Abby C. King

Administrative Appointments

• Acting Director, Division Chief, Stanford Prevention Research Center/Medicine (2009 - 2010)
• Member, faculty steering committee-Mobility initiative, Stanford Center on Longevity (2007 - 2008)
• Advisory Committee member, Sustainable Built Environment initiative, Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment (2007 - 2010)
• Member, Appointments & Promotions committee, Stanford Medical School (2006 - 2008)

Honors and Awards

• Member, US Secretary of DHHS Sci Advis Committee, National Health Promot-Dis Prev 2020 Objectives (2007 - 2011)
• Recipient, Distinguished Research Mentor Award, Society of Behavioral Medicine (2003)
• Recipient, Teaching Award for Outstanding Contributions to Divisional Teaching Activities, Stanford Prevention Research Center, Dept. of Medicine (2001)
• Elected Member, Academy of Behavioral Science Research (1999)
• Contributing Author, US Surgeon General's Report on Physical Activity and Health (1995-1996)

Professional Education

Graduate & Fellowship Program Affiliations

• Epidemiology
• Medicine

Community & International Work

• The online health literacy of older adults, SF peninsula region and Baltimore, MD 
• Computer-based physical activity advice for ethnic minority aging adults, San Jose 
• Creating more sustainable decisions and behaviors through new processes and focused interventions 
• Multi-scale modeling of health behaviors: Water, sanitation, and child survival in Africa 
• Preventing obesity among socioeconomically disadvantaged women and children, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia 

Web Site Links

• Stanford Prevention Research Center

Current Research Interests

My interests include the applications of social cognitive theory and similar behavioral and ecological approaches to achieve large scale change in disease prevention and health promotion areas of relevance to adults, especially women, and mid-life and older adults; moving interventions that have proven effective in the laboratory to field settings; influences of the built and social environments on health behaviors and outcomes, including person-environment interactions; and long term maintenance to hygienic regimens, including physical activity, dietary change, and stress reduction.

In mid-life and older populations, I am interested in the study of physical activity as a link to other health-promoting behaviors; and the relationship of physical activity and other health-related behaviors to day-to-day functioning, stress and coping, sleep quality,and psychological well being, particularly in chronically stressed populations (e.g., family caregivers).

In pursuing the development of behavioral interventions for chronic disease prevention with broad applicability to the population at large, I have investigated channels of delivery (e.g., mediated approaches and interactive technologies) that do not require ongoing face-to-face contact. We have found that mediated interventions can provide a useful alternative to more intensive face-to-face approaches to health behavior change and, in some cases, such as in the physical activity field, may actually produce better long term (i.e., up to two years) adherence than class- or group-based approaches.

Clinical Trials

• Fresh Start Weight Loss Study No longer recruiting

Publications

• Identifying subgroups of u.s. Adults at risk for prolonged television viewing to inform program development. King AC, Goldberg JH, Salmon J, Owen N, Dunstan D, Weber D, Doyle C, Robinson TN. Am J Prev Med. 2010; 38 (1): 17-26
• Sleep patterns and sleep-related factors between caregiving and non-caregiving women. Castro CM, Lee KA, Bliwise DL, Urizar GG, Woodward SH, King AC. Behav Sleep Med. 2009; 7 (3): 164-79
• Why and how to improve physical activity promotion: lessons from behavioral science and related fields. King AC, Sallis JF. Prev Med. 2009; 49 (4): 286-8
• Age differences in the relation of perceived neighborhood environment to walking. Shigematsu R, Sallis JF, Conway TL, Saelens BE, Frank LD, Cain KL, Chapman JE, King AC. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2009; 41 (2): 314-21
• Effects of moderate-intensity exercise on polysomnographic and subjective sleep quality in older adults with mild to moderate sleep complaints. King AC, Pruitt LA, Woo S, Castro CM, Ahn DK, Vitiello MV, Woodward SH, Bliwise DL. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2008; 63 (9): 997-1004