Jennifer Hillman, MD, MS
Dr. Hillman began her faculty appointment in the Division in November 2008. She is interested in the association of anxiety and depressive disorders with obesity in adolescent females. For her fellowship project, she has evaluated this association in a cross-sectional manner among girls ages 11, 13, 15, 17 years in the Health Behavior study (PI Lorah Dorn). She found a positive association between percent body fat and anxiety and depressive symptoms; increasing symptoms of anxiety and depression were associated with a greater percent body fat. This is the first study to report this association.
In upcoming research studies, Dr. Hillman plans to develop a model to evaluate hormonal factors involved in the association between anxiety/depressive symptoms and obesity among adolescent girls. The literature supports the relevance of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, leptin, estradiol, Vitamin D, and menstrual symptoms on this association. Other factors in her conceptual model include: social, behavioral, and peri- and neonatal influences. The majority of these relationships will be explored among the girls enrolled in Dr. Dorn’s Health Behavior Study, both cross-sectionally and longitudinally. Additionally, she may explore this association among a cohort of younger girls enrolled in Dr. Biro’s Growing Up Female study. Dr. Hillman plans to apply for a Career Development Award through the NIH in the near future, which would give her protected time to continue the research described above.
Another interest of Dr. Hillman’s is the menstrual and reproductive issues associated with severe obesity. Currently she is conducting a retrospective review of the medical records of adolescent females who underwent bariatric surgery over a two-year period at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. The focus of this research is determining the feasibility and acceptance rate of the levonorgestrel releasing intrauterine system among severely obese adolescent females seeking bariatric surgery. Additionally she will describe the most commonly used types of hormonal contraception, report on the frequency of obesity related comorbidities that are contraindications to hormonal contraception, and summarize the frequency of menstrual problems among this group of extremely obese adolescent females.
