Sara Santarossa

University of Windsor · Faculty of Human Kinetics

Background Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) commonly co-occurs with obesity, medical comorbidities, and psychiatric symptoms. Bariatric surgery is an effective treatment for co-occurring obesity and PCOS. While the incidence of PCOS declines substantially after bariatric surgery, the condition is still present for a subset of women. Examining chara...

Executive functioning (EF) has been linked to chronic disease risk in children. Health behaviors are thought to partially explain this association. The current cross-sectional study evaluated specific domains of EF and varied health behaviors in three pediatric life stages. Pediatric participants (early childhood n = 2074, Mage = 6.4 ± 0.9 y; middl...

Navigating health and social care in the United States can be difficult for people of all ages, but older adults often have multiple health problems, chronic illnesses, and disabilities that can increase the complexities of their care. To assist older adult patients and/or their caregivers with coordinating care, and providing information, advocacy...

Importance: Limited access to healthy foods, resulting from residence in neighborhoods with low food access, is a public health concern. The contribution of this exposure in early life to child obesity remains uncertain. Objective: To examine associations of neighborhood food access during pregnancy or early childhood with child body mass index (B...

Plain English Summary Clinical trials are more successful when patients are engaged, and their perspectives have been considered in the study design. Community-academic partnerships (CAPs) are one way to ensure patients are more engaged in the research process by creating a collaboration where all parties involved play an equitable role. We provide...

Objective We aimed to describe preliminary dietary intake results using DietID™ for dietary assessment during pregnancy. A sub-sample of participants in the Research Enterprise to Advance Children’s Health (REACH) prospective birth cohort from Detroit, MI received a unique web link to complete the DietID™ assessment multiple times during pregnancy....

Study Objectives To utilize qualitative data analysis to enrich our understanding of the impact of coronavirus (COVID-19) on those with a pre-pandemic history of insomnia. Methods The sample included 208 participants who completed the Coronavirus Impact Scale in April and May 2020. A content analysis was used to analyze responses to a free-respons...

Objective Researchers sought patient feedback on a proposed randomized controlled trial (RCT) in which gynecological cancer patients would modify their diets with intermittent fasting to gain insight into patients’ perspectives, receptivity, and potential obstacles. A convenience sample of 47 patients who met the inclusion criteria of the proposed...

Study objectives: Digital cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia has significant advantages for dissemination and scalability vs. in-person cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia and is, therefore, well-positioned to be the first-line intervention for insomnia. However, only about half of patients remit following digital cognitive behavioral...

Purpose: To determine whether physical activity (PA), specifically meeting the recommended 150 minutes of moderate-intensity PA per week, is associated with gut microbiota composition in pregnant women. Methods: In an ongoing birth cohort study, questions from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, which provides data on PA variables, w...

BACKGROUND Clinical trials that are patient-centered appear to be more successful (e.g., clinical outcomes, improved communication, mutual empowerment, changed attitudes), thus, action research may be a field of importance. OBJECTIVE The current study explores the Formation and Execution of Activities phases of a community-academic partnership (CA...

This study explored the dynamics of mother/daughter dyads on social networking sites (SNSs). 40 mother/daughter dyads completed online surveys. Predictor variables included overall SNS use, photo activities, and interaction activities. Outcome variables included Rosenberg self-esteem scale (RSES), body shape satisfaction scale (BSSS), sociocultural...

The present study aimed to examine the tone and focus of the conversation associated with #childathlete on Instagram. Additionally, the visual content of five child athlete Instagram accounts were analyzed to determine if fitspiration (e.g., exercise, healthy eating, inspiration, showcase strength, and empowerment) or objectification (e.g., emphasi...

Introduction Digital Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (dCBT-I) is a highly effective self-guided mHealth treatment for insomnia; however, completion and adherence rates are poor, especially among marginalized individuals. The present study explored facilitators and barriers to engagement with dCBT-I. Methods Thematic analysis was conducte...

Purpose: To determine whether physical activity (PA), primarily the recommended 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous PA, is associated with gut bacterial microbiota in 10-year-old children. Methods: The Block Physical Activity Screener, which provides minutes/day PA variables, was used to determine whether the child met the PA recommendations. 16S...

The Olympics and the Paralympics are two of the largest multi-sport events worldwide that aim to represent social movements. The Games and the movements could be influenced by the widespread reach of their athletes’ social media. Thus, this study examined if Olympians’ and Paralympians’ Instagram posts reflected their respective Movements. A coding...

Through user-generated posts on Instagram, Paralympians’ self-presentation may mitigate stereotypes associated with disability, counteracting negative assumptions. Using content analyses and paired t tests, visual content posted by Paralympians was examined for the portrayal of disability stereotypes. Compared with the social media content of able-...

Background: The scientific community is just beginning to uncover the potential long-term effects of COVID-19, and one way to start gathering information is by examining the present discourse on the topic. The conversation about long COVID-19 on Twitter provides insight into related public perception and personal experiences. Objective: The aim...

Objectives The mother/daughter relationship has been deemed critical for the positive development of self-esteem, body image, and eating behaviors for adolescent girls. As maternal modeling exists offline between mothers and adolescent daughters, a similar influence could be exercised by the fast evolution of digital culture, such as social network...

This paper investigated how traditional media headlines framed the release of Canada's Food Guide (CFG) online in 2019 and how audiences reacted to its release on social media. Titles of online news articles, Facebook comments on news stories, and tweets from Twitter were collected using Meltwater and manual data collection. Leximancer software con...

Objectives #selfharm has been blocked by Instagram, but manoeuvring hashtags (e.g. #selfharn) are beginning to appear in order for secret non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) communities to communicate. The purpose of this study was to (a) determine the nature of the #selfharn conversation on Instagram, (b) analyze common properties of the visual conten...

This study used Instagram to explore the 2016 ESPN: The Magazine’s Body Issue, with a particular focus on the women athletes featured. A two-prong content analysis was utilized for this study. Photo analysis of “ESPN’s Body Issue photos” (i.e., released on ESPN’s website; N = 141) and “ESPN’s Body Issue photos posted on athlete’s Instagram” (i.e.,...

ESPN The Magazine’s The Body Issue positions itself as an inclusive and sport-focused publication. With a focus on gender, the purpose of the current study was to examine the online thoughts and opinions that resulted from #BodyIssue on Instagram. In addition, the Instagram posting activity of ESPN (@espn) and espnW (@espnw) as it pertained to the...

Background and aim: The purpose of the present study was to investigate #yoga on Instagram to better understand the nature of who is posting about yoga, in addition to whether the traditional teachings are present. Methods: A multimethod approach was utilized for this study. Using the Netlytic program, a text and content analysis (n = 35,000) wa...

A paucity of research exists on using action research with parents, particularly within the framework of parent education. The current study explores the development phase of a community-academic partnership (CAP) that designed a workshop and interactive toolkit to educate mothers on how to navigate social networking sites. The CAP (N = 10) was com...

The purpose of this study was to determine whether the introduction of a fundamental movement skills (FMS) program to grade 4–6 physical education (PE) classes could improve students’ physical literacy (PL) and influence the amount of effort exerted in PE class. Athletics Canada’s grassroots Run Jump Throw Wheel (RJTW) Program was delivered for 10...

Orthorexia nervosa (ON) is a relatively new phenomenon. The purpose of this study was to investigate (1) the #orthorexia conversation on Instagram (using the Netlytic software), and (2) among a random subsample of images (N = 245), analyse the types of images (N = 145) and author biographies (N = 68). Among the 4,533 downloaded records, there were...

The present study aimed to examine the tone and focus of the conversation associated with #childathlete on Instagram. Additionally, the visual content of five child athlete Instagram accounts were analyzed to determine if fitspiration (e.g., exercise, healthy eating, inspiration, showcase strength, and empowerment) or objectification (e.g., emphasi...

The present study aimed to explore the interactions and influences that occurred on Twitter after Joey Julius's (NCAA athlete, Penn State Football) and Mike Marjama's (MLB player, Seattle Mariners) eating-disorder (ED) diagnoses were revealed. Corresponding with the publicizing of each athlete's ED, all publicly tagged Twitter media using @joey_jul...

Objectives To investigate social networking site (SNS) use and frequency, and their potential associations with self-reported general health, mental health, and well-being among the Canadian population using the nationally representative 2013 General Social Survey (GSS). Methods Data were collected via Statistics Canada GSS 2013 (cycle 27). Six se...

The present study aimed to explore using popular technology that people already have/use as a health promotion tool, in a campus wide social media health promotion initiative, entitled #LancerHealth. During a two-week period the university community was asked to share photos on Twitter and Instagram of What does being healthy on campus look like to...

The aim of this study was to investigate whether problematic social networking site (SNS) use (i.e., degree of dependent relationship with SNSs), total SNS time/day, total SNS friends, and specific SNS activities were related to body image (BI), self-esteem (SE), and eating disorder (ED) symptoms/concerns. A sample of young adults (N = 147) complet...

There is a strong relationship between economic prosperity and health as well as between muscle strength and health (morbidity and mortality). However, very little research has concomitantly examined economic prosperity and muscular strength in the general population, and no studies have simultaneously examined these factors in a population of adul...

Many social media users rely on photo editing techniques in order to receive more positive attention (i.e., likes/comments) online. This study used a mixed methods approach to conduct a descriptive analysis of #nofilter use by Instagram users. By using #nofilter users are making a point that they did not edit/manipulate their images. Of particular...

The #fitspo ‘tag’ is a recent trend on Instagram, which is used on posts to motivate others towards a healthy lifestyle through exercise/eating habits. This study used a mixed-methods approach consisting of text and network analysis via the Netlytic program (N = 10,000 #fitspo posts), and content analysis of #fitspo images (N = 122) was used to exa...

Recently, public health messaging has included having more family meals and involving young adolescents (YAs) with meal preparation to improve healthful diets and family dinner frequency (FDF). Kinect-Ed, a motivational nutrition education presentation was created to encourage YAs (grades 6–8) to help with meal preparation and ultimately improve FD...