Aric A Prather
Biographic Data
| ID | 209973 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Aric A Prather |
| GIVEN NAMES | Aric A |
| FAMILY NAME | Prather |
| SIGNATURE | PRATHER A A |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of California, San Francisco |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1302-8283 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 18 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 23 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 18 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2007 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
A randomized controlled pilot trial of low and high arousal resilience interventions for depressive symptoms
BACKGROUND: To cope with chronic stress, which can contribute to depression, humans often pursue arousal-reducing activities. Yet, hormetic stressors (intermittent, acute stressors) might also reduce chronic stress. PURPOSE: We compared the effects of arousal-reducing and arousal-enhancing interventions on depressive symptoms and perceived stress. METHODS: Female adults (N = 141; predominantly White, 63%, and Asian, 34%) reporting high perceived …
Waking Up to the Importance of Sleep
Insufficient sleep is associated with an increased risk for a range of negative physical and mental health outcomes. Causes of insufficient sleep involve many factors, and the consequences are not evenly distributed across populations. Indeed, stark sleep disparities disadvantage racial and ethnic minorities and those low in socioeconomic status, who are more readily affected by poor sleep than their White and high socioeconomic status comparator…
Psychology Meets Biology in Covid-19
Psychosocial factors are related to immune, viral, and vaccination outcomes. Yet, this knowledge has been poorly represented in public health initiatives during the COVID-19 pandemic. This review provides an overview of biopsychosocial links relevant to COVID-19 outcomes by describing seminal evidence about these associations known prepandemic as well as contemporary research conducted during the pandemic. This focuses on the negative impact of t…
Acute and Chronic Stress Associations With Blood Pressure
OBJECTIVE: This study examined the within- and between-person associations of acute and chronic stress with blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR) using an app-based research platform. METHODS: We examined data from 31,964 adults (aged 18-90 years) in an app-based ecological momentary assessment study that used a research-validated optic sensor to measure BP. RESULTS: Within-person associations revealed that moments with (versus without) acute s…
Examining the Cross-sectional Association Between Neighborhood Conditions, Discrimination, and Telomere Length in a Predominantly African American Sample
Estimating the effect of timing of earned income tax credit refunds on perinatal outcomes
This analysis offers a novel method to impute EITC eligibility using a probabilistic algorithm in a data set with richer sociodemographic information relative to the clinical and administrative data sets from which outcomes are drawn. These results could be used to determine the optimal intervention time point for future income supplementation policies. Future work should examine frequent income supplementation such as the minimum wage or basic i…
Improving the Language Specificity of Stress in Psychological and Population Health Science
Telomere length analysis from minimally‐invasively collected samples
Framework for a Community Health Observing System for the Gulf of Mexico Region
The Gulf of Mexico (GoM) region is prone to disasters, including recurrent oil spills, hurricanes, floods, industrial accidents, harmful algal blooms, and the current COVID-19 pandemic. The GoM and other regions of the U.S. lack sufficient baseline health information to identify, attribute, mitigate, and facilitate prevention of major health effects of disasters. Developing capacity to assess adverse human health consequences of future disasters …
Associations between sleep duration and dietary quality
Anticipated and Experienced Ethnic/Racial Discrimination and Sleep
The transition to college is a stressful experience. For members of underrepresented minority groups, the usual stresses are frequently accompanied by ethnicity-based stressors, including discrimination. This longitudinal study extends prior work on discrimination by examining the prospective associations between anticipated and experienced ethnic/racial discrimination and sleep, a ubiquitous and basic biological need critical for optimal functio…
Ten Surprising Facts About Stressful Life Events and Disease Risk
After over 70 years of research on the association between stressful life events and health, it is generally accepted that we have a good understanding of the role of stressors in disease risk. In this review, we highlight that knowledge but also emphasize misunderstandings and weaknesses in this literature with the hope of triggering further theoretical and empirical development. We organize this review in a somewhat provocative manner, with eac…
Bidirectional Links Between Social Rejection and Sleep
OBJECTIVE: This set of studies examines the bidirectional links between social rejection and poor sleep, a ubiquitous and increasingly problematic health behavior. METHODS: In study 1, a multiday field experiment, 43 participants completed a neutral task just before sleep on night 1 and a social rejection task on night 2. Objective and subjective sleep, postrejection affect, and physiological responses were measured. In study 2, 338 participants …
Socioeconomic Status, Preeclampsia Risk and Gestational Length in Black and White Women
Compared to White women, Black women had increased preeclampsia risk. Higher SES attenuated risk for preeclampsia among White women, but not for Black women. Similarly, higher SES indirectly predicted longer gestational length via reduced preeclampsia risk among White women, but not for Black women. These findings are consistent with diminishing returns of higher SES for Black women with respect to preeclampsia
More than a feeling
Stress can influence health throughout the lifespan, yet there is little agreement about what types and aspects of stress matter most for human health and disease. This is in part because "stress" is not a monolithic concept but rather, an emergent process that involves interactions between individual and environmental factors, historical and current events, allostatic states, and psychological and physiological reactivity. Many of these processe…
Weight Loss Maintenance and Cellular Aging in the Supporting Health Through Nutrition and Exercise Study
OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to determine, within a weight loss clinical trial for obesity, the impact of intervention arm, weight change, and weight loss maintenance on telomere length (TL). METHODS: Adults (N = 194) with a body mass index between 30 and 45 were randomized to a 5.5-month weight loss program with (n = 100) or without (n = 94) mindfulness training and identical diet-exercise guidelines. We assessed TL at baseline and 3-, 6-…
Impact of Sleep Quality on Amygdala Reactivity, Negative Affect, and Perceived Stress
OBJECTIVE: Research demonstrates a negative impact of sleep disturbance on mood and affect; however, the biological mechanisms mediating these links are poorly understood. Amygdala reactivity to negative stimuli has emerged as one potential pathway. Here, we investigate the influence of self-reported sleep quality on associations between threat-related amygdala reactivity and measures of negative affect and perceived stress. METHODS: Analyses on …
Stimulated Production of Proinflammatory Cytokines Covaries Inversely With Heart Rate Variability
OBJECTIVE: To examine whether high-frequency heart rate variability, an indirect measure of parasympathetic (vagal) control over variations in heart rate, is associated with immune reactivity to an in vitro inflammatory challenge. Convergent evidence from the animal literature shows that the autonomic nervous system plays a key role in regulating the magnitude of immune responses to inflammatory stimuli. Signaling by the parasympathetic system in…
Anticipated and Experienced Ethnic/Racial Discrimination and Sleep
The transition to college is a stressful experience. For members of underrepresented minority groups, the usual stresses are frequently accompanied by ethnicity-based stressors, including discrimination. This longitudinal study extends prior work on discrimination by examining the prospective associations between anticipated and experienced ethnic/racial discrimination and sleep, a ubiquitous and basic biological need critical for optimal functio…
Associations between sleep duration and dietary quality
Socioeconomic Status, Preeclampsia Risk and Gestational Length in Black and White Women
Compared to White women, Black women had increased preeclampsia risk. Higher SES attenuated risk for preeclampsia among White women, but not for Black women. Similarly, higher SES indirectly predicted longer gestational length via reduced preeclampsia risk among White women, but not for Black women. These findings are consistent with diminishing returns of higher SES for Black women with respect to preeclampsia
Stimulated Production of Proinflammatory Cytokines Covaries Inversely With Heart Rate Variability
OBJECTIVE: To examine whether high-frequency heart rate variability, an indirect measure of parasympathetic (vagal) control over variations in heart rate, is associated with immune reactivity to an in vitro inflammatory challenge. Convergent evidence from the animal literature shows that the autonomic nervous system plays a key role in regulating the magnitude of immune responses to inflammatory stimuli. Signaling by the parasympathetic system in…
Impact of Sleep Quality on Amygdala Reactivity, Negative Affect, and Perceived Stress
OBJECTIVE: Research demonstrates a negative impact of sleep disturbance on mood and affect; however, the biological mechanisms mediating these links are poorly understood. Amygdala reactivity to negative stimuli has emerged as one potential pathway. Here, we investigate the influence of self-reported sleep quality on associations between threat-related amygdala reactivity and measures of negative affect and perceived stress. METHODS: Analyses on …
More than a feeling
Stress can influence health throughout the lifespan, yet there is little agreement about what types and aspects of stress matter most for human health and disease. This is in part because "stress" is not a monolithic concept but rather, an emergent process that involves interactions between individual and environmental factors, historical and current events, allostatic states, and psychological and physiological reactivity. Many of these processe…
Weight Loss Maintenance and Cellular Aging in the Supporting Health Through Nutrition and Exercise Study
OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to determine, within a weight loss clinical trial for obesity, the impact of intervention arm, weight change, and weight loss maintenance on telomere length (TL). METHODS: Adults (N = 194) with a body mass index between 30 and 45 were randomized to a 5.5-month weight loss program with (n = 100) or without (n = 94) mindfulness training and identical diet-exercise guidelines. We assessed TL at baseline and 3-, 6-…
Ten Surprising Facts About Stressful Life Events and Disease Risk
After over 70 years of research on the association between stressful life events and health, it is generally accepted that we have a good understanding of the role of stressors in disease risk. In this review, we highlight that knowledge but also emphasize misunderstandings and weaknesses in this literature with the hope of triggering further theoretical and empirical development. We organize this review in a somewhat provocative manner, with eac…
Bidirectional Links Between Social Rejection and Sleep
OBJECTIVE: This set of studies examines the bidirectional links between social rejection and poor sleep, a ubiquitous and increasingly problematic health behavior. METHODS: In study 1, a multiday field experiment, 43 participants completed a neutral task just before sleep on night 1 and a social rejection task on night 2. Objective and subjective sleep, postrejection affect, and physiological responses were measured. In study 2, 338 participants …
Socioeconomic Status, Preeclampsia Risk and Gestational Length in Black and White Women
Compared to White women, Black women had increased preeclampsia risk. Higher SES attenuated risk for preeclampsia among White women, but not for Black women. Similarly, higher SES indirectly predicted longer gestational length via reduced preeclampsia risk among White women, but not for Black women. These findings are consistent with diminishing returns of higher SES for Black women with respect to preeclampsia
Framework for a Community Health Observing System for the Gulf of Mexico Region
The Gulf of Mexico (GoM) region is prone to disasters, including recurrent oil spills, hurricanes, floods, industrial accidents, harmful algal blooms, and the current COVID-19 pandemic. The GoM and other regions of the U.S. lack sufficient baseline health information to identify, attribute, mitigate, and facilitate prevention of major health effects of disasters. Developing capacity to assess adverse human health consequences of future disasters …
Associations between sleep duration and dietary quality
Anticipated and Experienced Ethnic/Racial Discrimination and Sleep
The transition to college is a stressful experience. For members of underrepresented minority groups, the usual stresses are frequently accompanied by ethnicity-based stressors, including discrimination. This longitudinal study extends prior work on discrimination by examining the prospective associations between anticipated and experienced ethnic/racial discrimination and sleep, a ubiquitous and basic biological need critical for optimal functio…
Telomere length analysis from minimally‐invasively collected samples
Improving the Language Specificity of Stress in Psychological and Population Health Science
Waking Up to the Importance of Sleep
Insufficient sleep is associated with an increased risk for a range of negative physical and mental health outcomes. Causes of insufficient sleep involve many factors, and the consequences are not evenly distributed across populations. Indeed, stark sleep disparities disadvantage racial and ethnic minorities and those low in socioeconomic status, who are more readily affected by poor sleep than their White and high socioeconomic status comparator…
Psychology Meets Biology in Covid-19
Psychosocial factors are related to immune, viral, and vaccination outcomes. Yet, this knowledge has been poorly represented in public health initiatives during the COVID-19 pandemic. This review provides an overview of biopsychosocial links relevant to COVID-19 outcomes by describing seminal evidence about these associations known prepandemic as well as contemporary research conducted during the pandemic. This focuses on the negative impact of t…
Acute and Chronic Stress Associations With Blood Pressure
OBJECTIVE: This study examined the within- and between-person associations of acute and chronic stress with blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR) using an app-based research platform. METHODS: We examined data from 31,964 adults (aged 18-90 years) in an app-based ecological momentary assessment study that used a research-validated optic sensor to measure BP. RESULTS: Within-person associations revealed that moments with (versus without) acute s…
Examining the Cross-sectional Association Between Neighborhood Conditions, Discrimination, and Telomere Length in a Predominantly African American Sample
Estimating the effect of timing of earned income tax credit refunds on perinatal outcomes
This analysis offers a novel method to impute EITC eligibility using a probabilistic algorithm in a data set with richer sociodemographic information relative to the clinical and administrative data sets from which outcomes are drawn. These results could be used to determine the optimal intervention time point for future income supplementation policies. Future work should examine frequent income supplementation such as the minimum wage or basic i…
A randomized controlled pilot trial of low and high arousal resilience interventions for depressive symptoms
BACKGROUND: To cope with chronic stress, which can contribute to depression, humans often pursue arousal-reducing activities. Yet, hormetic stressors (intermittent, acute stressors) might also reduce chronic stress. PURPOSE: We compared the effects of arousal-reducing and arousal-enhancing interventions on depressive symptoms and perceived stress. METHODS: Female adults (N = 141; predominantly White, 63%, and Asian, 34%) reporting high perceived …
Medicine (15 works) · Psychology (7 works) · Environmental health (6 works) · Internal Medicine (6 works) · Clinical Psychology (5 works) · Population (5 works) · Sleep and related disorders (5 works) · Biology (4 works) · Demography (4 works) · Developmental psychology (4 works)