talk about how athletes need more protein,” she says. “I will also talk about aging and the importance of consuming enough protein as we age. The loss of muscle mass due to aging is a real thing, so it’s important to give your body the building blocks it needs, including protein, to stay healthy.”

In recent years, the paleo (aka “Cave Man”) and Atkins diets that emphasize eating proteins and eliminating carbohydrates have found favor with a certain portion of the population.

For her part, Stob says she emphasizes to her students that there is no one diet that is right for every individual.

“Some people do really well on something like the paleo diet. For others, without carbohydrates, they just can’t function; they don’t have enough energy,” she says. “Everyone is different.”

Stob adds that the choices people make about their nutrition need to done in the context of maintaining a good, healthy lifestyle.

“Taking a whole-person approach to health involves realizing we need to take a look at physical activity, nutrition and mental health,” she says. “Nutrition is such an integral part of wellness and a healthy lifestyle. If that gets ignored, it’s a problem.”

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�� Boulder nutritionist Nicole Stob will discuss this vital macronutrient during the Jan. 29 Let’s �� Well seminar.

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Monique LeBourgeois, pioneering sleep researcher, dies

Anonymous — Thu, 04 Jan 2024 20:51:46 +0000

Monique LeBourgeois, pioneering sleep researcher, dies Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 01/04/2024 - 13:51

She helped answer questions about sleep disruptions in children, knowledge that has been helpful to parents

Monique LeBourgeois, associate professor of integrative physiology at the University of Colorado Boulder and an expert on sleep and circadian physiology in children, died on Nov. 28, 2023. She was 54.

LeBourgeois’ colleagues and friends were “devastated by her premature passing,” Marissa Ehringer, �� Boulder chair and professor of integrative physiology, said in a statement. “Monique was an exceptional scientist, teacher, mentor and person who will be greatly missed by many in our department and across campus.”

In addition to the personal loss, Ehringer noted the loss to science: “Her innovative research pioneered methods for assessing circadian rhythms and sleep measures in toddlers in the home environment.”

In 2018, for example, the LeBourgeois Sleep and Development Lab found that dimming the lights in the hours before bedtime can help children fall asleep. Specifically, the lab found, exposing preschoolers to an hour of bright light before bedtime almost completely shuts down their production of melatonin, a sleep-promoting hormone.

Further, exposure to bright light just before bedtime suppressed the production of melatonin for at least 50 minutes after lights were turned off. The study was the first to assess the hormonal impact nighttime light exposure can have on young children.

Monique was an exceptional scientist, teacher, mentor and person who will be greatly missed by many in our department and across campus. ... Her innovative research pioneered methods for assessing circadian rhythms and sleep measures in toddlers in the home environment.”

“Light is our brain clock's primary timekeeper,” LeBourgeois explained at the time. “We know younger individuals have larger pupils, and their lenses are more transparent. This heightened sensitivity to light may make them even more susceptible to dysregulation of sleep and the circadian clock.”

LeBourgeois and her colleagues also shed new light on the biological, neurological and environmental effects of light and electronic screen time on children.

In her research, LeBourgeois developed creative, groundbreaking techniques to rigorously conduct circadian and sleep research in the home environment, including performing salivary melatonin and high-density EEG/polysomnography assessments on toddlers.

LeBourgeois earned her BS in psychology in 1995 from the University of Southern Mississippi. Under the mentorship of John Harsh, a scientist who was investigating sleep disturbance in childhood, she later earned her MS in counseling psychology, MS in experimental psychology and PhD in experimental psychology, at the University of Southern Mississippi.

She did postdoctoral research at Brown Medical School, under the mentorship of Mary Carskadon, professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior. There, LeBourgeois’ interest in measurement of sleep homeostasis and circadian rhythms blossomed, and she began to apply these concepts and measures to evaluate the developmental aspects of sleep behavior regulation in young children.

LeBourgeois had an “outstanding way of working with families and kids and maintaining their engagement throughout longitudinal studies,” Carskadon said.

In 2010, the �� Boulder Department of Integrative Physiology recruited her to join the faculty as a tenure-track professor. She conducted longitudinal studies examining the development of Process C and Process S (two components of a sleep regulation concept) across early childhood, as well as researching the sensitivity of the developing circadian system to light exposure.

LeBourgeois was successful in securing external research funding and received continuous funding from the National Institutes of Health since 2001. She engaged in collaborative research, where she created opportunities, generously lent her expertise, and shared her passion for developmental sleep and circadian science, colleagues said.

Beyond her scientific accomplishments, LeBourgeois devoted much of her academic life to mentorship, always asking trainees, “What do you want your life to look like?”

She invested time, energy, trust and love into helping trainees to successfully achieve their goals. Recognizing the mentorship she received, she sought to sustain it by creating the Mary A. Carskadon Sleep and Circadian Summer Research Fellowship in 2017.

This annual fellowship provided enriching and unique opportunities for students to receive hands-on research experiences, form relationships with families in the community and develop basic professional skills. Many of her trainees have gone on to successful careers in professions including biomedical research, health care, science policy and industry.

She published nearly 80 peer-reviewed journal articles and had another 10 in progress or under review at the time of her death. Among the recognitions she received were the American Academy of Sleep Medicine Young Investigator Award in 2003, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine/Pfizer Scholars Grants in Sleep Medicine Award in 2005, and a College Scholar Award from �� Boulder in 2022.

Last year, she was named a Health Research Accelerator Fellow at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.

Her pivotal research advanced our understanding of sleep and circadian physiology in early childhood.

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Your brain remembers what your fingers used to do

Anonymous — Thu, 02 Nov 2023 14:50:58 +0000

Your brain remembers what your fingers used to do Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 11/02/2023 - 08:50

Rachel Sauer

New �� Boulder research demonstrates that, with practice, older adults can regain manual dexterity that may have seemed lost

Despite what ads for wrinkle cream would have us believe, there’s no magic reversal for aging. As the years pass, a certain amount of change is inevitable but not, it turns out, inexorable.

Fingers that feel less nimble in doing the normal tasks of life—buttoning a shirt, writing a list—are not doomed to stay that way, new research shows. It also demonstrates that, to some extent, age is just a number.

Researchers in the University of Colorado Boulder Department of Integrative Physiology—first author Sajjad Daneshgar and Taylor Tvrdy, both PhD students, and Professor Roger Enoka—worked with more than two dozen study participants ages 60 to 83 to understand whether manual dexterity can improve with time.

Sajjad Daneshgar, a PhD student in the �� Boulder Department of Integrative Physiology, conducted research that found manual dexterity can improve with practice in older age.

Over six sessions, participants completed a pegboard exercise multiple times, and after the sixth session, data showed that the average time it took to complete the pegboard had decreased for all participants.

“We saw that in older adults, training can improve hand function to a level it was at in middle age,” Daneshgar says. “In a way, practicing helped them go back a decade or two. Most people believe that aging has many negative challenges in terms of function in the hands, but this study shows that what you achieved in the past can really help you as you get older.”

Simple puzzle, complex process

For the study, Daneshgar and his research colleagues recruited right-handed older adults with no history of neurological disease. After an initial familiarization session and evaluation session, participants completed a grooved pegboard test 25 times in each of six sessions.

The test required participants to fit small, keyhole-shaped metal pegs into 25 holes on a board as quickly as possible. The keyholes had different orientations on the board, so participants not only had to manipulate the pegs with their fingers to get them situated correctly, but then fit them correctly.

“At first glance, this looks like a simple puzzle or game, but it’s actually a very complex process,” Daneshgar says. “Your mind is controlling your physical function—and we’re doing a lot more studies on this physical function and what’s going on in the muscles, in the nervous system—and we’re seeing that cognition of the mind, how you learn things, is connected to the muscles and how dexterous you are.”

For example, one of the study participants was a 67-year-old woman who played the piano in her youth. While the average time to complete the pegboard was between 40 and 50 seconds, she could do it in 36—a time faster than some of the researchers could achieve.

“Even though she wasn’t regularly playing the piano during the study, that tells us that perhaps the memory your brain has of controlling those muscles still exists,” Daneshgar says. “Some activities that people do—playing a musical instrument, rock climbing—can be very beneficial for manual dexterity, and even if they’re done earlier in life, the brain may remember controlling those muscles.”

During the research, study participants fit small, keyhole-shaped metal pegs into 25 holes on a board as quickly as possible.

Practice leads to improvement

However, those who reach their later years without a longtime history of guitar-playing or bouldering shouldn’t despair. Wherever study participants started at baseline—even if their initial times for completing the pegboard were comparatively slow—each saw improvement in their times by the sixth session.

“Manual dexterity can be improved by the brain,” Daneshgar says. “It’s not just at the level of the fingers. Signals from the brain are controlling function and practicing aids learning. This study shows that, as far as function in the limbs and hands, learning in terms of muscle training never ends. Whatever level you’re at, you can go back to this training and practicing to see improvement in function.”

Another important outcome from the research is demonstrating that categorizing people’s performance based on chronological age during their later years may not be the best way to understand manual dexterity.

“Whatever you learned in the past is going to be a main player in performance in older age,” Daneshgar says. “Of course, not all people in older age are going to have the same performance, but people who had better practice in the past can, in older age, practice and get to a place where they perform better than middle-age adults.

“But we also showed that practice helps everybody. It doesn’t matter if you have particular experience earlier in life, practice helps all people to do better with no exception.”

Manual dexterity is one of the National Institutes of Health Toolbox biomarkers of neurological health and motor function across the span of life. Daneshgar notes that the research demonstrates manual dexterity is not something that must inevitably worsen over time. With practice, the brain can remember what the fingers once did.

“Manual dexterity relates to our ability to button a shirt or hold a pen,” Daneshgar says. “These are the activities of daily life that we want to be able to do throughout our lives, and they’re abilities that we don’t need to lose.”

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New �� Boulder research demonstrates that, with practice, older adults can regain manual dexterity that may have seemed lost.

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Could focused breathing be a key to better health?

Anonymous — Tue, 17 Oct 2023 19:52:30 +0000

Could focused breathing be a key to better health? Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 10/17/2023 - 13:52

Pam Moore

�� Boulder researchers Daniel Craighead, Douglas Seals and their team are studying the effects of a specialized breathing exercise on older adults’ blood pressure, brain health, cognition and fitness

Although the health benefits of exercise are well known, less than 40% of older and midlife Americans meet recommended aerobic activity guidelines. But what if you could improve your health without getting out of your chair—and it took only 10 minutes a day?

High-resistance inspiratory muscle strength training (IMST) may be the ticket, according to recently published research from the Integrative Physiology of Aging Laboratory, which is led by �� Distinguished Professor Douglas Seals, in the University of Colorado Boulder Department of Integrative Physiology.

Researchers found that participants who engaged in IMST, a type of breathing exercise designed to strengthen the diaphragm and accessory breathing muscles, appeared to show improvements across multiple health measures, including blood pressure, exercise tolerance, cognition and the functioning of blood vessels in the brain.

How the study was done

IMST is a form of respiratory muscle training that lets you inhale against high resistance by breathing through a device that vaguely resembles a vacuum attachment. “The breath is rapid and intense and feels a bit like sucking up a thick milkshake,” says Daniel Craighhead, an assistant research professor of integrative physiology and the study’s lead investigator.

�� Boulder researcher Daniel Craighead and his colleagues found that high-resistance inspiratory muscle strength training may support improvements in multiple health measures, including blood pressure.

All subjects in the randomized, double-blind study were generally healthy men and postmenopausal women, at least 50 years old, classified as having elevated blood pressure (systolic blood pressure of at least 120 mmHg) and on average met minimum physical activity guidelines.

The experimental group performed high-resistance IMST, while the control group used a sham, low-resistance device. Both groups performed a specific protocol for five to 10 minutes per day, six days per week, for six weeks.

While the control group saw no significant health changes, the experimental group showed improvements in blood pressure, aerobic fitness, cognitive abilities and brain-blood-vessel health.

Potential health benefits

On average, subjects’ systolic blood pressure decreased by nine points within six weeks, says Craighead. Given that high blood pressure is a risk factor for many health issues, including cardiac arrest, stroke, dementia and cancer, these preliminary findings justify more research, which Craighead is now spearheading.

Subjects also increased their capacity for aerobic exercise, a metric associated with positive health outcomes including longevity, quality of life and lower risks of stroke, heart disease, diabetes and cancer.

At the beginning and the end of the study, subjects were asked to walk on a treadmill with a gradually increasing incline until they could no longer tolerate the activity. Although their VO2 max, or their maximum ability to consume oxygen, didn’t change, subjects walked an average of 12% longer on the second trial—a significant improvement.

There were “really strong improvements” in the quality of the blood vessels in subjects’ brains as well. “Starting in midlife, the health of our brain blood vessels starts to decline. How rapidly and intensely that happens can impact our future risk for mild cognitive impairment and dementia, such as Alzheimer’s disease,” says Craighead.

And while it’s too soon to say definitively that IMST could delay or prevent the onset of dementia, “it’s at least a promising early finding,” he says.

Meanwhile, researchers observed significant improvements in subjects’ executive functioning, or the ability to plan ahead, focus attention and switch between multiple tasks. And “executive function is one of the areas [of cognitive function] that declines most rapidly with dementia,” says Craighead.

So what does this mean?

If you’re tempted to trade your exercise routine for IMST, Craighead has advice: Don’t. “While it seems to have similar effects to exercise when it comes to blood pressure and other health measures, unfortunately we didn’t see changes in things like cholesterol levels, blood sugar or bone density—all things we know exercise improves.”

That said, if you’re not currently exercising, IMST is a low-impact, time-efficient way to improve your health that has no known serious side effects. While some subjects initially reported neck strain and lightheadedness, those issues resolved and were not significant enough to cause anyone to quit the study, says Craighead. However, he and his research colleagues do recommend that everyone check with their physician before starting IMST because it might not be 100% safe for everyone.

This technique can be helpful for those with health conditions that make it impossible to meet the recommended physical activity guidelines, Craighead suggests.

Those exercising at higher levels may benefit from IMST, too. “I think the data is strong enough to say, if you’re a serious athlete, you might as well add it. And if you don’t benefit from it, you’re likely not doing any harm,” says Craighead. “Say you’re a runner. It’s not going to fatigue your legs or increase your risk of injury, and it’s time efficient.”

While the data suggest that IMST might improve health, cognition and athletic performance, Craighead isn’t calling it a magic bullet. It’s too soon to make any sweeping statements about the IMST’s potential, according to Craighead. Still, he says, “The initial results are really exciting.”

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Vast majority of students were up for the mask

Anonymous — Thu, 23 Feb 2023 18:54:27 +0000

Vast majority of students were up for the mask Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 02/23/2023 - 11:54

Doug McPherson

Study finds those on �� Boulder and CSU campuses showed high levels of mask use and positive attitudes about masks during pandemic

The vast majority of students at Colorado’s top universities and 52 other schools nationwide wore face masks properly in 2021, indicating that students understood masks’ effectiveness, that students knew masking helped them take more classes in person, and that students care about the health of others, researchers have found.

A new study from the University of Colorado Boulder, Colorado State University (CSU) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that more than 90% of people on �� Boulder and CSU campuses wore masks correctly amid the pandemic during spring 2021.The study, titled, "High rates of observed face mask use at Colorado universities align with students’ opinions about masking and support the safety and viability of in-person higher education during the COVID-19 pandemic," was published this month by BMC Public Health, a peer-reviewed journal focused on public health.

Specifically, researchers found that 91.7%, 93.4%, and 90.8% of people observed at indoor locations on campuses wore masks correctly at �� Boulder, CSU and across 52 other schoolsnationally, respectively. Researchers also found that 92.9% of respondents at �� Boulder and 89.8% at CSU believed that wearing masks can protect the health of others.

Top of page: Music students practiced safe COVID-safe protocols in Don McKinnney’s wind symphony class by wearing masks with slits cut through at the �� Boulder College of Music. The implemented protocols for the performance students were being refined and studied by Shelly Miller, a �� Boulder mechanical engineering professor who specializes in indoor air quality and aerosol and particulate transmission, and her team of researchers. Photo by Glenn Asakawa/University of Colorado. Above: (Left) Tanya Alderete is an assistant professor focused on the relationships between obesity, metabolic disease, enivironmental exposures, and the gut microbiome. (Center) Molly Gutilla, assistant professor, is an expert in public health research and practice. (Right) Kevin Clark, an M.S. graduate student, studies health, healthcare, sleep, tech, wearables and sensors.

Both Colorado universities saw their largest surges in COVID-19 cases in the fall of 2020, with markedly lower-case counts during the mask observation window of eight weeks in the spring of 2021.

“The study supports the idea that masks are an effective, low-cost measure to reduce disease transmission and establishes masking as a viable way to reduce respiratory disease transmission on college campuses,” says Tanya Alderete, assistant professor in the Department of Integrative Physiology at �� Boulder and a principal investigator of the project.

“We also learned that students strongly prefer in-person education to remote, and masking behaviors were supportive of this preference.”

Molly Gutilla, a faculty member at the Colorado School of Public Health at CSU and a principal investigator, agrees with Alderete and adds, “The majority of students care about the health of their community, and they were willing to practice and promote actions to protect campus health.”

Gutilla adds, “Operating a university during the pandemic emphasized something we’ve always known, yet was brought to the forefront. That is, that our campus communities must be safe and healthy to meet our mission of teaching, learning and conducting research. Using data to make decisions was essential to keeping campuses open and functioning as best as possible during the pandemic.”

Alderete, who holds an adjunct faculty position at the Colorado School of Public Health, says when she learned Gutilla was a principal investigator at CSU, they decided to partner in the study. “As a result, we were able to identify complementary data sources that were available on both campuses, including student surveys and COVID testing data,” Alderete says.

The study was part of the CDC’s effort to measure mask use on U.S. campuses, called the mask adherence and surveillance at colleges and universities project (MAS��P!). From Feb. 15 through April 11, 2021, �� Boulder made 2,808 observations, CSU had 3,225 observations, andat the 52 other institutes of higher education there were 100,353 observations spanning 21 states and the District of Columbia.

We were able to see that our findings were consistent across two campuses—with generally similar rates of mask use and student belief in masking to reduce COVID transmission.”

Kevin Clark, a graduate research assistant in the Department of Integrative Physiology and lead author of the study, says the collaboration between �� Boulder and CSU “strengthened the generalizability” of the findings on both campuses.

“Instead of presenting either of our campuses as an individual location where we observed mask use and reported student opinions, we were able to see that our findings were consistent across two campuses—with generally similar rates of mask use and student belief in masking to reduce COVID transmission,” Clark says.

He also praised the leadership of �� Boulder’s COVID Scientific Committee for its help in conducting surveys to gather student opinions and in incorporating testing data into the project.

“I gained a tremendous appreciation for the number of different people and resources at �� Boulder and CSU that were dedicated to monitoring COVID and creating policies and practices for keeping campuses safe,” Clark says.

“I was very impressed by the scale and accuracy of the saliva-based surveillance testing program that �� Boulder had developed and deployed, running hundreds of thousands of surveillance tests. This technology was promptly shared with CSU to use on their campus. We also were surprised to learn how similar masking behaviors and opinions were between �� and CSU.”

Study finds those on �� Boulder and CSU campuses showed high levels of mask use and positive attitudes about masks during pandemic.

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