2023 Provost’s Program Interdisciplinary Postdoctoral Scholar: Christine Mills (she/her)

As a registered dietitian, my work involves developing nutrition programs and resources for older adults living in the community and evaluating their effectiveness. I am interested in nutrition risk and malnutrition, their causes, and how we can prevent them. Most older adults want to age in place, in their communities, and nutrition is one of the few modifiable factors that can support aging in place. However, approximately one-third of community-dwelling Canadians aged 65 and older are at nutrition risk, nutrition depletion that occurs when dietary intake does not meet an individual’s needs. My research involves many different disciplines, including nutrition/dietetics, geriatrics/gerontology, implementation science, sociology, and adult education. Nutrition itself is an interdisciplinary discipline. It also involves co-design, a participatory research approach, and working with an organization that serves older adults in the community. This collaborative approach builds on the skills of older adults in this setting and furthers in the interdisciplinary nature of the project. By designing and delivering nutrition education programs and resources, older adults will have access to credible, evidence-based, easy to understand nutrition knowledge and will develop practical, realistic means to improve their dietary intake. This, in turn, should result in reduced nutrition risk, and improved overall health and well-being of participants, resulting in greater capacity for aging in place.

• Further developing my skills in both qualitative and quantitative research as an independent researcher.
• Developing skills in the recruitment of study sites and particpants for research studies.
• Improving my skills as a mentor for both undergraduate and graduate students.
• Teaching an undergraduate course in aging and nutrition as the instructor of record.

• Ontario Graduate Scholarship, Queen’s University; Queen Elizabeth II Graduate Scholarship in Science and Technology, Queen’s University - provided support for my doctoral research examining nutrition risk in community-dwelling Canadians at midlife and beyond, using data from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging.
• Support Our Troops National Scholarship, Canadian Forces Morale & Welfare Services - as a military spouse living outside of Canada (Germany), provided support for attending conferences and journal publication fees.

My dissertation focused on nutrition risk in community-dwelling Canadians at midlife and beyond using data from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging. So far, two of the manuscripts from this work have been published, one has been accepted, and one has received a revise and resubmit.

Mills CM, Keller HH, DePaul V, Donnelly C. (2023) Social factors predict the development of high nutrition risk: data from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging. Canadian Journal on Aging, In press.

Mills CM, Keller HH, DePaul V, Donnelly C. (2023) Social network factors affect nutrition risk in Canadian middle-aged and older adults: results from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging. The Journal of Nutrition, Health & Aging, 27, 46–58. doi: 10.1007/s12603-022-1877-6

Mills CM, Keller HH, DePaul V, Donnelly C. (2023) Nutrition risk varies according to social network type: data from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging. BMJ Family Medicine and Community Health, 11:e002112. doi: 10.1136/fmch-2022-002112

Mills CM, Keller HH, DePaul V, Donnelly C. Social factors associated with changes in nutrition risk scores measured using SCREEN-8: data from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging. Canadian Journal of Dietetic Practice and Research, Revise and resubmit.

Other research conducted during my doctoral studies focused on naturally occurring retirement communities, and novel programs in these communities to support aging in place. As part of this work I also co-mentored three occupational therapy masters students in conjunction with my doctoral supervisor, Dr. Donnelly.

Mills CM, Parniak S, DePaul V, Donnelly C. (2023) Oasis Seniors’ Supportive Living: a model for aging-in-place in a naturally occurring retirement community. Canadian Journal of Dietetic Practice and Research, 84(2): 119-122, doi: 10.3148/cjdpr-2022-040

Mills CM, Parniak S, Hand C, McGrath C, Rudman D, Chislett C, Giberson M, White L, DePaul V, Donnelly C. (2022) The Impact of a Naturally Occurring Retirement Community Supportive Services Program on Older Adult Participants’ Social Networks: Semistructured Interview Study, JMIR Aging, 5 (4), e37617, doi: 10.2196/37617

As I am also interested in primary care, as most of my work experience as a registered dietitian has been in primary care, I also assisted with research projects on how primary care teams responded in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Donnelly C, Mills C, Mehta K, Gill S. Ashcroft R. (2022) The experience of primary care teams during the early phase of COVID-19: A qualitative study of primary care practice leaders in Ontario, Canada. BMC Primary Care, 23, 294, doi: 10.1186/s12875-022-01907-4

Donnelly C, Ashcroft R, Bobbette N, Mills C, Mofina A, Tran T, Vader K, William A, Miller J. (2021) Interprofessional Primary Care During COVID-19: The Provider Experience. BMC Primary Care, 22(1), 1-12, doi:10.1186/s12875-020-01366-9

The University of Waterloo is home to the Schlegel-UW Research Institute for Aging (RIA), which will provide me with the opportunity to work with scholars from a variety of disciplines working in the field of aging. I will have the opportunity to attend the monthly RIA research seminar which provides opportunity for discussion on key issues and research associated with aging. The University of Waterloo is also home to Dr. Heather Keller, RD, PhD, FDC, FCAHS, who is the Schlegel Research Chair in Nutrition and Aging. She is an expert in nutrition risk in community-dwelling older adults, among other topics related to nutrition and aging. Under her mentorship, I will be exposed to additional research topics on nutrition and aging and have the opportunity to work with the primary and community care working group of the Canadian Malnutrition Task Force. Also, as an instructor who believes in the value of experiential learning, I value the University of Waterloo's commitment to and excellence in experiential learning.

I am looking forward to working with the team in the Nutrition and Aging lab under the direction of Dr. Keller. It will be exciting to work on a variety of projects in nutrition and aging and receive exposure to new research methods while enhancing my existing research skills. I am looking forward to working with and mentoring both undergraduate and graduate students. I am also looking forward to enhacing my teaching skills as an instructor of record.

In my spare time I enjoy spending time with my spouse and our three Sphynx cats. I also crochet and knit, and design crochet patterns. In addition, I enjoy running, and I have completed three full marathons (42.2 km), fourteen half-marathons (21.1 km), two sprint triathlons, and numerous shorter races. I also enjoy strength training, teaching group fitness classes (step and stability ball are my favourites), and teaching Zumba and aquafitness.

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