Pouran Faghri, MD, MS, FACSM

Pouran Faghri, MD, MS, FACSM
Department of Allied Health Sciences
University of Connecticut
email: Pouran.Faghri@uconn.edu

Professor Faghri is affiliated with the Departments of Allied Health Sciences (https://alliedhealth.uconn.edu/faculty/faghri-pouran/), Community Medicine and Health Care (Public Health), and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Connecticut. She is the director of the Center for Environmental Health and Health Promotion at the University of Connecticut. Presently, and following her visiting professor scholar appointment at the University of California, Los Angeles, she is collaborating with researchers at the NIOSH Southern California Education and Research Center at UCLA as well as the UC Irvine Center for Occupational and Environmental Health and Center for Social Epidemiology.

Professor Faghri’s research focuses on identifying and evaluating high-stress workplaces’ psychosocial and environmental risk factors and their relation to the workforce chronic disease development, including musculoskeletal, cardiovascular, obesity and type 2 diabetes. She has expertise in developing cost effective workplace health behavior interventions, implementation and dissemination strategies, behavioral economics, and evaluation of social and environmental determinants of health. Over the years, she has developed and evaluated multiple models for integrating health promotion with workplace injury prevention and occupational ergonomics, with strong emphasis on employees’ involvement through self-care and self-awareness.

Throughout her academic career, Dr. Faghri has brought more than 20 million dollars in federal, state, and private funding to the university as principal investigator or co-investigator. She was the principal investigator of a jointly supported CDC and Dept. of Public Health project entitle: “ConnectiFIT”. This was the first workplace health intervention project for the State of CT employees. The methods developed by the ConnectiFIT project have been cited and utilized by the Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, US Department of Health and Human Services to develop the “Toolkit of Successful Business Strategies to Prevent Heart Disease and Stroke” and was cited as a resource in the toolkit. She directed “Co-Optimal,” a worksite health promotion program for small to mid-sized companies, was co-principal Investigator of a comprehensive worksite health intervention project with a large private sector employer, and was the principal investigator for an innovative project supported by the CDC and Diabetes Education Program to evaluate the effects of contingency management and monetary incentive on weight loss for employees who were overweight and obese and at high risk for type 2 diabetes.

For the past 13 years, Dr. Faghri has also been one of the main investigators for the NIOSH Center of Excellence for “Total Worker Health”: Center for the Promotion of Health in the New England Workplace (CPH-NEW). She has been directing the Cross Project Intervention team as well as Health Promotion Methodology team and have developed and directed multiple interventions for the study cohorts. Moreover, as the Director for the Center for Environmental Health and Health Promotion at the University of Connecticut (http://cehhp.uconn.edu/MessageDir.php), she brought together researchers throughout the country to evaluate the interactions between the environment and behavior, emphasizing on socio-ecological analysis. The results have been successful annual conferences by the center.

Additionally, Professor Faghri is on the editorial boards, and a reviewer for many major peer-reviewed journals. She is Associate Editor for the Journal of Neuro-Engineering and Rehabilitation (JNER) and Editor in Chief of Obesity–Open Access and Journal of Nutritional Disorders & Therapy. She also serves as expert grant reviewer for major federal and private funding agencies, both nationally and internationally.

Selected Publications

1. Simon J, Faghri PD, Huedo-Medina T, Gorin A. Self-Efficacy and Financial Incentives: Factors affecting Health Behavior and Body Weight in Overweight and Obese Individuals in a Weight Loss Program, (2017) J Occup Environ Med.  59(5):453-460. doi: 10.1097/JOM.0000000000000987.
2. Buden J, Dugan A, Namazi S, Huedo-Medina T, Cherniack MG, Faghri PD*. Associations among work and family health climate, health behaviors, work schedule and body weight. (2017) Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine . doi: 10.1097/JOM.0000000000001049.
3. Simon J, Faghri PD, Huedo-Medina T, Gorin. A Perceived Self-Efficacy as a Cognitive Factor Affecting Health Behavior and Body Weight in Overweight and Obese Individuals at Risk for Type II Diabetes. (2016) J Obes Weight Loss Ther 6:329. doi: 10.4172/2165-7904.1000329.
4. Faghri PD., Budden J. Overtime, shift work, poor sleep and the effects on obesity: a public health problem. (2106)  J Nutr Disorders Ther 6:e126. doi:10.4172/2161-0509.1000e126.
5. Buden J, Dugan A, Namazi S, Huedo-Medina T, Cherniack MG, Faghri PD*. Work characteristics as predictors of correctional supervisors’ health outcomes. (2016) Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine: 2016 Sep;58(9): e325-34. doi: 10.1097/JOM.0000000000000843.
6. Mignano C, Faghri PD, Huedo-Medina T, Cherniack M. Psychological health, behavior, and bodyweight (PBBW) model: An evaluation of predictors of health behaviors and body mass index (BMI). Journal of Workplace Behavioral Health: 31:1, 37-56.  (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15555240.2015.1100518
7. Faghri P, Buden J (2015) Health Behavior Knowledge and Self-efficacy as Predictors of Body Weight. 2015, J Nutr Disorders Ther 5: 169. doi:10.4172/2161- 0509.1000169.
8. Garza J, Dugan A, Faghri PD,  Gorin A, Huedo-Medina TB, Kenny A, Cherniack MC, Cavallari J.  Demographic, health-related, and work-related factors associated with body mass index and body fat percentage among workers at six Connecticut manufacturing companies across different age groups: a cohort study. BMC Obesity (2015) 2:43 DOI 10.1186/s40608-015-0073-1
9. Zweber ZM, Henning RA, Magley VJ, & Faghri PD. Considering the Differential Impact of Three Facets of Organizational Health Climate on Employees’ Well-being. The Scientific World Journal, special Issues on Workplace Health Promotion and Well being (2015), Article ID 407232, http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/407232\
10. Faghri PD, Mignano C, Huedo-Medina T, Cherniack M. Psychological Health and Overweight and Obesity Among Correctional Employee. 2015, Obesity, Volume1.1: http://dx.doi. org/10.16966/ooa.101
11. Faghri PD, Chin W, Huedo-Medina T. The Link between Musculoskeletal Pain, Lifestyle Behaviors, Exercise Self-Efficacy, and Quality of Life in Overweight and Obese Individuals. International Journal of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation 2015. Int J Phys Med Rehabil 2015, 3:1 http://dx.doi.org/10.4172/2329-9096.1000255).
12. Faghri PD, Stratton K, Momeni K. Sedentary Lifestyle, Obesity, and Aging: Implication for Prevention. 2015 J Nutr Disorders Ther 5: e119. doi:10.4172/2161- 0509.1000e119.
13. Evans, M., Faghri, P.D., Pagoto, S.L., Schneider, K.L., Waring, M.E., Whited, M., Appelhans, B.M. The Weight Loss Blogosphere: An Online Survey of Weight Loss Bloggers. Translational Behavioral Medicine. Published online 2015 Nov 29. DOI 10.1007/s13142-015-0350-z
14. Faghri, PD, Rui Li. Effect of Financial Incentive in a Workplace Diabetes Prevention Program. The Obesity Journal. 2014; Volume 6, pages 1-12.
15. Faghri PD, Mignano C. Overweight and Obesity in High Stress Workplaces. J Nutr Disorders Ther. 2013; 3: e110. doi:10.4172/2161-0509.1000e110.
16. Ferrero L, Faghri PD, Henning R, Cherniack MC. Workplace Based Participatory Approach to Weight Loss for Correction Employees. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine: 2013; Volume 55- issues 2—p 147-155, doi: 10.1097/JOEM.0b013e3182712cd4.
17. Faghri PD, Duffy VB, Benson N, Cherniack M.  Worksite Weight Loss Intervention for Employees in Stressful Workplaces: A Pilot Study and Baseline Survey Indicators of Success. Journal of Weight loss and Nutrition Therapy. 2012; 2:121- Doi:10.4172/2165-904.1000121.
18. Lahiri S, Faghri PD.  Cost-Effectiveness of a Workplace Based Incentivized Weight Loss Program. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. March 2012; 54(3) 731-737.
19. Faghri PD, Kotejoshyer R,  Cherniack M, Punnett L, Reeves D. Assessment of a Worksite Health Promotion Readiness Checklist. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. 2010 Sep; 52(9):893-9. PMID: 20798646.
20. Faghri PD and Adams CH.  Contribution of physical and psychosocial risk factors combined with sedentary lifestyle to overweight and obesity: Prospects for prevention. Nova Science Publishers, Inc. 2010.  ISBN: 978-1-61761-982-3.