About Dr. Ranby
Krista Ranby is a 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:
vanDellen, M. R., Wright, J. W. C., Hampton, B. M., Ranby, K. W., Beach, S. R. H., Shen, Y., & MacKillop, J. M. (in press). Mechanisms of Change in a Randomized Control Pilot Study of Partner-Involved Financial Incentive Treatments for Dual-Smoker Couples. Health Psychology. doi:10.1037/hea0001505
Shaffer, J. A., Boylan, J. M., Ranby. K. W. (2025). Design and analysis in health psychology. In N. Anderson & T. Smith (Eds.) APA Handbook of Health Psychology, Vol 1: Foundations of Health Psychology. American Psychological Association.
Callan, S., Ulrich, G. R., Wooldridge, J. S., Roberts, S. V., & Ranby, K. W. (2024). The development and psychometric examination of the partner investment in health scale. Psychology & Health, 39(6). 786-802. doi:10.1080/08870446.2022.2112581
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. doi: 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