Krista Ranby, PhD

Photo of Krista Ranby
Lab Director • Associate Professor
Department of Psychology

About Dr. Ranby

Krista Ranby is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Colorado Denver and head of the Healthy Couples Lab. She comes to the study of health behavior from the perspective of social and quantitative psychology. She is particularly focused on ways in which close relationship partners affect each other's health. Dr. Ranby is interested in disease prevention through the promotion of physical activity and smoking cessation. Further, she has a particular interest in life transitions (e.g., marriage, pregnancy, disease diagnosis) as a naturally occurring opportunity for behavior change. Her work considers intervention targets for encouraging behavior change within romantic relationships such as joint planning (i.e., collaborative implementation intentions) and consideration of whether partners view each other’s health as their responsibility (i.e., partner investment). Finally, Dr. Ranby does dyadic work within several patient populations (e.g., diabetes, bone marrow transplant, cancer, heart disease) through collaborations with researchers at the Anschutz medical campus.

To learn more about Dr. Ranby, refer to her curriculum vitae

Selected Publications:

        Ulrich, G. R., Ranby, K. W., & Borrayo, E. (2023). Characteristics of medically underserved head-and-neck and lung cancer patients are associated with            caregiver trial participation. Contemporary Clinical Trials Communication

        Ranby, K. W., Roberts, S., Wooldridge, J. S., & Ulrich, G. (2023). Differences between complete and incomplete couples in physical health research:                   Implications for methods and generalizability. Social Science & Medicine, 327, 115965.

         Callan, S., Ulrich, G. R.*, Wooldridge, J. S., Roberts, S. V.*, & Ranby, K. W. (2022). The development and psychometric examination of the partner                      investment in health scale. Psychology & Health. 1-17. doi: 10.1080/08870446.2022.2112581

          Ranby, K. W. & LaCaille, R. (2022). Introduction to the Special Section: Approaches to Understanding and Increasing Physical Activity. Annals of                        Behavioral Medicine, 56 (7), 655-657. https://doi.org/10.1093/abm/kaac029

          Ulrich, G. R., Freeman, S. Z., Nogg, K. A., & Ranby, K. W. (2022). Effects of remotely-delivered physical activity education on exercise beliefs and                      intentions of active and non-active cancer survivors and their partners. Translational Behavioral Medicine. 12(5), 663-672. doi: 10.1093/tbm/ibac024

          Sannes, T. S., Ranby, K. W., Yusufov, M., Brewer, B., Jacobs, J. M., Callan, S., Ulrich, G. R., Pensak, N. A., Natvig, C. L., & Laudenslager, M. L. (2022).              More often than not, we’re in sync: Patient and caregiver well-being over time in stem cell transplantation. Health and Quality of Life Outcomes, 20(1). 1-            10. doi: 10.1186/s12955-021-01909-3

          Ranby, K. W. (2019). Major research designs in health psychology. In T. Revenson & R. Gurung (Eds). Handbook of Health Psychology, 3rd ed. Taylor &            Francis, New York.

Martens, K., Ulrich, G. R., Ranby, K. W., & Kilbourn, K. (2021). What matters most? Predictors of quality of life and life satisfaction among young breast cancer survivors. Cancer Nursing: An International Journal for Cancer Care Research. doi: 10.1097/NCC.0000000000000967

Ulrich, G. R., Callan, S., & Ranby, K. W. (2021). Beliefs and Interests in Physical Activity Programs of Cancer Survivors and their Romantic Partners. Journal of Cancer Survivorship. doi: 10.1007/s11764-021-00996-x

Hooker, S., Masters, K. S., & Ranby, K. W. (2020). Integrating meaning in life and self-determination theory to predict physical activity adoption in previously inactive exercise initiates enrolled in a randomized trial. Psychology of Sport & Exercise, 101704.

Wooldridge, J. S., Ranby, K. W., Roberts, S., & Huebschmann, A. (2019). A couples-based approach for increasing physical activity among adults with type 2 diabetes: A pilot feasibility randomized controlled trial. The Diabetes Educator, 45(6), 629-641. doi: 10.1177/0145721719881722

Varner, S., Lloyd, G., Ranby, K. W., Callan, S., Robertson, C., & Lipkus, I. (2019). Illness uncertainty, relationship functioning and quality of life: A dyadic longitudinal investigation of couples facing prostate cancer. Psycho-Oncology, 28, 2188-2194. doi: 10.1002/pon.5205

Wooldridge, J. S. & Ranby, K. W. (2019). Influence of relationship partners on self-efficacy for self-management behaviors among adults with type 2 diabetes. Diabetes Spectrum 32(1), 6-15. doi: 10.2337/ds17-0069