Sandra Wittleder, PhD

My research is dedicated to developing innovative intervention tools to reduce unhealthy lifestyle behaviors, especially in populations facing health disparities. The overarching goal of this work is to elucidate the complex interplay between psychological and biological factors that influence health behaviors.

A key area of interest is attentional biases, the tendency for individuals to pay more attention to unhealthy food. I have created computer-based tasks to assess and train this bias, laying the groundwork for a new generation of interventions promoting healthy dietary behaviors. Currently, I am leading a pilot study that translates the discoveries from my laboratory research on attentional bias training to clinical settings. As the principal investigator of the "Retrain Your Brain for Healthy Eating" project, I am using a mixed-method approach to assess the feasibility of a new computer training program designed to reduce food cravings among racially and ethnically diverse patients with obesity in real-world environments.

In addition to my primary research, I have served as a Co-investigator on several large clinical trials focused on improving obesity treatment in low-resource settings. Analyzing data from these large trials, my colleagues and I have shown that patients with obesity who experience discrimination report higher levels of chronic pain, posing a significant barrier to weight management.  Furthermore, we have explored potential ways in which physician communication can enhance health outcomes. For instance, we have investigated how employing principles of procedural fairness can serve as an innovative tool to improve the quality of physician–patient communication, and ultimately may improve health outcomes.