Research
Selected Publications
Oke, S, Reyes, L.I., Carmona, B.A., Brown, R.C., Johnson, S.L., Bellows, L.L. Parent Preferences for a Digital Healthy Eating and Physical Activity Intervention. Current Developments in Nutrition 7(x), X. Presented at the American Society of Nutrition’s Annual Meeting, Boston, MA.
Reyes, L.I., Carmona, B.A., Oke, S., Johnson, S.L., Bellows, L.L. Examining Mobile Device Use, Appeal for a Digital Program, and Digital Literacy Among Parents of Preschoolers for Intervention Design. Current Developments in Nutrition 7(x), X. Presented at the American Society of Nutrition’s Annual Meeting, Boston, MA.
Bellows, L., Reyes, L., Oke, S., Carmona, B., Brown, R., Johnson, S.L. Design and Development of an mHealth Intervention for Parents to Promote Healthy Eating and Activity in Preschoolers. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, 55(7), S70. Presented at the Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior Annual Meeting, Washington, DC.
Oke, S., Tan, M. (2022) Techniques for Advertising Healthy Food in School Settings to Increase Fruit and Vegetable Consumption. INQUIRY: The Journal of Health Care Organization, Provision, and Financing, 59. doi:10.1177/00469580221100165
Phillips, SA., Ali, M., Modrich, C., Oke, S., Bond, S. (2019). Advances in Health Technology and Implementation in the Era of Healthy Living: Implications for Precision Medicine. Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases, 62(1), 44-49. doi:10.1016/j.pcad.2018.12.007
Research Interests
Digital Interventions
Advances in mobile technology has made digital interventions more accessible and acceptable than ever before. My interests lie in enhancing the processes of design and implementation of these interventions.
Behavior Change
Habitual health behaviors, such as health eating and physical activity, are complex and fascinating. My interests lie in understanding the mechanisms behind these behaviors to more effectively alter them.
Early Childhood
Early childhood is an important stage in life for developing eating and physical activity behaviors. My interests lie in understanding how to leverage developmental progress at this stage in life to improve eating and activity behaviors.
Master’s Thesis
Title: Creating an Interactive Aid to Mediate Obesity Diagnoses and Management Through Visualization
After learning that many physicians do not discuss their patients’ obesity diagnosis, or talk about lifestyle changes to help them manage it, I created a tool that could mediate that conversation. I developed an app that housed nutrition and exercise tips and facts about obesity. Before creating the app, I performed usability testing with healthcare providers. Finally, I tested my fully functional app with patients at University of Illinois Cardiac Rehabilitation Center.
Oke, S (2019): Creating An Interactive Aid to Mediate Obesity Diagnoses and Management Through Visualization. University of Illinois at Chicago. Thesis. https://hdl.handle.net/10027/23859
Undergraduate Thesis
Title: EPIDEMIC: An Abstraction of the Physiological and Psychological Causes and Effects of Obesity
I researched the physiological and psychological causes and effects of obesity, creating a story of how social and psychological factors intermix with physiological processes in the body to create obesogenic environments. In addition to writing out my findings, I created a painting which I could use as a tool to talk about them. The painting was important because I wanted to be able to create a tool to convey these messages that would transcend literacy and language barriers, as in the US, obesity is more prevalent in populations with low literacy and low socioeconomic resources.