The University of Washington Population Health Initiative awarded thirteen $25,000 Tier 1 pilot grants in spring quarter 2024 to interdisciplinary research teams investigating pressing population health challenges in areas including climate change, mental health, child health, and substance use disorder. Each team has completed their project and delivered final reports on results.
Climate Distress Measurement
One project performed pilot work supporting development of a brief Climate Distress Questionnaire (CDQ) for measuring climate change distress in epidemiologic surveys. Through post-hoc qualitative analysis, focus groups with end-users, and interviews, the team consolidated differing disciplinary perspectives and identified multi-sectoral demands. A preliminary list of approximately 30 items was reduced to 15 through qualitative pre-testing with young adults. Data collection is ongoing for quantitative psychometric testing with a national sample of college students. Preliminary findings were presented at multiple conferences, with two research manuscripts being prepared for peer-reviewed journals.
Identity Safety in Healthcare
A qualitative study enrolled people with HIV at clinical sites in Washington, Montana, and Idaho to elicit patient perspectives on identity safety in healthcare. The team completed IRB review, a community advisory board meeting with 10 community members, and successfully completed 17 qualitative interviews (12 from Washington, 4 from Idaho, 1 from Montana). The study team continues coding transcripts, analyzing data, developing manuscripts, and creating tools to promote patient safety during medical encounters.
Health Chatbot Communication Styles
Research developed prototypes of therapy chatbots incorporating various communication styles to support family caregivers from multicultural backgrounds. The team identified four communication style dimensions—authoritative, sentimental, informal, and concise—through literature review. Using large language models and Langchain, they created chatbot prototypes exhibiting different styles. A controlled experiment validated that prototypes produced noticeable communication style differences, with adapted responses receiving significantly higher ratings for style-specific characteristics. The team’s paper was accepted to CHI 2025 as Late-Breaking Work.
This article is an AI-assisted summary. All facts and figures are drawn from the original report: https://www.washington.edu/populationhealth/2026/03/11/awardees-of-spring-2024-tier-1-pilot-research-grants-report-final-project-outcomes/