The NextGen Precision Health Discovery Series provides learning opportunities for UM System faculty and staff across disciplines, the statewide community and our other partners to learn about the scope of precision health research and identify potential collaborative opportunities. The series consists of monthly lectures geared toward a broad multidisciplinary audience so all can participate and appreciate the spectrum of precision health efforts. 

Information about the upcoming talk, including continuing education, is available below.

For questions about this event or any others in the Discovery Series, please reach out to Mary Christie at mchristie@health.missouri.edu

Loneliness and Your Health: Social Relationships as a Public Health Priority

Speaker: Kale Monk, Ph.D; Assistant Professor, Human Development and Family Science; State Specialist for Youth and Families Extension

 

Description

Social relationships are a critical context in which we develop. Across hundreds of studies, social isolation and loneliness are significant predictors of premature death, with stronger effects on longevity than many recognized public health determinants. Of course, however, the quality of our social relationships matter with those in distressed marriages, for example, experiencing impairments in mental health, immune functioning, and other health indicators. In this brief session, Dr. Monk discussed (a) the research behind intimate relationships and health, (b) dominant theorizing on how social relationships impact our health, and (c) explored a recent study of couples during the COVID-19 pandemic, a global stressor that exacerbated loneliness, uncertainty, and interpersonal distress.

 

About the Speaker 

Dr. Monk’s research primarily centers on romantic relationship quality and instability. More specifically, he is interested in how couples develop and maintain key relational processes (e.g., stability in commitment and satisfaction) across critical transitions (e.g., the transition to adulthood, the transition to marriage). Transitions provide the unique opportunity to understand change in relationships given that these critical periods require adjustments in how partners interact and react to each other. His second line of research focuses on the relational dynamics and mental health of military and veteran couples during transitions – such as the family readjustment phase after a service member returns from deployment.

 

Continuing Professional Education Credit

Nurses

Up to 1.0 contact hour will be awarded to all participants who view the live sessions in their entirety and complete the evaluation form.

University of Missouri Sinclair School of Nursing is approved as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the Midwest Multistate Division, an accredited approver by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation.

Midwest Multistate Division Provider Number MO1022-6

Physicians

The Office of Continuing Education, School of Medicine, University of Missouri is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians. 

The Office of Continuing Education, School of Medicine, University of Missouri designates this live educational activity for a maximum of 1 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™.  Physicians should only claim the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

Financial Relationship Disclosure: Current ACCME (Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education) and Midwest Multistate Division, ANCC (American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation) rules state that participants in CE activities should be made aware of any relevant affiliation or financial interest in the previous 24 months that may affect the planning of an educational activity or a speaker’s presentation(s). Each planning committee member and speaker has been requested to complete a conflict of interest statement for the NextGen Precision Health Discovery Series.  No planning committee member or speaker has a relevant financial interest.