VCU news

By Frances Dumenci

Students at Virginia Commonwealth University will once again be asked to fill out a follow-up survey for “Spit for Science: The VCU Student Survey.” Spring 2014 marks the first time Spit for Science has three cohorts of participants actively involved in the research project.

Potential participants include freshmen who participated in the fall, sophomores who enrolled in the study during 2012-2013 and juniors who enrolled during 2011-2012. Freshmen who are 18 and older and did not participate last fall can sign up this spring.

All potential participants will receive information and a link to the survey via email. Eligible students from cohorts 1 and 2 (juniors and sophomores) have been emailed follow-up surveys, which were sent Feb. 7. Surveys are being emailed on Feb. 15 to students from cohort 3 (freshmen).

From Feb. 10 to Feb. 28, Spit for Science research staff will be available at the Franklin Street Gym to provide sophomores and juniors who completed the survey with their $10 compensation and a newly designed “Spit for Science” T-shirt. From Feb. 17 until Feb. 28, freshmen participants who completed the survey can go to the Franklin Street Gym for their $10 compensation and T-shirt.

Involvement in all portions of the study is completely voluntary.

The study launched in fall 2011 and is led by Danielle M. Dick, Ph.D., associate professor of psychiatry, psychology and human and molecular genetics in the VCU School of Medicine, and Kenneth S. Kendler, M.D., director of the Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics at VCU.

“It is very exciting that we now have three cohorts of participants in the project,” Dick said. “We hope to use the information gathered through this study to help us better understand the factors that contribute to alcohol use and emotional health. This project examines how individual genetic predispositions come together with environmental factors to contribute to these outcomes.”

For more information about the study, please visit http://spit4science.vcu.edu/.

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