The University of Washington's Population Health Initiative has awarded a Tier 1 pilot grant to an interdisciplinary team of researchers, including Amanda Lock Swarr, an associate professor in the Department of Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies (GWSS), and scholars from the Center for an Informed Public (CIP). The project, titled "Documenting the Impact of Abortion Myths on Healthcare Providers and Advocates," is one of the nine projects to receive the Population Health Initiative Tier 1 pilot grants.
Professor Amanda Lock Swarr joins a team of esteemed researchers, including CIP postdoctoral scholar Anna Lee Swan, CIP postdoctoral scholar Rachel Moran-Prestridge, CIP research project coordinator Taylor Agajanian, UW Information School doctoral student Izzi Grasso, Human Centered Design & Engineering Ph.D. student Andrew Beers, and iSchool associate professor and CIP co-founder Emma S. Spiro.
The research project, supported by grant funding, seeks to document the effects of misleading abortion information on the everyday work of healthcare providers and others working within abortion healthcare. It aims to examine how persistent abortion myths, especially those amplified on social media, emerge in patient-provider interactions, influence patient-provider relationships, and impact patients' reception of and trust in accurate abortion-related information provided by healthcare professionals.
The findings from this research project will contribute to filling the current gaps in academic research and understanding the influence of misleading information on healthcare providers. The team will conduct in-depth interviews and collaborations with healthcare providers and advocates to gain insights and inform future interventions.
Healthcare providers and advocates interested in collaborating with the research team are invited to reach out to Rachel Moran-Prestridge at remoran@uw.edu for further information.