Mallory Smith, MD, a Pediatric Injury T32 fellow and Ashley Tabah, MS, MPH, a PhD Health Economics Student with the UW Comparative Health Outcomes, Policy, and Economics (CHOICE) Institute were awarded the Rivara Endowment Injury Research Grant.
Smith’s project is titled: Patient and Parental Mental Health Utilization After Severe Pediatric Burn Injury
The project will focus on the mental healthcare utilization of pediatric burn survivors and their primary caregivers for the two years after burn injury. “During my T32 fellowship, I have focused on the impact of severe pain experienced during critical illness and injury on long-term mental health for pediatric patients,” says Smith. Her interest for this originated from her experiences as a pediatric critical care medicine fellow caring for children with pain in the pediatric ICU. This research will potentially improve the understanding of how parent and child mental health outcomes are related.
“I will use these data to inform my future plans to develop a research program focused on improving parent wellbeing during their child’s critical illness/injury so that they may better help their child cope with pain and anxiety,” says Smith.
Smith will be mentored by Drs. Monica Vavilala, Fred Rivara, Jin Wang, and HIPRC Research Scientist Brianna Mills.
Tabah’s project is titled: Antidepressants and the Risk of Fall Injury in Older Adults with Depression
The project will assess the comparative risk of fall injury among people starting antidepressants. “I decided to explore this topic because an average of 8.4 million fall injuries occur each year among adults aged 65 and over,” says Tabah. Her interest for this project originated because little is known about how fall injury risk differs between antidepressants, despite older adults being the most frequent users of these medications. She hopes to fill this gap.
“My hypothesis is that, compared to other antidepressants, fluoxetine and paroxetine will increase risk of fall-related injury during treatment,” says Tabah.
Tabah will be mentored by Drs. Ryan Hansen, Zachary Marcum, and Laurie Gold.
