This study, recently funded by NIMHD (1R21MD018641), will use SEER-Medicare data to understand predictors of non-guideline breast, lung, or colorectal cancer care among AIAN people, with a specific focus on whether the number and type of comorbidities are important. This study is informed by a Community Advisory Board comprised of AIAN people from across the US; if you're interested in participating in the CAB, please Contact Us!

This study, funded by a CDC Tribal Public Health Capacity Building Supplement to the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium is a collaboration with colleagues at the Alaska Native Epidemiology Center. Alaska Native people have among the highest CRC incidence and mortality in the world. The Alaska Tribal Health System has focused a lot of effort into trying to increase screening and early detection, and these efforts have been successful! Yet, we are still seeing increasing mortality rates in this population. This study is trying to tease apart the different factors that might be contributing to the disconnect between screening prevalence and mortality among Alaska Native people. 

For key papers in this area see here and here.

A lot of Dr. Nash's work (supported by her former role at the Alaska Native Tumor Registry and her current role at the Iowa Cancer Registry) has used population-based cancer registry data to understand cancer burden among American Indian and Alaska Native people, and inequities in cancer burden that affect this population. Where possible, this work is conducted in collaboration with Indigenous scholars, informed by Indigenous statistics, and/or Tribally-engaged/approved.  Dr. Nash is also the Co-Chair of a multi-agency NAACCR taskforce which is looking to improve cancer surveillance data for AIAN people. Dr. Nash is always interested in collaborating with and/or mentoring Indigenous scholars who are interested in this work, please Contact Us if you're interested in collaborating. 

For some key publications in this area, please see here, here, here, and here.

Dr. Nash is involved in several research and non-research projects that either look to improve the quality of cancer registry data, or novel ways to use cancer registry data. One of these projects is a cancer mapping project, a collaboration with colleagues Oleson and Brown from the Department of Biostatistics, which is looking to generate small area estimates for cancer incidence and mortality (ZCTA-level), and develop visualisation tools for communicating these maps that are relevant and responsive to public health practitioner needs. 

For key publications in this area, see here and here.

Dr. Nash has recently begun to develop a line of research investigating how weight stigma impacts health and health care. Her pilot work in this area has primarily focused on differences in breast and cervical cancer care by weight, and qualitatively understanding experiences of weight stigma in cancer treatment among patients with obesity.  Her work in this space is in collaboration with investigators from the University of Southern Alabama, the University of Arizona, and San Diego State University; these collaborations were supported by her particpation in the 2022 TREC workshop. She has also collaborated with investigators at the University of Iowa to pilot a weight stigma intervention on campus. 

Dr. Nash's graduate work with the Center for Alaska Native Health Research focused on the development and application of stable isotope biomarkers to understand how intake of sugars was associated with health among an Alaska Native (Yup'ik) study population. Today, Dr. Nash continues her work with stable isotope biomarkers by collaborating on studies which use the carbon isotope ratio to monitor sugar intake, particularly change in sugar intake in the intervention setting. She is particularly interested in practical applications of stable isotope biomarkers in nutrition intervention monitoring, and to understand how changes in sugar intake impact health. 

For key publications in this area, see here, here, and here.

Dr. Nash is particularly interested in using population-based data (cancer; cancer risk/protective factors) to drive public health decision-making. In her former role at the Alaska Native Tumor Registry and her current role at the Iowa Cancer Registry, she has focused on developing accessible reports and infographics that use cancer registry data, as well as giving presentations to community members and public health professionals. Related, Dr. Nash is on the Community Outreach and Engagement team for the University of Iowa's Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center.  Her role on this team is using publicly-available and primary data to understand the cancer burden in Iowa, and developing tools and products (including data visualisation tools) to share cancer data. 

In collaboration with the Black Hawk County Health Equity Committee and the Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center Community Outreach and Engagement team, we have been exploring Black and African American cancer disparities in Iowa. The 2021 Cancer in Iowa report showed that Black Iowans have among the highest cancer mortality rates; further, this disparity is amongst the largest in the country. We are collaborating with colleagues at the ACRE lab on some descriptive work to dig in and understand these data a little more. Further, we conducted qualitative interviews with folks from Black Hawk County to understand how racism impacts individuals' desire to engage with the healthcare system, which in turn may drive inequities.