Dr. Colditz is a Pittsburgh native and has been at the University of Pittsburgh since 2005. Here, he earned a BS with dual majors in Communications and Psychology, MEd in Social and Comparative Analysis, and PhD in Clinical and Translational Science. His doctoral dissertation, “Digital mutual help groups for problematic alcohol use: characteristics, contexts, and commitment”, identified unique predictors of social support leading to sustained recovery forum activity.
While pursuing his education, Jason worked as a full-time research coordinator for over a decade in the Departments of Psychiatry and Medicine, and was the lead coordinator and resarch mentee at the Center for Research on Media, Technology, and Health (PI: Dr. Brian Primack). He is currently a TL1 Postdoctoral Fellow in the Institute for Clinical Research Education, where he studies processes of online social suport that improve addiction recovery outcomes. His primary research mentors are Drs. Kevin Kraemer (Medicine) and Sarah Pedersen (Psychiatry) at the University of Pittsburgh, and he works with national and international experts in developing a portfolio of research around social technology use in addiction recovery. Dr. Colditz also coordinates the interdepartmental Bridging Connections in Addiction Research (BCAR) initiative, which seeks to foster interdisciplinary research around substance use, addiction, and recovery at the University of Pittsburgh.
- BS, Communications and Psychology, University of Pittsburgh
- MEd, Social and Comparative Analysis, University of Pittsburgh
- PhD, Clinical and Translational Science, University of Pittsburgh
Education & Training
Colditz JB, Rothenberger SD, Liebschutz JM, Rollman BL, Kraemer KL. (2021). COVID-19 social distancing and online mutual help engagement for alcohol use recovery. Journal of Addiction Medicine, online first. doi:10.1097/ADM.0000000000000797
Russell AM, Bergman BG, Colditz JB, Kelly JF, Milaham PJ, Massey PM. (2021). Using TikTok in recovery from substance use disorder. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 229. doi:10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2021.109147
Visweswaran S, Colditz JB, O’Halloran P, Han N, Taneja SB, Welling J, Chu K, Sidani JE, Primack BA. (2020). Machine learning classifiers for Twitter surveillance of vaping: comparative machine learning study. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 22(8). doi:10.2196/17478
Chu K, Colditz JB, Sidani JE, Zimmer M, Primack BA. (2019). Re-evaluating standards of human subjects protection for sensitive health data in social media networks. Social Networks. doi:10.1016/j.socnet.2019.10.010
Colditz JB, Welling J, Smith NA, James AE, Primack BA. (2019). World Vaping Day: contextualizing vaping culture in online social media using a mixed methods approach. Journal of Mixed Methods Research, 13(2). doi:10.1177/1558689817702753
Colditz JB, Chu K, Emery SL, Larkin CR, James AE, Welling J, Primack BA. (2018). Toward real-time infovellience of Twitter health messages. American Journal of Public Health, 108(8). doi:10.2105/AJPH.2018.304497
Primack BA, Colditz JB, Pang K, Jackson K. (2015). Portrayal of alcohol intoxication on YouTube. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 39(3). doi:10.1111/acer.12640
Pilkonis PA, Yu L, Colditz JB, Dodds N, Johnston KL, Maihoefer C, Stover AM, Daley DC, McCarty D. (2013). Item banks for alcohol use from the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS®): use, consequences, and expectancies. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 130(1-3). doi:10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2012.11.002
- Addiction recovery pathways, alcohol and other substances
- Community-based research, user-centered design
- Observational, mixed-methods, social media research
- Computational methods, Natural Language Processing (NLP)
- Survey and scale development for digital social support
- Online educational and behavioral interventions
- 2022-present: Postdoctoral Fellow. National Research Service Award, TL1 Training Program (NIH: TL1-TR001858, Director: Kevin Kraemer), University of Pittsburgh Institute for Clinical Research Education.
- 2020–2022: Lead Investigator. Online recovery group scorecard (Staunton Farm Foundation; Mentoring PI: Kevin Kraemer), University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
- 2019–2021: Project Manager. NIDA Clinical Trials Network - Appalachian Node (NIH: UG1-DA049436; PI: Jane Liebschutz), University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
- 2018–2021: Project Manager. Leveraging Twitter to monitor nicotine and tobacco-related cancer communication (NIH: R01-CA225773; PI: Brian Primack), University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.