Current Projects

Young Adults, Health, Media, and College

In this long-term study, the Health Comm Lab is examining how young adults navigate their everyday health once they live on their own. The focus is also on how young adults integrate persuasive technology into health management related to food and exercise habits. The lab is collecting data from phase III and starting to analyze phase I and II.

Understanding Our Relationships with Health and Technology

An auto-ethnography of our relationship with fitness trackers that explores how we choose to use wearable technologies for health outcomes and the extent of their persuasiveness. This study from the Health Comm Lab spans one year, and the lab is finishing the data collection phase.

Tobacco, Tips, and Social Media

The Health Media Collaboratory (HMC) here at UIC runs a sizable project about social media conversations on tobacco products. Abril collaborates with HMC on Tips from Former Smokers research about the Tips conversation on Twitter. 

Contextualizing Health

An evaluation of how contexts influence health choices with the Health Comm Lab. The first set of between-subjects experiments contextualizes food and beverage choices.

Catalan Talk on Social Media

As a native of Catalonia, Abril is curious about the politics and civic life of the region, especially the independence movement. This series of studies seek to analyze the social media conversation that occurs on peak days such as the Catalan National Day and during elections.