Sajeevika Saumali Daundasekara

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Senior Lecturer (Grade II) at University of Peradeniya

Background and Objectives Individuals of color and of low socioeconomic status are at greater risk of experiencing community violence and food insecurity, which are both influenced by neighborhood conditions. We evaluated neighborhood collective efficacy as a linkage between community violence exposure and household food insecurity. Methods Mother...

The purpose of the current study was to use Orsmond and Cohn’s feasibility framework to compare two methods of collecting photo elicitation interviews: (1) in-person and (2) online among low-income community college students. We described the feasibility of the recruitment and retention procedures and compared the participants’ characteristics and...

Firearm violence in the United States produces over 36,000 deaths and 74,000 sustained firearm-related injuries yearly. The paper describes the burden of firearm violence with emphasis on the disproportionate burden on children, racial/ethnic minorities, women and the healthcare system. Second, this paper identifies factors that could mitigate the...

The county-wide lockdowns that were implemented due to the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in some in-person qualitative research studies needing to be transitioned online using a video conferencing platform. However, evaluating the feasibility of transitioning an ongoing qualitative research study focused on low-income, racial/ethnic minorities had not...

While research has investigated intimate partner violence (IPV) and food insecurity (FI) as independent experiences on mental health, research is lacking on the possible longitudinal associations of combined experiences of IPV and FI on maternal depression and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbe...

Background Evidence is lacking for the longitudinal bidirectional relationship between maternal depression and child anxiety/depressive symptoms through pre-school to adolescence and regarding parenting stress as having a mediating effect on this association. Methods We performed a secondary analysis of data from the Fragile Families and Child Wel...

Despite community college students experiencing food insecurity there has been a dearth of research conducted on the feasibility of providing a program designed to increase access to fruits and vegetables among community colleges. This study used a mixed methods sequential explanatory design to examine the feasibility of delivering an on-campus foo...

While research has investigated intimate partner violence (IPV) and food insecurity (FI) as independent experiences on mental health, research is lacking on the possible longitudinal associations of combined experiences of IPV and FI on maternal depression and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). The study examined the independent and combined assoc...

Background Household material hardships could have a negative impact on maternal mental health. Understanding mechanisms by which material hardship trajectories affect maternal depression and anxiety could aid health care professionals and researchers to design better interventions to improve mental health outcomes among mothers. Methods The study...

Research is limited on the association between depression and perceived health status and the underlying mechanisms linking these variables among adults experiencing homelessness. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the association between probable major depressive disorder (MDD) and perceived health status among a sample of adults exp...

PurposeTo determine if pre-conception intuitive eating, an adaptive eating behavior, was related to gestational weight gain (GWG) and the likelihood of exceeding GWG recommendations.Methods This prospective survey study took place in an outpatient obstetric clinic. Participants completed the pre-conception Intuitive Eating Scale for Pregnancy durin...

Introduction: The objective of this study was to develop and validate a questionnaire to better understand barriers and facilitators to physical activity among low income, Hispanic youth. Methods: Low income Hispanic middle and high school students were recruited to participate in this study from a public charter school district in Houston, TX....

Background Low-income, working-age Veterans with children have risk for food insecurity. Less known is extent to which their risk compares to nonveterans. Purpose To evaluate odds of food insecurity for working-age Veterans with children compared to socioeconomically-matched nonveterans with children. Method We constructed a propensity score-matc...

There is a dearth of information on the risk of inadequate and excess gestational weight gain (GWG) among different generations of Hispanic women in the United States. Therefore, the objective of this study was to understand the relationship of GWG and immigration across three generations of Hispanic women. The study was conducted using data from N...

There is evidence that poverty is related to adverse child health outcomes. Yet, evidence is lacking on how economic hardship experiences during early childhood are related to adolescent obesity, how the relationship may differ by child sex, in addition to the potential child and maternal behavioral factors that link economic hardship and adolescen...

Objective Economic hardship (EH) may link to poorer child diet, however whether this association is due to resource limitations or effects on family functioning is unknown. This study examines whether parenting stress mediates the association between EH and child consumption of foods high in saturated fats and added sugars (SFAS). Design Data were...

Traditionally, intrapersonal characteristics (distress tolerance) and interpersonal characteristics (social support) have been studied separately rather than simultaneously. In the current study, we address this gap by simultaneously examining these characteristics as potential indirect associations linking established urban stress–depression and u...

Food insecurity results from unreliable access to affordable and nutritious food. Homeless adults are particularly vulnerable to both food insecurity and problematic alcohol use. The current study examined the link between problematic alcohol use and food insecurity among homeless adults. Participants (N = 528; 62.7% men; Mage = 43.6 ± 12.2) were r...

In much of lifestyle medicine, health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is a primary focus with the assumption that symptom reduction increases quality of life (QoL) in a more global sense. Lifestyle medicine research has shown that reducing symptoms increases the likelihood that QoL is improved. However, little information is available as to the imp...

Background: Evidence is limited on the risk of maternal smoking before and during pregnancy across generations of Hispanic immigrants. Purpose: The aim of this study was to determine whether immigration generational status predicts maternal smoking behaviors before and during pregnancy among Hispanic women. Methods: Data on pregnancies in Nati...

The aim of this study was to determine whether there are meaningful subgroups with different types of sexual risk behaviors among youth experiencing homelessness and examine the associations between potential classes and other risk variables. A latent class analysis was used to identify classes of youth according to sexual risk behaviors and sexual...

Poverty status influences obesity and dietary quality, and dietary quality influences obesity. How these relationships differ by sex is unclear. The current study aims were to 1) determine whether dietary quality mediates the relation between income-to-poverty ratio (IPR) and overweight/obesity (OV/OB) among men and women, separately, and 2) determ...

Background: There are evidence of intimate partner violence (IPV) and food insecurity (FI) as independent predictors of maternal depressive symptoms. However, there are a dearth of studies that have examined how both IPV and FI influence depressive symptoms. The objective of this study was to determine whether IPV, food insecurity, or the combined...

Introduction: There is a dearth of research on the determinants of food insecurity among adults who experience homelessness. According to cumulative risk theory, it is the accumulation of risk factors that places individuals in jeopardy for negative health consequences. Building on the cumulative risk theory, domain specific indices were created t...

Communication between health care providers and patients is important for behavioral treatment in lifestyle medicine. Ineffective communication can lead to patient dissatisfaction, demotivation, and discontinuation of treatment. It is important for health care providers to understand their biases, praise patients’ behaviors rather than health outco...

Food insecurity is associated with mental health outcomes among adults experiencing homelessness. Different theoretical explanations have emerged to account for the negative health outcomes among vulnerable populations. The neomaterial theoretical perspective suggests that nutritional deficiencies from experiencing food insecurity are related to ne...

Background: The Institute of Medicine (IOM) provides recommendations for optimal weight gain during pregnancy to minimize complications associated with obesity and excessive weight gain. The Health Belief Model and prior research suggest knowledge of health recommendations and associated risks motivate health behaviors. This study determined wheth...

Pre-pregnancy maladaptive eating behaviors have predicted inadequate or excess gestational weight gain and poor dietary intake during pregnancy, but little is known about effects of pre-pregnancy adaptive eating behaviors on pregnancy outcomes. The purpose of this study was to produce a valid and reliable measure of adaptive pre-pregnancy eating be...