Kristen Chossek Malecki

• PhD, MPH
• Professor Division Director at University of Illinois Chicago

The amino acid composition of the diet has recently emerged as a critical regulator of metabolic health. Consumption of the branched-chain amino acid isoleucine is positively correlated with body mass index in humans, and reducing dietary levels of isoleucine rapidly improves the metabolic health of diet-induced obese male C57BL/6J mice. However, i...

Study Objectives Alterations in gut microbiota composition have been associated with several conditions, and there is emerging evidence that sleep quantity and quality are associated with the composition of the gut microbiome. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the associations between several measures of sleep and the gut microbiome in a large,...

Background Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a growing class of manufactured chemical compounds found in a variety of consumer products. PFAS are ubiquitous in the environment and were found in many humans sampled in the United States (U.S.). Yet, significant gaps in understanding statewide levels of exposure to PFAS remain. Objective...

Background: In the USA, one in five adults live with a mental illness, and researchers have estimated that nearly half of the population will have a mental illness over the course of their lifetime. Research has shown significant associations between social relationships and mental health outcomes at the individual and population levels. This stud...

Background: Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a growing class of manufactured chemical compounds found in a variety of consumer products. PFAS have become ubiquitous in the environment and were found in many humans sampled in the United States (U.S.). Yet, significant gaps in understanding statewide level exposures to PFAS remain. Obje...

Objective: Hearing and vision impairment are prevalent chronic conditions associated with poorer mental health. Limitations of in-person contacts during COVID-19-related lockdown measures may affect those with sensory impairments more severely exacerbating mental health problems. We aimed to determine whether hearing and/or visual impairment were...

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic increased stress levels broadly in the general population. Patterns of alcohol consumption are known to increase in times of increased stress like natural disasters, disease outbreaks, and economic turmoil. Wisconsin is an important place to study changes in alcohol consumption because it is one of the heaviest-d...

The gut microbiome is an important factor in human health and disease. While preliminary studies have found some evidence that physical activity is associated with gut microbiome richness, diversity, and composition, this relationship is not fully understood and has not been previously characterized in a large, population-based cohort. In this stud...

Background Persistently high chronic stress can lead to maladaptive psychological, behavioral, and physiological stress responses and poor mental and physical health, highlighting the importance of identifying individuals at increased risk. Chronic health condition diagnosis and genetics are 2 characteristics that can influence stress, stress respo...

Low‐protein (LP) diets are associated with a decreased risk of diabetes in humans, and promote leanness and glycaemic control in both rodents and humans. While the effects of an LP diet on glycaemic control are mediated by reduced levels of the branched‐chain amino acids, we have observed that reducing dietary levels of the other six essential amin...

Rationale: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of mortality for women in the USA. Current clinical biomarkers are inadequate to determine CVD risk in women, especially Black women, who disproportionately suffer from CVD. Methods: Clinical data and LC-MS lipidomics from two independent study cohorts were used to identify novel circulat...

Diet is widely recognized as a key contributor to human gut microbiome composition and function. However, overall nutrition can be difficult to compare across a population with varying diets. Moreover, the role of food security in the relationship with overall nutrition and the gut microbiome is unclear. This study aims to investigate the associati...

Objective This study assessed a broad array of socioeconomic barriers in relation to preferred contraceptive use during a time of exacerbated personal and social financial strain (the COVID-19 pandemic). Study Design Using statewide data collected in early 2021 through the Survey of the Health of Wisconsin, we conducted bivariate analyses explorin...

Background: Burning fossil fuels, including coal, is the primary source of greenhouse gas emissions driving anthropogenic climate change and its associated health harms. Coal-fired power plants supply 23% of electricity nationally and 42% for Wisconsin, contributing to air pollution and associated respiratory diseases, cancers, and cardiovascular...

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of mortality for women in the USA. Women with dyslipidemia have at increased risk of CVD. The parameters of dyslipidemia have primarily been defined using Caucasian male populations. Current lipid markers of dyslipidemia such as high density lipoprotein (HDL), low density lipoprotein (LDL), and trig...

Low protein (LP) diets are associated with a decreased risk of diabetes in humans, and a low protein diet promotes leanness and glycemic control in both rodents and humans. While the effects of a LP diet on glycemic control are mediated by reduced dietary levels of the branched- chain amino acids (BCAAs), we have observed that reducing dietary leve...

Introduction The Survey of the Health of Wisconsin (SHOW) was established in 2008 by the University of Wisconsin (UW) School of Medicine and Public Health (SMPH) with the goals of (1) providing a timely and accurate picture of the health of the state residents; and (2) serving as an agile resource infrastructure for ancillary studies. Today, the SH...

Despite significant overlaps in mission, the fields of environmental health sciences and aging biology are just beginning to intersect. It is increasingly clear that genetics alone does not predict an individual’s neurological aging and sensitivity to disease. Accordingly, aging neuroscience is a growing area of mutual interest within environmental...

Purposeof Review This review highlights six “best practices” for cancer epidemiology coordinating centers to facilitate the success of a research consortium. Recent Findings Evidence from emerging literature regarding the Science of Team Science suggests that coordinating centers can more effectively foster collaborative cancer epidemiology resear...

Abstract Background New technologies like next-generation sequencing have led to a proliferation of studies investigating the role of the gut microbiome in human health, particularly population-based studies that rely upon participant self-collection of samples. However, the impact of methodological differences in sample shipping, storage, and proc...

Hearing and vision impairment are highly prevalent chronic conditions and are associated with poorer mental health and well-being. Mental health problems may be exacerbated by COVID-19-related lockdown measures and limitations of in-person contacts may affect those with sensory impairments more severely. We aimed to determine whether hearing and/or...

Purpose: The Population-based Microbiome Research Core (PMRC) is an expandable and longitudinal research core infrastructure to support the study of the human microbiome within the context of environmental, sociodemographic, and health factors. Broadly, the purpose of this infrastructure is to provide new insights into how human-environment interac...

Purpose: Sustained high stress exposure results in chronic activation of the stress response system, dysregulated stress responses, high allostatic load, and poor later-life health. Children and adolescents with chronic health conditions face stressors related to their condition in addition to those typical of childhood and adolescence, placing th...

Background: Infection by antibiotic resistant bacteria (ARB) is a global health crisis and asymptomatic colonization increases risk of infection. Nonhuman studies have linked heavy metal exposure to the selection of ARB; however, few epidemiologic studies have examined this relationship. This study analyzes the association between urinary lead lev...

The literature demonstrates links between socioenvironmental characteristics, dysregulation of the stress response system, and PTSD, though few studies integrate these factors in one model. In a secondary analysis of cross-sectional data collected by the Survey of the Health of Wisconsin (SHOW), structural equation modeling evaluated the relationsh...

Allostatic load (AL), the cumulative biological burden of persistently high stress exposure, influences adult health and well-being across the lifespan, and can be measured with clinical indicators, such as BMI, blood pressure (BP), and waist–hip ratio. Adverse childhood events and other stressors contribute to AL, but stress from other sources, su...

Background: High adolescent gun-related mortality, gun violence, pro-gun policies, white supremacy, and the long-term socioeconomic and other effects of racial oppression are intricately linked in the United States. Racist prejudice depicts male individuals of color as more prone to criminality than white male individuals. We described long-term p...

Low-protein diets promote metabolic health in rodents and humans, and the benefits of low-protein diets are recapitulated by specifically reducing dietary levels of the three branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs), leucine, isoleucine, and valine. Here, we demonstrate that each BCAA has distinct metabolic effects. A low isoleucine diet reprograms liver...

Background: In June 2020, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine hosted a virtual workshop focused on integrating the science of aging and environmental health research. The concurrent COVID-19 pandemic and national attention on racism exposed shortcomings in the environmental research field's conceptualization and methodolo...

Purpose: The Survey of the Health of Wisconsin (SHOW) was established in 2008 by the University of Wisconsin (UW) School of Medicine and Public Health (SMPH) within the Department of Population Health Sciences with the goals of 1) providing a timely and accurate picture of the health of the state residents; and 2) serving as an agile resource infra...

Background: The burning of fossil fuels, including coal, is the primary source of greenhouse gas emissions driving anthropogenic climate change and its associated health harms: heat-related illnesses, arboviral diseases, trauma from extreme weather events, allergies, and chronic disease exacerbations. Coal-fired power plants (CFPP) supply 23% of el...

There is an urgent need to track the early and ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on population health from local to global scales. At the same time, there is an overall lack of U.S. state-specific surveillance data tracking social determinants of health (SDOH) and associations with population well-being, individual mitigation and coping strat...

Objective We systematically review the literature on social epigenetics, examining how empirical research to date has conceptualized and operationalized social determinants of health (SDOH). Methods Using comprehensive search procedures, we identified studies that consider the impact of SDOH on DNA methylation (DNAm), the most common measure of ep...

Antibody surveillance provides essential information for public health officials to work with communities to discuss the spread and impact of COVID-19 in communities. At the state of the new severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic in the diagnostic testing was limited with many asymptomatic cases. Irrespective of sympt...

Children’s sleep quality and duration are important to overall development, health, and wellbeing. However, measuring children’s sleep is challenging – especially in situations where objective assessment is impractical. This study aimed to assess age and proxy effects in comparing subjective sleep duration with objective measures, in a community-ba...

Background Holoprosencephaly is the most common malformation of the forebrain (1 in 250 embryos) with severe consequences for fetal and child development. This study evaluates nongenetic factors associated with holoprosencephaly risk, severity, and gene–environment interactions. Methods For this retrospective case control study, we developed an on...

Introduction Urothelial carcinoma (UCC) develops in both humans and dogs and tracks to regions of high industrial activity. We hypothesize that dogs with UCC may act as sentinels for human urothelial carcinogen exposures. The aim of this pilot study was to determine whether healthy people and dogs in the same households share urinary exposures to p...

Background: Children attending daycare are at increased risk of carrying multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs) compared to children not attending daycare. Carriage of MDROs greatly increases the risk of infection, not only in the child but also for others living in the household. Understanding the epidemiology of MDRO carriage in children is essent...

Despite the health benefits of physical activity, many women remain inactive and the needs of rural women are understudied. To understand access to physical activity barriers, opportunities, and intervention preferences in rural women and determine how these differ by self-reported activity level. A mailed questionnaire was distributed to 900 rural...

Interdisciplinary approaches are needed to measure the additive or multiplicative impacts of chemical and non-chemical stressors on child development outcomes. The lack of interdisciplinary approaches to environmental health and child development has led to a gap in the development of effective intervention strategies. It is hypothesized that a bro...

Background Understanding the health effects of exposure to chemical mixtures is critically important given the broad range of concurrent exposures throughout the life-course. While investigations of environmental chemicals and components of the human microbiome are becoming more common, few have examined associations with chemical mixtures. This st...

A number of important principles in effective risk communication established in the late 20th century can provide important scientific insight into patient response to the risks posed by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Early risk communication scholars found acceptability of risk was shaped by 2 key components: hazard and outrage. The number o...

Some evidence suggests that edible insects could be used to treat malnutrition following protein deficiency. However, additional studies are needed to better assess the potential of edible insects as a therapeutic food supplement and their long-term impact on recovery from malnutrition. The goals of this study were to investigate the effectiveness...

Background: Pesticide exposure during susceptible windows and at certain doses are linked to numerous birth defects. Early experimental evidence suggests an association between active ingredients in pesticides and holoprosencephaly (HPE), the most common malformation of the forebrain in humans (1 in 250 embryos). No human studies to date have exam...

Background: The opioid epidemic is a national crisis. The objectives of this report were to describe prescription opioid use in Wisconsin from 2008 through 2016 using unique populationrepresentative data and to assess which demographic, health, and behavioral health characteristics were related to past 30-day prescribed opioid use. Methods: Data...

Introduction: Bicycles are a source of transportation, recreation, and exercise throughout the world. Bicycling is associated with both health and environmental benefits but also poses a risk of injury. The use of bicycle helmets has been shown to reduce morbidity and mortality associated with cycling. It is unknown if helmet use differs across Wi...

The Ah receptor (AHR) has been studied for almost five decades. Yet, we still have many important questions about its role in normal physiology and development. Moreover, we still do not fully understand how this protein mediates the adverse effects of a variety of environmental pollutants, such as the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), the c...

Objectives: This study aimed to understand the potential reach of continence promotion intervention formats among incontinent women. Methods: The Survey of the Health of Wisconsin conducts household interviews on a population-based sample. In 2016, 399 adult women were asked about incontinence and likelihood of participation in continence promot...

Background The majority of commuting trips in the United States are taken by motor vehicle. Yet, lack of regular physical activity has been identified as one of its most significant public health issues, and globally, risks due to physical inactivity are increasing. However, we believe current studies offer an unclear picture of the complex role of...

Introduction: Radon is the second-leading cause of lung cancer in the United States, the leading cause of lung cancer in nonsmokers, and is estimated to cause 21,000 deaths every year. Radon is especially prevalent in the upper Midwest. This study aimed to assess radon testing and mitigation practices among residential homeowners, landlords, and s...

Sedentary lifestyles contribute to many adverse health outcomes and pose concerns for public health worldwide. Studies show that road network design and greenery are critical, independent factors in supporting active lifestyles. Yet greenery along the road network has been insufficiently assessed. This study modelled individual weekly participation...

Background There is significant inappropriate and overuse of antibiotics in the United States. We describe patterns of self-reported actual use of antibiotics and indications in Wisconsin adults. Methods The Survey of the Health of Wisconsin (SHOW) is an annual health study of a wide range of health determinants and outcomes among a population-bas...

Background Little is known about the relationship between oral hygiene and multidrug-resistant organism in the mouth and gut. We aimed to assess the relationship of oral hygiene and diet with multidrug-resistant organism (MDRO) carriage in the oral cavity and gut. Methods Participants were adults over age 18 from the 2016–2017 Survey of the Health...

Background There is little research on the relationship between diet and Clostridium difficile infection. Animal studies have shown potential benefits of dietary fiber in modulating C. difficile infection. Methods In 2016–2017, we carried out a microbiota study among adults in the Survey of the Health of Wisconsin, a population-based health survey...

Background: Smoking, alcohol abuse and dual substance use represent significant public health problems and are thought to contribute to significant disparities in morbidity and mortality in the United States. Associations of food insecurity with these substances are poorly characterized, particularly concerning heavy alcohol consumption and dual s...

Background: Lead (Pb) is a ubiquitous environmental contaminant with an array of detrimental health effects in children and adults, including neurological and immune dysfunction. Emerging evidence suggests that Pb exposure may alter the composition of the gut microbiota, however few studies have examined this association in human populations. The...

Background: The long time from exposure to potentially harmful chemicals until breast cancer occurrence poses challenges for designing etiologic studies and for implementing successful prevention programs. Growing evidence from animal and human studies indicates that distinct time periods of heightened susceptibility to endocrine disruptors exist...

An unending question in clinical and population health research is how and why the human response to treatment varies. Collective findings from the Long Island Breast Cancer Study Project provide further evidence that research examining interactions between epigenetics and low‐cost therapies such as aspirin are important in advancing population hea...

Background: Air emissions from concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFO) have been associated with respiratory and allergic symptoms among farm workers, primarily on swine farms. Despite the increasing prevalence of CAFOs, few studies have assessed respiratory health implications among residents living near CAFOs and few have looked at the hea...

Introduction: Despite the well-established benefits of physical activity (PA), a large portion of U.S. adults are not meeting recommended health-based guidelines. Although PA occurs in several domains, population-based studies tend to focus on leisure-time PA, with few studies examining occupational activity (OA) level as a separate determinant of...

Inconsistencies in studies of chronic psychosocial stress and hypertension may be explained by the use of stress markers greatly influenced by circadian rhythm and transient stressors. We assessed whether hair cortisol, a marker that captures systemic cortisol over months, was independently associated with hypertension. We measured hair cortisol an...

Introduction Experimental studies in mice demonstrate disturbed sleep is associated with gut microbiota composition. A few small experimental studies in humans find associations between curtailed sleep and measures of gut microbiota richness and diversity. We examine associations of subjectively- and objectively-assessed sleep metrics with indices...

There are known health disparities between lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people and non-LGBT people, but only in the past couple of decades have population-based health surveys in the United States included questions on sexual and gender identity. We aimed to better understand LGBT disparities in health, health care access and utili...

Background: Random forest (RF) is a machine-learning method that generally works well with high-dimensional problems and allows for nonlinear relationships between predictors; however, the presence of correlated predictors has been shown to impact its ability to identify strong predictors. The Random Forest-Recursive Feature Elimination algorithm...

Introduction: Adequate sleep duration and quality are protective against many adverse health outcomes. Many individual-level predictors of poor sleep have been examined, but few studies have examined neighborhood-level influences. Despite known associations between neighborhood green space and sleep influencing factors (eg, physical activity, ment...

Background: Obesity has been shown to alter response to air pollution and smoking but underlying biological mechanisms are largely unknown and few studies have explored mechanisms by which obesity increases human sensitivity to environmental exposures. Objective: Overall study goals were to investigate whole blood gene expression in smokers and...

Introduction Prevention of multidrug-resistant organism (MDRO) infections, such as those caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, vancomycin-resistant enterococci, fluoroquinolone-resistant Gram-negative bacteria and Clostridium difficile is crucial. Evidence suggests that dietary fibre increases gut microbial diversity, which may hel...

Purpose: Accurate measurement of free-living physical activity is challenging in population-based research, whether using device-based or reported methods. Our purpose was to identify demographic predictors of discordance between physical activity assessment methods and to determine how these predictors modify the discordance between device-based...

Background: Evidence suggests both that chronic inflammation mediates the association of food insecurity with adverse health outcomes and that diet may be a significant source of inflammation among food insecure individuals. Objective: To examine whether food security status is associated with dietary inflammatory potential. Design and particip...

Adverse perceptions of neighborhood safety, aesthetics and quality including access to resources can induce stress and may make individuals more sensitive to cardiopulmonary effects of air pollution exposure. Few studies have examined neighborhood perceptions as important and modifiable non-chemical stressors of the built environment that may exace...

Background Heavy metals including lead and cadmium can disrupt the immune system and the human microbiota. and are increasingly of concern with respect to the propogation of antibiotic-resistence. Infection by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a major cause of global morbidity and mortality. Heavy metal exposure may be associate...

Private well stewardship, including on-going testing and treatment, can ensure private well users are able to maintain source-water quality and prevent exposures to potentially harmful constituents in primary drinking water supplies. Unlike municipal water supplies, private well users are largely responsible for their own testing and treatment and...

Purpose: To assess the association between geographic access to mammography facilities and women's mammography utilization frequency. Methods: Using data from the population-based 1995-2007 Wisconsin Women's Health study, we used proportional odds and logistic regression to test whether driving times to mammography facilities and the number of m...

Rationale: Previous studies have observed an association between participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and depression, which is contrary to SNAP's potential to alleviate food insecurity and financial strain. Objective: This study investigated the impact of change in SNAP participation status on maternal depression...

Background Prevention of multidrug-resistant organism (MDRO) infections, such as those caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE), and fluoroquinolone-resistant Gram-negative bacteria (FQRGNB), is crucial. Dietary fiber increases gut microbial diversity, which may help prevent colonization a...

Current treatment for depression is not considered effective among all cases and, thus far, nutritional protocols are minimal within depression treatment guidelines. Recently, there has been increasing interest in a possible protective and modifiable role of diet in common mental disorders, including depression, due to pro- and anti-inflammatory pr...

Background: Exposure to multiple types of air pollution may contribute to and exacerbate allergic diseases including asthma and wheezing. However, few studies have examined chronic air pollution exposure and allergic disease outcomes among an adult population. Associations between potential estimates of annual average fine particulate matter (PM2....

Importance: Restaurant meals account for a significant portion of the American diet. Investigating disparities in the restaurant food environment can inform targeted interventions to increase opportunities for healthy eating among those who need them most. Objective: To examine neighborhood disparities in restaurant density and the nutrition env...