Bio
Dr. Gaskin’s current research interests include body composition and its assessment, childhood obesity- its epidemiology and development, and energy expenditure and its relationship to weight gain. She is the principal investigator of a multipronged study among primary school children in Barbados, The Barbados Children's Health and Nutrition Study. Dr. Gaskin has presented at scientific meetings and has co-authored published papers in peer reviewed journals and authored a book chapter. She currently reviews for peer reviewed scientific journals. She is actively involved in lecturing for the Faculty and mentoring of postgraduate students.
Dr. Gaskin received a BSc in Biology, an Advanced Diploma (Nutrition) and a PhD (Nutrition) from the University of the West Indies.
Her past positions include: Science teacher; The National AIDS Programme Coordinator for Barbados; Research assistant where her focus was blood pressure and body composition in children, Supervisor and postdoctoral fellow at the Jamaica site of the International Collaborative Study of Hypertension in Blacks (ICSHIB).
She has served as Nutrition consultant to the Barbados National Cancer study, Chronic Disease Research Centre, UWI, as Quality Assurance Specialist-HIV/AIDS Service Provision Assessment in the Eastern Caribbean: AID INC 2005, as consultant to the Antigua Cancer Study, and the Caribbean Health Research Council (CHRC). She was an integral part of research skills workshops of the CHRC.
Qualifications
PhD. (Nutrition) University of the West Indies, Mona 1999
Advanced Diploma (Nutrition) University of the West Indies, Mona 1992
BSc (Biology) University of the West Indies, Cave Hill. 1985
Publications
- Gaskin PS, Hall RV, Chami P, St. John MA, Gaskin DA, et al. (2015) Associations of Blood Pressure with Body Composition among Afro-Caribbean Children in Barbados. PLoS ONE 10(3): e0121107. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0121107. eCollection 2015 (3 citations)
- Melissa Anne Fernandez, Stan Kubow, Katherine Gray-Donald, JaDon Knight and Pamela S Gaskin. Drastic increases in overweight and obesity from 1981 to 2010 and related risk factors: results from the Barbados Children’s Health and Nutrition Study. Public Health Nutrition, available on CJO2015. doi:10.1017/S1368980015002190. (3 citations)
- Gaskin PS, Walker SP. Obesity in a cohort of black Jamaican children as estimated by BMI and other indices of adiposity. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 2003; Volume 57(3):pp420-6.(79 citations)
- Gaskin PS, Broome H, Alert C, Fraser H. Misperceptions, inactivity and maternal factors may drive obesity among Barbadian adolescents. Public Health Nutrition.January 2008;Volume11(1):pp 41-48. (18 citations, also featured in a British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) interview)
- Gaskin PS, Walker SP, Forrester TE, Grantham-McGregor SM. Early linear growth retardation and later blood pressure. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 2000;54(7):563-567. (47 citations)
Additional Info
Dr. Gaskin is a member of The Obesity Society (The North American Association for the Study of Obesity). She has been an American International Visitor (1996) and has represented The Barbados Government to UNAIDS, WHO, 1995 & 1996. She is a past deputy chairperson of the Barbados Community College. She has also served on the Steering Committee of the University College of Barbados.