Whitney P. Witt
PhD, Johns Hopkins
Assistant Professor of Population Health Sciences

Contact Information:
University of Wisconsin
610 Walnut Street, Office 503
Madison, WI 53726
Phone: (608) 265-6290
Fax: (608) 263-2820
Email: wwitt@wisc.edu
Web: Integrative Biopsychosocial Research in Population Health

Research Statement

Dr. Witt is broadly interested in the social, behavioral, and psychological factors that contribute to healthy aging across the lifespan. Specifically her research focuses the impact of acute, chronic and terminal illness on the family system and aims to determine how familial relationships influence the health behaviors, health and mental health status, and healthcare services use of individuals over time. Moreover, the goal of her research is to understand the physiological, behavioral, and social pathways by which health perceptions affect the health and healthcare use of family caregivers and individuals living with illness. Dr. Witt is building a research program to examine caregiver mind-body interactions and how such interactions may help explain health disparities within and between families. Together, this information will help in constructing effective interventions for these families to improve patient health outcomes, reduce health disparities, and address family burden.

She is the Principal Investigator of a five-year career development grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) to examine the impact of childhood chronic illness on the family. As part of this work she will assess and compare the level of psychological stress, both self-reported and biologically measured, between parents of children with chronic illness and parents of children without chronic illness. Moreover, this study will examine the feasibility, performance, and comparability of stress biomarkers and perceived psychological stress among parental caregivers and how such measures are related to child health outcomes.

Representative Publications

Witt, WP, Gottlieb, C, Hampton, J, and Litzelman, K. The Impact of Childhood Activity Limitations on Parental Health, Mental Health, and Workdays Lost in the United States. 2009 (in press).

Hung, S, Pickard, S, Witt, WP, and Lambert, BL. (2007) Pain and Depression in Caregivers Affected Their Perception of Pain in Stroke Patients. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology. 2007 Sep;60(9):963-70.

Lyons, J and Witt, W. "Understanding the impact of mental health research on policy in the United States: Past, Present, and Future." In Choosing methods in mental health research. Slade M, Priebe S, (eds), Hove: Routledge. 2006. 202-211.

Witt, WP, Gibbs, J, Wang, J, Giobbie-Hurder, A, Edelman, P, McCarthy, Jr., M, and Neumayer, L. (2006) The Impact of Inguinal Hernia Repair on Family and Other Informal Caregivers. Archives of Surgery. 2006. Sep; 141(9):925-30.

Witt, WP, Fortuna, L, Wu, E, Kahn, R, Winickoff, J, Pirraglia, PA, Ferris, TG, and Kuhlthau, K. (2006) Children's Use of Motor Vehicle Restraints: Maternal Psychological Distress, Maternal Motor Vehicle Restraint Practices, and Sociodemographics. Ambulatory Pediatrics. 2006. May-June 6(3): 145-151.

Witt, WP, Riley, AW, Kasper, JD. "The Impact of Missing Linkage Data in Family Health Research: Results from the 1994-1995 National Health Interview Survey Disability Supplement." In: Altman, B.M., Barnartt, S.N., Hendershot, G. and Larson, S., eds. Research in Social Science and Disability, Using Survey Data to Study Disability: Results from the National Health Interview Survey on Disability. Elsevier Publishing, London, England; 2003; Volume 3, 73-86.

Witt, WP, Kasper, JD, and Riley, AW. (2003) Mental Health Services Use Among School-Aged Children with Disabilities: The Role of Socio-demographics, Functional Limitations, Family Burdens and Care Coordination. Health Services Research. 2003; 38(6), Part 1: 1441-1466.

Witt, WP, Riley, AW, Coiro, MJ. (2003) Childhood Functional Status, Family Stressors, and Psychosocial Adjustment Among School-Aged Children with Disabilities in the U.S. Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine. 2003; 157 (7): 687-695.

Starfield, B, Riley AW, Witt, WP, Robertson, J. (2002) Social Class Gradients in Health During Adolescence. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. 2002; 56: 354-361.