Subsite Background

Professor Meanne CHAN

Prof. Meanne Chan

 

Research Associate Professor

BA Hons (UBC), MA (UBC), PhD (NU), Postdoctoral Fellowship (Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre/University of Toronto), Researcher, MaRS, Toronto

Office:   HSH323, Ho Sin Hang Building
               Lingnan University, Tuen Mun, Hong Kong

TEL:       (852) 2616 8335

FAX:      (852) 2616 5997

e-Mail:   meannechan@ln.edu.hk

Associate Editor, Frontiers in Digital Health, Personalized Medicine

Membership Committee of American Psychosomatic Society

Member of International Society of Behavioral Medicine 

Member of American Psychological Association (APA Div. 38)

 

Meanne is an inter-disciplinary scientist with expertise that spans the areas of psychology, neuroscience, immunology, and social health policy. The vision is to unmask trends across disciplines to understand stress biology and stratify social healthcare management for disadvantaged populations.

The research program aims to understand health disparities by characterizing bio-behavioral pathways between individuals and their communities. A multi-level, mixed methods approach examines how social factors at the neighborhood, family, and individual levels interact to predict health development across the lifespan, with a particular focus on childhood social disadvantage, stress, and its effects on emotional and neurobiological pathways relevant to the pathophysiology of age-related diseases. To better understand stress in naturalistic settings, Meanne applies ecological momentary assessment techniques as well as mobile health methods.

In combination, models of risk and resilience are built to unmask patterns of health trajectories in various subgroups and families, coupled with technology harnessing, to optimize user-driven but evidence-based intervention approaches at the community level. 

Previous experience include launch of large-scale NIH R01 prospective studies with both healthy cohorts and clinical samples, digital health interventions, intensive longitudinal studies with eHealth/mobile data collection, design of community hubs to improve living conditions of disadvantaged populations, and adaptation of behavioral tasks for health studies. In 2016, Meanne was named a Young Investigator Colloquium Scholar by the American Psychosomatic Society for promising early career research.

Key technical skills include ecological momentary interventions, experience sampling, dyadic modeling, cloud-based data management, biomarker assessments, and semi-structured assessments for hybrid qualitative-quantitative data. Meanne also uses advanced analytical and data visualization approaches with R, Python, and Tableau.

Knowledge translations include advocacy projects to engage relevant at-risk subgroups, ongoing partnerships with NGOs to reach a broad audience, and bridging across independent bureaus for an integrated interpretation of social trends to inform service systems. Meanne’s research has been funded by local and international governments, as well as charity foundations.

 

Research

  • Stress biology
  • Social health disparities 
  • Inflammatory activation and psychopathology 
  • Early intervention for developmental psychopathology
  • Digital mental health

 

Selected Publications:

Ng, C., Tang, S.C., Chan, M., Tran, B. X., Ho, C. S., Tam, W. W., et al. (2019). A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials of cognitive behavioral therapy for hemodialysis patients with depression. Journal of Psychosomatic Research.

#Tso, W., #Chan, M., Ho, F. K. W., Rao, N., Li, A. M., Chan, K. L., et al. (2019). Sleep deprivation in early childhood and the risk of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in middle childhood: a Chinese cohort study. Pediatric Research, 85(4), 449.

Hostinar, C. E., Ross, K. M., Chan, M., Chen, E., & Miller, G. E. (2017). Threat vigilance and socioeconomic disparities in metabolic health. Development and Psychopathology, Special Issue on Biological And Behavioral Effects of Early Adversity on Multiple Levels of Development. 29(5), 1721-1733.

Human, L. J., Chan, M., Ifthikhar, R., *Williams, D., DeLongis, A., & Chen, E. (2016). Accuracy and bias in adolescent perceptions of parent behavior: Links with adolescent psychological and inflammatory functioning. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 7(8), 796-805.

Chan, M., Miller, G. E., & Chen, E. (2016). Early-life socioeconomic status and metabolic outcomes in adolescents: The role of implicit affect about one’s family. Health Psychology, Special Issue on Disparities in Cardiovascular Health: Examining the Contributions of Social and Behavioral Factors, 35(4), 387-396.

 

Teaching Subjects

Academic Year:  2022 - 2023:

1st Term: - -
2nd Term: PSY3207 Health Psychology