UAB Briefs: Masking to fight allergy symptoms, new grants for researchers

In this weekly online feature, we keep track of interesting people and events on campus at The University of Alabama at Birmingham.

We also provide updates regarding UAB’s efforts to cope with the COVID-19.

Let us know about people, events and programs on campus that deserve a mention in UAB Briefs. Email jchambers@starnespublishing.com.

And remember that the COVID-19 pandemic continues. Continue to follow all of the usual protocols and stay safe.

For more information about obtaining your COVID-19 vaccination through UAB, go to uab.edu/uabunited/covid-19-vaccine.

MASKING TO FIGHT ALLERGIES

Masking helps prevent the spread of COVID-19, but it can also help prevent severe spring allergy issues for patients, according to doctors at the UAB Department of Otolaryngology.

The use of masks can help reduce the spread of aerosol-based viruses as spring flowers and trees begin to bloom.

Dr. Do-Yeon Cho, associate professor of otolaryngology, told UAB News that many patients with allergic rhinitis from pollens are doing well since the beginning of the pandemic because they have stayed indoors, and when they go outside, they wear masks.

“A study that came out in 2020 showed that allergic rhinitis symptoms among nurses had been significantly reduced with facemask usage during the COVID-19 pandemic,” Cho said.

To read the study Cho is referring to, click here.

Any face covering can reduce the number of pollens and allergens that may enter your nose and mouth, he said.

In addition to masking, Cho says there are other options to help alleviate some of the symptoms of spring allergies. 

• Patients should identify their allergens and, if they’re allergic to spring pollens, limit outdoor activities when pollen counts are high. 
• Taking allergy medication before pollen season begins prevents the body from releasing histamines and other chemicals that cause allergic symptoms. 
• Being clean — especially bathing and shampooing before going to bed — is important in preventing allergic reactions. “Change clothes and wash your nose with saline when you come inside the house,” Cho said. “Wash your bedding and clothes in hot, soapy water, and dry your clothes in a clothes dryer, not on an outdoor line.”

MONEY AND DISEASE

Many COVID-19 patients have struggled to pay for their treatments. These financial concerns also affect patients seeking surgery, cancer treatment and emergency care, surgery. 

Not only that, but little research has been done to learn how the financial consequences of  disease affect a person’s emotional well-being.

This is due partly to the lack of dedicated researchers in this field, said Maria Pisu, a professor in the UAB Division of Preventive Medicine.

“We not only need more researchers, but need researchers from different fields of study to truly understand this topic in depth,” Pisu told UAB News.

Pisu and other researchers will now use a a $2.39 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to create the Emotional Well-being and Economic Burden Research Network.

The network’s pilot project program will seek to increase the number of studies on the topic and to attract new researchers to the field.

The grant was given to the UAB Minority Health and Health Disparities Research Center in the Division of Preventive Medicine and The University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC).

“Our work will advance understanding of financial burden and emotional well-being and generate the body of knowledge necessary for developing interventions that minimize the impact of financial burden and enhance emotional well-being,” said Michelle Martin, the director of the Center for Innovation in Health Equity Research at the UTHSC.

The project team includes Dr. David Schwartz, chair of the UTHSC Department of Radiation Oncology; Dr. Margaret Liang, assistant professor in the UAB Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology; and Yu-Mei Schoenberger, a health communication expert and assistant professor in the Division of Preventive Medicine.

IMPROVING ACCESS

Scott Batey, an associate professor in the UAB Department of Social Work, has received a four-year, $2.97 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to fund a program to improve access to treatment for people with HIV, according to UAB News.

The new program — Community Health worker And MHealth to imProve viral Suppression (CHAMPS) — will provide study participants living with HIV individualized, strengths-based case management from a community health worker.

CHAMPS will be led by Batey and Rebecca Schnall of Columbia University in New York.

The investigators will enroil 150 adults living with HIV in Birmingham and another 150 in New York City who are not virally suppressed or consistently taking antiretroviral medication. Participants at both sites will be randomized to receive either the CHAMPS intervention or standard care. 

Participants who are selected for CHAMPS will receive case management from a community health worker and access to an app called WiseApp that was developed by Schnall and her colleagues at Columbia.

The app will allow community health workers to communicate with clients remotely and will monitor, in real time, clients' adherence in taking their medications.