Qianxia Jiang arrived at UCF’s Department of Health Sciences earlier this year as a researcher, teacher and optimist. With her interest in the environmental influences on healthy living, Jiang the researcher is fully aware of the alarming rise in childhood obesity rates in the U.S. — nearly 20% of children 2-19 years old are considered obese by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today compared to 10% in 1990. She’s witnessed firsthand the beginning stages of a similar trajectory in the country of her youth, China. Yet Jiang is undeterred in her certainty that she and her colleagues can influence a shift in the other direction. It’s why she’s come to UCF.
“The idea of integrating healthy lifestyles into communities is a complex issue that will require experts in a variety of fields working together,” Jiang says. “I knew UCF would offer me the unique opportunity to interact with educators, students and policymakers. It’s why I’m excited every day.”
This also explains why, shortly after unpacking her belongings in Central Florida, Jiang actively met not with exercise and nutrition experts, but with experts in urban planning.
“We discussed the health aspects of plans to keep up with the needs of a growing population. More roadways are important, of course, but at the same time we can shape healthier lifestyles with safe sidewalks, wider bike paths, access to parks and other enticements for people to move around outside. It’s all part of a bigger picture.”
Jiang and her husband have become part of that bigger picture in the Orlando area, which she calls “a living lab” for her research interests. The population is growing. People come from around the world to visit and to settle, bringing with them a melting pot of cultural norms and habits. New communities are being built. Some are purposefully designed to promote health. Others are not.
“We need to understand that health is not always as simple as making a personal choice,” Jiang says. “It’s influenced by the environment where we live.”
She started to become aware of this connection when she traveled to Taiwan as an exchange student from southeast China.
“I thought it would be nice to experience the beauty of the island, but my eyes were opened in a different way.”
In Taiwan, she noticed an emphasis on community engagement and volunteerism. Older people were active community participants, leading tours and telling stories in museums. One year later, during Jiang’s internship in China’s primary schools, her eyes were opened even further to two rapidly evolving environmental trends at the opposite end of the age spectrum.
“For one, rapid urbanization has created a fast-food culture in parts of China,” she says. “Also, the pressure on students to do well academically has diminished the importance of physical activity. We see that in U.S. schools, too, but in China the academic pressure is greater because the school-age population is so much higher than the available spots in good colleges. Observing this gave me a clear vision of what I wanted to research: environmental factors on healthy lifestyles. It’s how I felt I could make a positive difference in peoples’ lives.”
If the idea of shaping healthy lifestyles sounds daunting, you wouldn’t know it after spending time with Jiang. She politely makes a case that other efforts to do the same could be too narrow in focus, with the expectation of all-or-nothing results.
“There’s a growing awareness among educators and policy makers about the research I’m doing. As a teacher at UCF, I can use it to engage discussions and plant seeds with students. Then they can go out and influence their own communities through their fields of interest.”
Jiang has another very good reason to be optimistic: her own life. Observation spawned her curiosity. Curiosity inspired her research. And the knowledge from her research has changed her daily behaviors. She now prepares her own food more often so she can see the ingredients in it. She takes stairs more frequently instead of elevators. And she enjoys kayaking and paddleboarding with her dog, Poppy, which has prompted another possible research cycle.
“Having a dog inspires me to explore outside more often,” Jiang says. “It’s also made me curious enough to possibly conduct research about the impact of dog ownership on healthy lifestyles.”
And with that, Jiang would again merge her personal and professional interests, her research with real-life impact, observation with optimism, all in the living lab of Central Florida.
