UMass Lowell, Zuckerberg College of Health Sciences
About the Webinar
The current epidemic of chronic disease, which is growing globally, is clearly associated with adequacy of dietary intake. However, limitations in dietary assessment mean that uncertainty remains for many aspects of diet and health. Improving dietary assessment methods is, therefore, a major priority, and utilizing optimal available methods in current research is of great importance for providing reliable public health guidance. This presentation covers approaches to dietary assessment for estimating usual intake for the purpose of relating intake of nutrients, foods, and food patterns to chronic health conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, stroke, cognitive decline, bone loss, and others. Limitations to existing methods, considerations for validity in diverse populations, and approaches for improving estimates in future work will be discussed.
About Katherine L. Tucker
Katherine L. Tucker, Ph.D., is a Professor of Nutritional Epidemiology in the Department of Biomedical and Nutritional Sciences, and the Director of the Center for Population Health at UMass Lowell, Zuckerberg College of Health Sciences, with an adjunct appointment at University of Massachusetts Medical School. She received her Ph.D. from Cornell University and her undergraduate degree from University of Connecticut, both in nutritional sciences. Dr. Tucker has contributed to more than 400 articles in scientific journals. Her research focuses on dietary intake and risk of chronic disease, including osteoporosis, cognitive decline, obesity, metabolic syndrome, and heart disease, with an emphasis on health disparities. She is the Principal Investigator of the Boston Puerto Rican Health Study, an ongoing cohort study to examine the roles of diet, health behaviors, stress, and genetic predisposition in relation to chronic conditions, including heart disease, cognitive decline, and bone health. She serves as a Scientific Advisor for the Jackson Heart Study, a cohort study of African American adults. She is the Editor-in-Chief of Advances in Nutrition, the international review journal of the American Society of Nutrition, and was a co-editor of the 11th edition of the textbook, “Modern Nutrition in Health and Disease.”