Megan A. Moreno, MD, MSEd, MPH
Assistant Professor
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Contact the Group
For media inquiries regarding Dr. Moreno’s work, please contact UW Public Affairs at (608) 262-6343.
Megan Moreno
(608) 265-3710
mamoreno [at] pediatrics [dot] wisc [dot] edu
Adolescence is a critical period in which behaviors and attitudes towards health are developed. The major causes of morbidity and mortality in the adolescent population are accidents (including motor vehicle accidents), homicide and suicide. All are preventable deaths and involve behavioral aspects of medicine. Health risk behaviors, such as substance use, risky sexual activity and violence are associated with these causes of morbidity and mortality. Dr. Moreno’s research focuses on novel ways to prevent and intervene to reduce these causes of morbidity and mortality in the adolescent population.
Dr. Moreno’s research centers on adolescents’ use of media and technology and how these may impact adolescent health behaviors. Adolescents’ interactions with media and technology have enormous influence on their health and development. Previous studies have shown links between exposure to substance use and sexual content in media, and initiation of these behaviors. Social media are a particular interest of the Adolescent Health Research Team, as these types of media allow adolescents to be both producers and consumers of media messages about health.
Dr. Moreno has investigated adolescents’ use of social networking web sites, such as MySpace and Facebook, and ways in which adolescents display information about their health and behaviors on these public web profiles. Examples of work to date include:
- Descriptive studies detailing how adolescents portray health risk behaviors on MySpace and Facebook, the most popular social networking web sites used by teens and young adults. These studies found that roughly half of self-reported 18-year-olds on MySpace display health risk behaviors such as substance use, sexual behavior and violence, and that these displays were less frequent among teens who displayed information about other interests such as sports or religious affiliation on their web profiles. Follow up studies have included content analyses of sexual references and alcohol use references on these profiles.
- A pilot intervention study to reduce online risk behavior in a population of at-risk adolescents. This study found that a single email from a physician showed promise in reducing the public online display of sexual material by at-risk teens (defined as at-risk by display of multiple health risk behaviors and residence in a very low-income inner city area).
- Focus groups with teens and young adults discussing the online display of health behaviors and how that display may impact attitudes and behaviors towards engaging in health risk behaviors such as alcohol use or sexual behavior.
- Studies investigating how adolescents and young adults can interact with technology and social media safely.
Recent News
The AHRT presented posters at the 2012 Undergraduate Research Symposium and the Department of Pediatrics Spring Research Day.
The AHRT received media coverage related to the recent publication of the article “Feeling Bad on Facebook” in the journal Depression and Anxiety, and related to the recent AAP report on social media. See Press Articles and Interviews for more information.
Several members of the AHRT presented their work at the 2012 UW Undergraduate Research Symposium on April 18, 2012.
Kaitlyn Bare was the recipient of the UW Library Research Award this spring, awarded at the Undergraduate Research Symposium.
Four members of AHRT will be presenting their work at the Pediatric Academic Society meeting in May 2012.