Researcher, Educator, and Public Health Communicator
Dr. Hong has been invited to serve on grant review panels for two European national science foundations. In November to December 2025, she reviewed for the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF). In May 2026, she reviewed for the Netherlands Organisation…
Dr. Hong has been invited to deliver the Tay Gavin Erickson Lecture at the UMass Amherst Center for Research on Families on April 28, 2026. Her talk, “From Information to Intelligence: Health Communication in a Digital World,” examines how digital…
Since the publication of The dynamics of eating behaviors and eating environment in college students: discrepancies between app-tracked dietary intake and self-perceived food consumption multiple news outlets have cited our study, for example, Why is the ‘freshmen 15’ phenomenon so…
Kang (Kathy) Shen, publishes the research article entitled “Process evaluation of a digital health intervention for dementia caregivers: Integrating active and passive measurements” as the first author on the journal of Alzheimer’s & Dementia, the leading journal in the field…
Dr. Hong has received a new R01 grant entitled “WECARE: A personalized intervention for underserved Chinese American dementia caregivers” from National Institute of Aging. This 5-year research project with funding of $3,088,427 includes Co-Is from Drs. Lily Wang and Jessica…
Dr. Hong has received a new NSF grant (2517316), as a Co-PI for a project entitled “Enhancing AI Literacy and Resilience through Intergenerational Digital Storytelling among Older Adults”. This 3-year research project with funding of $661,000 is a joint collaboration…
Part of Dr. Lisa McKeown’s thesis research will be published as conference presentations at 2025 APHA in Washington DC as oral presentation. One is “Provider-Interacting eHealth Behaviors and Patient-Centered Communication: Trends, Predictors, and Disparities”; the other is “Patient-Centered Communication and…
Yiwen Li made an oral presentation entitled Evaluation of WeCare 2.0: A Digital Health Intervention for Chinese American Dementia Caregivers. Sai made a poster presentation entitled Association of Neighborhood Socioeconomic Disadvantages and Nursing Home Quality: A Perspective of Social Determinants…
Our paper Two-year follow-up of dementia caregivers after a digital health intervention WECARE: a mixed-method study. Aging & Mental Health. 2024 Dec 31:1-8. has been published. PubMed link.
Dr. Alicia Hong received funding from Virginia Center for Aging Geriatric Training and Education (GTE) Initiative to support her innovative research. This one-year project, entitled ““Bridging the Gap: Enhancing ADRD Awareness Early Detection and Care through Community Health Worker Training…
Dr. Alicia Hong was invited to serve on the NIH Study Section of Lifestyle Change and Behavioral Health (LCBH), which reviews grant applications focusing on the adoption or uptake of health promoting behaviors or lifestyle changes to reduce health risks…
Dr. Alicia Hong was invited to give a virtual presentation at the UCSF CARE Registry Brain Trust meeting. Her presentation, entitled “Recruiting Underserved Asian Americans Dementia Caregivers into Digital Interventions” is available here (30:50).
Lab members Shema Salim, Kang Shen, Jo-Vivian Yu, Wish Chang, and Dr. Alicia Hong made multiple presentations at Academy Health Annual Research Meeting in Baltimore, MD, June 29 to July 1, 2024:
Shema Salim did a wonderful presentation of her capstone project entitled “Neighborhood Socioeconomic Disadvantages and Nursing Home Quality: A Perspective of Social Determinants of Health” and proudly graduated with the Master of Health Informatics with honors. Congratulations Shema! After graduation,…
Kang Shen and Dr. Alicia Hong presented at the UConn Center for mHealth and Social Media 8th Annual Conference, May 16~17, 2024.
Lab members made a poster presentation at the Society for Behavioral Medicine Annual Conference in Philadelphia, PA, March 13~16, 2024: Hong YA, Yu JV, Xue H, Zhou G. Eating behaviors and eating environment among college students: A longitudinal study using…
Dr. Alicia Hong was invited to serve on NIA Special Emphasis Panel on Dementia Care and Caregiving Support Intervention Research. The panel reviews grant applications on support and services for people living with Alzheimer’s Disease and related dementias (ADRD) and…
A new paper entitled “Mobile health and behavior tracking (mHBT) among cancer survivors: results from a large and diverse sample” was published on Mhealth. PMID: 38323153
Our qualitative study entitled ‘It’s a lonely journey’: caregiving experiences and psychosocial distress among Chinese American dementia family caregivers, was published on Aging and Mental Health. It also includes a conceptual framework that shows multilevel factors contributing to caregiving stress.
Dr. Alicia Hong was invited to serve on National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) Special Emphasis Panel of Technologies for Improving Minority Health Eliminating Health Disparities.
EMBRACE Project Funded! Dr. Alicia Hong led a team of interdisciplinary scientists (Dr. Amira Roess, Dr. Ali Weinstein, and Dr. Siddhartha Sikdar) and received the inaugural Network Catalyst Grant from the Mason Institute of Sustainable Earth. The funded project entitled…
WECARE 1.0 pilot study was published on JMIR Aging! Our trial showed that WECARE significantly decreased depressive symptoms (effect size=.89) and caregiving burden (effect size=.48) among Chinese American dementia caregivers; the retention rate was 96%.
Kang Shen stood out from hundreds of applicants and became CDC Public Health Informatics Fellow. Under this 2-year fellowship starting in August, she will be working in the Office of Assistant of Secretary at the Department of Health and Human…
WECARE 2.0 was funded by National Institute of Aging Roybal Caregiving Center! The project entitled “WECARE: A social media-based personalized intervention to enhance caregiving mastery among Chinese American dementia caregivers received $115,000 from Emory Royball Center for Dementia Caregiving Mastery.…
Dr. Alicia Hong was invited to serve on National Institute of Aging Special Emphasis Panel on Dementia Care and Caregiving Support Intervention Research. This panel reviews research grant applications on interventions and support services for people living with dementia and…
Stronger2 Project received no-cost extension from Office of Minority Health. The Stronger Partnership Stronger Community: Using Health Literacy to Increase Resilience (Stronger2 Project) was funded by the HHS Office of Minority Health and led by Fairfax County Health Department for…
Jo-Vivian Yu made an impressive presentation of her capstone project entitled “Eating Environment and Eating Behaviors of College Students” and proudly graduated with the Master Science in Health Informatics with honors. Congratulations Shema! Jo-Vivian now works as a statistician/data analyst…
Dr. Alicia Hong was invited to the panel of “How Can Public Health Better Utilize Social Media – Challenges and Opportunities” at UConn Center for mHealth and Social Media 7th Annual Conference. She shared her experiences on using social media…
Dr. Alicia Hong was invited to present at UCSF Promoting Research in Social Media and Health Symposium (PRISM) panel of International Perspectives on Social Media and Global Health. She shared her experiences on using WeChat to reduce stress, stigma and…
Dr. Lisa McKeown’s first manuscript from her thesis was published! The article entitled Trends and Differences in Perceptions of Patient-Centered Communication Among Adults in the US” was published on Patient Education and Counseling. Lisa graduated in August 2023 and works…
The WECARE protocol was published on JMIR Aging! It details the protocol development process and the main features of WECARE.
The results of a KakaoTalk-based intervention promote HBV screening and liver cancer prevention among Korean Americans were published on Digital Health. This study was funded by Potomac Health Foundation, PI was community partner Ms. Soo Yee, Founder and President of…
Dr. Alicia Hong, along with Dr. Sojung Kim and Dr. Emily Ihara received a grant of $45,000 from Virginia Center for Aging Alzheimer’s and Related Diseases Research Award Fund for the project entitled “Alzheimer’s Research Inquiry and Care for Asian…
Dr. Alicia Hong led an interdisciplinary team and received a seed grant of $50,000 from College of Health and Human Services for a research project entitled “Prototype development of EARBUD: A Wearable Sensor System for Dietary Monitoring and Personalized Intervention”.…