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Jason B. Colditz, PhD, MEd

  • Lead Investigator

Dr. Colditz is a Pittsburgh native and has been a member of the University of Pittsburgh community since 2005. While pursuing his graduate studies, he worked as a research coordinator for over a decade in the Departments of Psychiatry and Medicine. He was the lead coordinator and a staff researcher at the former Center for Research on Media, Technology, and Health and later supported the emerging Center for Behavioral Health, Media, and Technology. Dr. Colditz also coordinated the Bridging Connections in Addiction Research (BCAR) initiative to foster interdisciplinary research around substance use, addiction, and recovery. He is currently an Assistant Professor in the Division of General Internal Medicine with a secondary appointment in the Department of Psychiatry. Outside of his professional interests, Dr. Colditz enjoys spending time outdoors with his family and playing music.

Dr. Colditz’s research is situated at the intersection of alcohol/substance use and digital health. He uses computational social science methods (e.g., social media surveillance, natural language processing, machine learning) to understand psychosocial predictors of recovery from addictive disorders. He is particularly interested in how various modalities of social support (e.g., family and peers, 12-step groups, online community forums) impact addiction recovery trajectories and outcomes. Dr. Colditz develops digital behavioral interventions to enhance psychosocial support in recovery from addiction and related health conditions.

Education & Training

  • BS, Psychology & Communications, University of Pittsburgh, 2007
  • MEd, Social and Comparative Analysis, University of Pittsburgh School of Education, 2012
  • PhD, Clinical and Translational Science, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, 2021
  • Postdoctoral Fellowship, Clinical and Translational Science (TL1), University of Pittsburgh Institute for Clinical Research Education, 2023

Representative Publications

Colditz JB, Hsiao LH, Bergman BG, Best DW, Hulsey EG, Sidani JE, Rollman BL, Kraemer KL. (2024). Characteristics and engagement among English-language online forums for addiction recovery available in the US. Internet Interventions, 35. doi: 10.1016/j.invent.2024.100708 

Colditz JB, Chu KH, Hsiao LH, Barrett EL, Kraemer KL, Pedersen SL. (2023). Characterizing online social support for alcohol use disorder: a mixed-methods approach. Alcohol: Clinical and Experimental Research, 47(11). doi: 10.1111/acer.15187 

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

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Research Interests

  • Addiction recovery pathways and identities  
  • Community-based research, human-centered design 
  • Observational, mixed-methods social media research
  • Computational methods, Natural Language Processing (NLP)
  • Survey and scale development, psychometric assesment
  • Online educational and behavioral interventions

Research Grants

Current and recent support:

  • 2023-2028: Principal Investigator. Toward measures and behavioral trials for effective online AUD recovery support (NIAAA: K01-AA030809)  
  • 2021-2023: Postdoctoral Fellow. National Research Service Award, TL1 Training Program (NIH: TL1-TR001858, Director: Kevin Kraemer) 
  • 2020–2022: Lead Investigator. Online recovery group scorecard (Staunton Farm Foundation) 
  • 2019–2021: Project Manager. NIDA Clinical Trials Network - Appalachian Node (NIDA: UG1-DA049436; PI: Jane Liebschutz)
  • 2018–2021: Project Manager. Leveraging Twitter to monitor nicotine and tobacco-related cancer communication (NCI: R01-CA225773; PI: Brian Primack)