UAB researcher awarded NIH grant to research peer support for women living with hypertension and HIV

Kaylee Crockett, Ph.D.
(Photography: Steve Wood)Kaylee B. Crockett, Ph.D., clinical psychologist and assistant professor in the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Department of Family and Community Medicine, recently received a K23 award from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. The $662,578 award will fund Crockett’s research for five years. Crockett is the first full-time faculty member in the department to serve as a principal investigator for an NIH-funded career development award.

Crockett’s K23 research project focuses on the adaptation of a behavioral physical activity intervention with peer support for women with HIV and co-occurring hypertension. The NIH award gives researchers like Crockett salary and research support for a period of protected time to complete longitudinal and comprehensive research studies. 

“This award is an enormous opportunity to develop my scientific skills with greater focus on health behavior intervention and implementation,” Crockett said. “Moreover, I get to apply these skills to understanding daily decisions women make about physical activity behavior and the social and psychological factors — like stress, social support and self-efficacy — that affect those decisions.” 

Hypertension is the most common comorbidity among women with HIV. Crockett’s research will utilize lifestyle behavior interventions to provide support for women with HIV and hypertension. Crockett aims to measure the feasibility and impact of introducing lifestyle behavior interventions, such as physical activity prescription, blood pressure monitoring and peer support.

Crockett says the intervention is sorely needed.

“In my research leading up to this application, many women expressed wanting more support related to ‘whole-person health’ from providers and their communities,” she said.

Awards like Crockett’s are part of the department’s larger goal of improving physical health and mental wellness through primary care and lifestyle medicine-centered research.

“Our department is dedicated to increasing the quality of life for all patients through preventive methods, particularly through physical activity and lifestyle medicine,” said Irfan Asif, M.D., chair and professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine and associate dean for Primary Care and Rural Health in the UAB Marnix E. Heersink School of Medicine. “We are proud to support and work alongside clinical scientists like Kaylee and look forward to the ways our patients will benefit from her work.”