As part of its ongoing volunteer recognition initiative, CSEP recently interviewed Dr. Jennifer Kuk,  an Associate Editor with Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism (APNM). Below are highlights of the discussion.

How long have you been a volunteer editor for APNM and what interested you about the position? 

I have been an Associate Editor for APNM since 2013 and it has been an honour to be one of the gatekeepers who help ensure that only high-quality research is published and that APNM remains a top journal within our field.

Can you tell our readers about your ‘day job’, what inspires you, and how you’re coping with class work during COVID? 

As an epidemiologist, most of my day job involves a lot of statistics and number crunching of large datasets.  Since I work with data that is already collected, the lack of person-to-person contact with COVID hasn’t really impacted my research.  It has definitely made teaching my graduate students more challenging, but through zoom and video conferencing we have made it work, but I definitely miss the informal brainstorming sessions and the random peek over my graduate student’s shoulders while they work.

Are there any interesting projects coming up for you?

With COVID, there have been a lot of changes for my research on obesity management.  The busy clinics with in-person appointments have now become virtual appointments, which presents both advantages and a new series of challenges for obesity management.  Obesity has long been known to be related with increased risk for several chronic health problems, but emerging evidence also suggests that there are unique COVID health issues for patients with obesity.  In conjunction with weight bias in our society and health care settings, there may be both social and physiological factors that may negatively impact the health of Canadians with obesity.  Currently, I am working on a project trying to understand these unique COVID risks and how they are perceived so that we can best frame health messages to instil the changes in behaviour we want to see.  Data collection is currently ongoing so stay tuned for the results.

CSEP thanks Dr. Kuk for her contributions to APNM. Learn more about the journal here.

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