Public Health Doctoral Student Named UIC Dean’s Scholar To Focus On Childhood Obesity Research

An investment was made in childhood health when University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health student, Sarah Forrestal, was named a Dean’s Scholar.

The UIC Graduate College award of nearly $30,000 was designed to allow doctoral students the freedom to pursue their research without the encumbrances of an assistantship. It gives awardees one year to invest completely in their studies.

“I am interested in the intersection between child development and child nutrition,” said Forrestal, a PhD candidate in maternal and child health at the UIC SPH. “Childhood obesity is recognized as one of the most pressing public health issues, and in order to address the problem, researchers and policy makers require valid dietary data as the foundation of their work.”

Forrestal’s research is focusing on how this data is acquired; particularly, how different age groups and ethnic groups report their dietary intake. Her dissertation work uses data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey to compare the dietary reporting patterns of children, adolescents and adults, and to identify the characteristics (such as gender, age, overweight status and dieting history) that are associated with less accurate reporting, she said.

“Virtually no studies have directly compared the dietary reporting patterns of children, adolescents and adults, or possible differences in reporting patterns among different racial and ethnic groups,” Forrestal explained. “Since there are large disparities in the prevalence of childhood obesity among different racial and ethnic groups, the latter issue is particularly important. Measuring individuals’ diets is challenging enough with adults, but additional considerations with children and adolescents include their ongoing cognitive and social development.”

Michele Issel, a clinical associate professor in community health sciences at UIC SPH, is Forrestal’s dissertation chair.

“Sarah has been one of the best students I have had the pleasure to mentor and work with,” Issel said. “I appreciate her fundamental curiosity and her deep interest to deeply understand some of the more complex and subtle aspects of conducting survey research.”

Forrestal said her research can eventually be used to produce more accurate information for researchers and policy makers and to identify new strategies for collecting dietary data in order to make it easier for children and adolescents.

Students across the UIC campus are eligible for the honor, making competition stiff, but Forrestal said she is grateful for the support of her faculty mentors at UIC SPH.

“They [faculty] were all enthusiastic about writing the letters of recommendation on my behalf, which made the application process so much easier,” she said.

Associate Professor of community health sciences Noel Chavez said Forrestal’s research is significant because it has not been examined enough.

"Sarah is an outstanding student in many ways. She is a capable researcher analyzing innovative research questions, and her results will add to our understanding of over- and under-reporting of dietary intake by children and adolescents, a much understudied phenomenon," Chavez said.

The one-year award includes a $20,000 stipend, tuition waiver and a small research budget. Forrestal has received numerous awards during her public health studies including this year’s UIC SPH Bonnie C. Minsky Scholarship. She also tied for first place for her poster reflecting research excellence in public health at the UIC SPH 4th Annual Research and Awards Day and was the recipient of the Edith Heide Memorial Scholarship from the Illinois Public Health Association.

Forrestal has also been involved in several leadership roles, including acting as the CHS Doctoral Student Committee co-chair, American Public Health Association Student Assembly Campus Liaison and APHA Food and Nutrition Section newsletter co-editor.

-- Nichola Moretti

Sarah Forrestal