I’m Leila
Raminpour and my major is Community Health, with a concentration in Clinical Science.
My project involves secondary analysis of a dataset from the National Cancer
Institute’s (NCI) FLASHE (Family Life, Activity, Sun, Health, and Eating)
study. The goal of my research is to examine relationships between parental
nutrition communication strategies and adolescent girls’ eating behavior,
BMI-for-age, and age at menarche (first menstrual period).
I’ve always been interested in women’s health, but my interest in this particular subject area was peaked when I read an op-ed about how age at menarche is an indicator of future health status. My interest grew as I wrote my final paper on the topic in NUTR 422 (Nutrition through the Lifecycle). When I realized that there was not enough literature on the subject, I approached my instructor, registered dietitian Camella Rising, to determine her willingness to mentor me.
On a weekly
basis, I meet with my mentor to learn how to use SPSS and prepare the FLASHE
dataset for statistical analysis. No week is the same, however, which
definitely helps keep the project interesting (statistics can be a bit dry!).
For example, last week I had the opportunity to meet fellows and program
managers at the NCI branch where FLASHE is managed (see photo). This project
has shown me that there is much more that goes into analyzing relationships
between health-related behaviors and health outcomes than I realized.
Since I hope to
be an OBGYN one day, I’m seeing how helpful it will be to my future career to
better understand how parents influence their adolescent girls’ eating
behavior, and how that influence might promote good health outcomes. Diving
deeply into the subject has broadened my understanding of the scope of the
issue.
