Research Projects in Women's Health

 

Rates of anxiety and depression are especially high in women with family healthcare stressors. Much of our lab's focus is on women who care for aging family members, including those living with fatal neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's Disease. For more information about the Alzheimer's epidemic, watch this short video.

We continue to develop and test cognitive behavioral interventions for women dementia family caregivers (Steffen, Gant & Gallagher-Thompson 2008.pdf), developed in our lab and in conjunction with collaborators at Stanford University School of Medicine. We are interested in short-term and longitudinal impacts on healthcare utilization, medication management, as well as the relationships between caregiving self-efficacy and psychosocial functioning.

Concurrently, we are examining additional issues in women's health, including obesity and the role of emotional eating in family caregivers, stressors associated with managing complex medication regimens for older family members, and sexuality in women across the lifespan.  Future research is expected to explore issues specific to couples coping with early stage dementia. 

For an overview of how lifespan developmental theory frames our approaches to caregiving issues, click here to listen to Dr. Steffen's (2008) presentation to the St. Louis Ethical Society.