Karen E Peterson
Biographic Data
| ID | 189205 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Karen E Peterson |
| GIVEN NAMES | Karen E |
| FAMILY NAME | Peterson |
| SIGNATURE | PETERSON K E |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Michigan |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-0471-1427 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 61 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 130 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 61 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1993 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Dietary Fluoride Exposure During Early Childhood and Its Association with Dental Fluorosis in a Sample of Mexican Adolescents
Dental fluorosis indicates past fluoride intake. People living in Mexico City are exposed to fluoridated salt, which contributes significantly to fluoride intake. This study aimed to (1) estimate fluoride intake during early childhood and fluorosis prevalence in permanent teeth in adolescence and (2) identify intake windows associated with higher fluorosis scores in upper central incisors (UCIs). We included 432 participants from the ELEMENT proj…
Social Connections, Leukocyte Telomere Length, and All-Cause Mortality in Older Adults From Costa Rica
Objectives To examine the association of social connections with blood leukocyte telomere length (LTL) and all-cause mortality in older Costa Ricans. Methods Utilizing data from the Costa Rican Longevity and Healthy Aging Study (CRELES), a prospective cohort of 2827 individuals aged 60 and above followed since 2004, we constructed a Social Network Index (SNI) based on marital status, household size, interaction with non-cohabitating adult childre…
Differential fat accumulation in early adulthood according to adolescent‐BMI and heavy metal exposure
Heavy metal exposure in adolescence may alter how fat is accumulated in later periods of life
Maternal carbohydrate intake during pregnancy is associated with child peripubertal markers of metabolic health but not adiposity
Objective: To examine the associations of trimester-specific maternal prenatal carbohydrate (CHO) intake with offspring adiposity and metabolic health during peripuberty. Design: Prospective cohort study in which maternal dietary intake was collected via validated FFQ during each trimester. Offspring adiposity and metabolic biomarkers were evaluated at age 8–14 years. We used multivariable linear regression to examine associations between total e…
Relationships of beverage consumption and actigraphy-assessed sleep parameters among urban-dwelling youth from Mexico
Objective: To examine whether usual beverage intake was associated with sleep timing, duration and fragmentation among adolescents. Design: Usual beverage intake was assessed with a FFQ. Outcomes included sleep duration, midpoint (median of bed and wake times) and fragmentation, assessed with 7-d actigraphy. Sex-stratified linear regression was conducted with sleep characteristics as separate outcomes and quantiles of energy-adjusted beverage int…
The healthfulness of children's meals when multiple media and devices are present
Exposure to Phenols, Phthalates, and Parabens and Development of Metabolic Syndrome Among Mexican Women in Midlife
Background: Evidence suggests exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) can influence Metabolic Syndrome (MetS) risk in adults, but it is unclear if EDCs impact women during midlife. We examined if EDCs measured in adult women were predictive of MetS and its components 9 years later. Methods: We measured urinary phthalate metabolites, phenols, and parabens collected in 2008 among 73 females from the ELEMENT study. MetS and its components …
Association between pesticide exposure and sleep health among a representative sample of US adults
In summary, acute pesticide exposure may be detrimental to adult sleep health, particularly among US males
Dietary fluoride intake over the course of pregnancy in Mexican women
Objective: To estimate dietary fluoride intake (F) over the course of pregnancy and the overall adjusted difference in dietary F intake by pregnancy stages and levels of compliance with dietary recommendations. Design: Secondary data analysis from a longitudinal pregnancy cohort study in a population exposed to fluoridated salt. Women were followed during the early, middle and late stages of their pregnancy ( n 568). The dietary intake of recomme…
Early Gestational Exposure to High-Molecular-Weight Phthalates and Its Association with 48-Month-Old Children’s Motor and Cognitive Scores
In utero phthalate exposure has been associated with neurodevelopmental disorders, nevertheless, trimester-specific susceptibility remains understudied. Our aim was to identify susceptible windows to the effects of gestational High-Molecular-Weight Phthalates (HMWP) exposure on 48 months' neurodevelopment. We measured six HMWP metabolites (MEHP, MEHHP, MEOHP, MECPP, MBzP and MCPP) in urine samples collected during each trimester from women in the…
Neonatal Lead (Pb) Exposure and DNA Methylation Profiles in Dried Bloodspots
Lead (Pb) exposure remains a major concern in the United States (US) and around the world, even following the removal of Pb from gasoline and other products. Environmental Pb exposures from aging infrastructure and housing stock are of particular concern to pregnant women, children, and other vulnerable populations. Exposures during sensitive periods of development are known to influence epigenetic modifications which are thought to be one mechan…
Blood levels of lead and dental caries in permanent teeth
This study shows a lack of association between exposure to lead between the ages of 1-4 years of age and dental caries in permanent dentition later in life. Other covariates, such as age and sugar consumption, appeared to play a more prominent role in caries development
Exploring dietary patterns in a Mexican adolescent population
The Influence of Item Characteristics on Acquiescence among Latino Survey Respondents
Acquiescence is often defined as the systematic selection of agreeable ("strongly agree") or affirmative ("yes") responses to survey items, regardless of item content or directionality. This definition implies that acquiescence is immune to item characteristics; however, the influence of item characteristics on acquiescence remains largely unexplored. We examined the influence of eight item characteristics on acquiescence in a telephone survey of…
Early Menstrual Factors Are Associated with Adulthood Cardio-Metabolic Health in a Survey of Mexican Teachers
Children’s Blood Lead Concentrations from 1988 to 2015 in Mexico City
Despite the removal of lead from gasoline in 1997, elevated blood lead levels (BLLs) > 5 μg/dL are still detectable in children living in Mexico City. The use of lead-glazed ceramics may explain these persistent exposure levels. Mexico lacks a national surveillance program for BLL, but temporal trends can be derived from epidemiological studies. With this approach, we leveraged a series of birth cohorts to report BLL trends from 1987 to 2002 and …
Associations of the infancy body mass index peak with anthropometry and cardiometabolic risk in Mexican adolescents
Later age and larger magnitude of the infancy BMI peak are associated with higher adiposity at 8-14 years of age. Later age but not magnitude of the BMI peak are related to a worse cardiometabolic profile during peripuberty
Do child gender and temperament moderate associations between Head Start classroom social-emotional climate and children’s social-emotional competencies
Familial psychosocial risk classes and preschooler body mass index
Changes in household food insecurity are related to changes in BMI and diet quality among Michigan Head Start preschoolers in a sex-specific manner
Association of Bisphenol A Exposure with Breastfeeding and Perceived Insufficient Milk Supply in Mexican Women
The Healthy Meal Index
Eat, play, view, sleep
Sibling feeding behavior
Siblings may act as caregivers and role models during mealtimes, and develop caregiving skills by observing and imitating the behavior of their mothers. The objective of this study was to examine the association between maternal feeding behaviors and encouragements to eat delivered from the sibling to the index child during mealtimes. Index children aged 4-8 years (n = 69) were videotaped while eating a routine evening meal at home with one sibli…
Higher weight status of only and last-born children. Maternal feeding and child eating behaviors as underlying processes among 4–8 year olds
Diurnal cortisol pattern, eating behaviors and overweight in low-income preschool-aged children
Increasing fruit and vegetable consumption through worksites and families in the treatwell 5-a-day study
OBJECTIVES: We report on the results of the Treatwell 5-a-Day study, a worksite intervention aimed at increasing consumption of fruits and vegetables. METHODS: Twenty-two worksites were randomly assigned to 3 groups: (1) a minimal intervention control group, (2) a worksite intervention, and (3) a worksite-plus-family intervention. The interventions used community-organizing strategies and were structured to target multiple levels of influence, fo…
The Influence of Social Context on Changes in Fruit and Vegetable Consumption
As part of the Harvard Cancer Prevention Program Project, we used a social contextual model of health behavior change to test an intervention targeting multiple risk-related behaviors in working-class, multiethnic populations. We examined the relationships between the social contextual factors in our conceptual model and changes in fruit and vegetable consumption from baseline to completion of intervention in health centers and small business stu…
Maternal social and pyschological conditions and physical growth in low-income children in Piauí, Northeast Brazil
Comparison of 4 questionnaires for assessment of fruit and vegetable intake
OBJECTIVE: This study compared fruit and vegetable assessments derived from 4 self-administered questionnaires. METHODS: Among 102 adolescents, servings of fruits and vegetables assessed by 4 questionnaires were compared with estimates from 24-hour recalls. RESULTS: The prevalence of consuming 5 or more servings of fruits and vegetables a day was underestimated by the questionnaires. Questionnaires asking subjects to recall their diet over the pr…
Higher weight status of only and last-born children. Maternal feeding and child eating behaviors as underlying processes among 4–8 year olds
Contraceptive Use, Birth Spacing, and Autonomy
Oportunidades , a conditional cash‐transfer program instituted in Mexico in 1997, provides cash incentives to mothers to invest in the health and education of family members. Drawing from data gathered by Mexico's National Institute of Public Health, this study assesses the effect of the program on contraceptive use and birth spacing among titulares (female household heads) living in rural areas during the experimental period, 1998–2000, and duri…
Circumstances of post-neonatal deaths in Ceara, Northeast Brazil
Changes in household food insecurity are related to changes in BMI and diet quality among Michigan Head Start preschoolers in a sex-specific manner
Maternal Depressive Symptoms, Parenting Self-Efficacy, and Child Growth
Objectives. We assessed whether maternal depressive symptoms and parenting self-efficacy were associated with child growth delay. Methods. We collected data from a random sample of 595 low-income mothers and their children aged 6 to 24 months in Teresina, Piauí, Brazil, including information on sociodemographic characteristics, mothers’ depressive symptoms and parenting self-efficacy, and children’s anthropometric characteristics. We used adjuste…
Child overweight and undernutrition in Thailand
Childhood overweight and maternal depressive symptoms
AIM: Given the rising global prevalence of overweight associated with the nutrition transition, the objective of this study was to evaluate whether maternal depressive symptoms are related to overweight in infants aged 6-24 months. METHODS: Participants in this cross-sectional study included 589 mother-child dyads from low-income urban communities in Teresina, Piauí, northeast Brazil. While adjusting for sociodemographic and biological determinan…
Nativity and Duration of Time in the United States
Limited research has examined the association of diet with immigrant status, adjusting for multiple socio-demographic and contextual influences. Among 662 WIC-eligible postpartum women, those who were foreign-born and had lived in the United States for 4 or fewer years consumed 2.5 more fruit and vegetable servings daily than native-born women; this difference diminished with longer US residence. White women consumed 1 serving less than Latinas, …
The Healthy Meal Index
Translating research into action
Mounting epidemiologic evidence worldwide has fostered policy regulation of industrially made trans fatty acids (TFA) in several developed countries. Despite country-specific evidence about the effects of TFA on cardiovascular disease in Costa Rica, policy regulation has yet to occur. This qualitative study uses a conceptual framework to identify factors that may impede or promote the process of translation of scientific evidence about TFA into p…
Incidence and Remission Rates of Overweight Among Children Aged 5 to 13 Years in a District-Wide School Surveillance System
Objectives. To monitor annual changes in weight status, we determined incidence and remission rates of overweight among school-aged children with longitudinal school-based surveillance. Methods. We estimated 1-year changes in weight status among students enrolled in public schools in Cambridge, Mass. Physical education teachers measured height and weight annually. Adjusted odds ratios (ORs) were estimated via multivariate logistic regression, acc…
Familial psychosocial risk classes and preschooler body mass index
Eat, play, view, sleep
Sibling feeding behavior
Siblings may act as caregivers and role models during mealtimes, and develop caregiving skills by observing and imitating the behavior of their mothers. The objective of this study was to examine the association between maternal feeding behaviors and encouragements to eat delivered from the sibling to the index child during mealtimes. Index children aged 4-8 years (n = 69) were videotaped while eating a routine evening meal at home with one sibli…
The healthfulness of children's meals when multiple media and devices are present
Exploring dietary patterns in a Mexican adolescent population
The Influence of Item Characteristics on Acquiescence among Latino Survey Respondents
Acquiescence is often defined as the systematic selection of agreeable ("strongly agree") or affirmative ("yes") responses to survey items, regardless of item content or directionality. This definition implies that acquiescence is immune to item characteristics; however, the influence of item characteristics on acquiescence remains largely unexplored. We examined the influence of eight item characteristics on acquiescence in a telephone survey of…
Comparison of the costs of compliance with nutrition education messages to improve the diets of Bangladeshi breastfeeding mothers and weaning‐age children
Local market prices in rural Bangladesh were used to compute the costs of filling the nutrient gaps between actual intakes and safe nutrient requirements, and the costs of compliance with nutrition messages, for 78 lactating mothers and 61 weaning-age breastfed children. (The gap is the difference between the requirement and the amount of nutrient consumed.) To fill the mother's energy gap of approximately 1050 kcal (4393 kJ) would cost an additi…
Comparison of 4 questionnaires for assessment of fruit and vegetable intake
OBJECTIVE: This study compared fruit and vegetable assessments derived from 4 self-administered questionnaires. METHODS: Among 102 adolescents, servings of fruits and vegetables assessed by 4 questionnaires were compared with estimates from 24-hour recalls. RESULTS: The prevalence of consuming 5 or more servings of fruits and vegetables a day was underestimated by the questionnaires. Questionnaires asking subjects to recall their diet over the pr…
Reducing Obesity via a School-Based Interdisciplinary Intervention Among Youth
Intervention: Students participated in a school-based interdisciplinary intervention over 2 school years. Planet Health sessions were included within existing curricula using classroom teachers in 4 major subjects and physical education. Sessions focused on decreasing television viewing, decreasing consumption of high-fat foods, increasing fruit and vegetable intake, and increasing moderate and vigorous physical activity.
Reproducibility and validity of a food frequency questionnaire among fourth to seventh grade inner-city school children
Objective To assess the reproducibility and validity of a semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) to classify children and adolescents in terms of daily servings of fruits and vegetables and intake of calories, protein, fat, carbohydrate, dietary fibre, vitamin C, phosphorous, calcium and iron. Design FFQs were collected in the autumn of 1993 and 1994. Four 24-hour diet recalls were collected during the same 1-year period and their me…
Increasing fruit and vegetable consumption through worksites and families in the treatwell 5-a-day study
OBJECTIVES: We report on the results of the Treatwell 5-a-Day study, a worksite intervention aimed at increasing consumption of fruits and vegetables. METHODS: Twenty-two worksites were randomly assigned to 3 groups: (1) a minimal intervention control group, (2) a worksite intervention, and (3) a worksite-plus-family intervention. The interventions used community-organizing strategies and were structured to target multiple levels of influence, fo…
Circumstances of post-neonatal deaths in Ceara, Northeast Brazil
Underlying and Proximate Determinants of Diarrhoea-Specific Infant Mortality Rates Among Municipalities in the State of Ceará, North-East Brazil
This ecological study examines the variations in diarrhoea-specific infant mortality rates among municipalities in the State of Ceará, north-east Brazil, using data from a community health workers’ programme. Diarrhoea is the main cause of postneonatal deaths in Ceará, and diarrhoea mortality rates vary substantially among municipalities, from 7 to 50 per thousand live births. To determine the inter-relationships between potential predictors of d…
Relation between consumption of sugar-sweetened drinks and childhood obesity
Model for incorporating social context in health behavior interventions
Incidence and Remission Rates of Overweight Among Children Aged 5 to 13 Years in a District-Wide School Surveillance System
Objectives. To monitor annual changes in weight status, we determined incidence and remission rates of overweight among school-aged children with longitudinal school-based surveillance. Methods. We estimated 1-year changes in weight status among students enrolled in public schools in Cambridge, Mass. Physical education teachers measured height and weight annually. Adjusted odds ratios (ORs) were estimated via multivariate logistic regression, acc…
When Children Eat What They Watch
OBJECTIVES: To test whether increased television viewing is associated with increased total energy intake and with increased consumption of foods commonly advertised on television, and to test whether increased consumption of these foods mediates the relationship between television viewing and total energy intake. DESIGN: Prospective observational study with baseline (fall 1995) and follow-up (spring 1997) measures of youth diet, physical activit…
The Role of Social Networks and Support in Postpartum Women's Depression
Lifecourse, immigrant status and acculturation in food purchasing and preparation among low-income mothers
Objectives This study investigates how lifecourse, immigrant status and acculturation, and neighbourhood of residence influence food purchasing and preparation among low-income women with children, living in the USA. This research sought to understand physical and economic access to food, from both ‘individual’ and ‘community’ perspectives. Design This study used qualitative methodology (focus groups) to examine the mechanisms and pathways of foo…
Socio-economic status and health awareness are associated with choice of cooking oil in Costa Rica
Objective To examine the socio-economic and lifestyle determinants of cooking oil choice in Costa Rica during the last decade (1994–2004). Design Cross-sectional study. Subjects (total n = 2274) belonged to the control population of a large case–control study; they were recruited yearly. Data about type of oil used for cooking, dietary intake, socio-economic and demographic characteristics were collected. Setting A dietitian visited all subjects …
Translating research into action
Mounting epidemiologic evidence worldwide has fostered policy regulation of industrially made trans fatty acids (TFA) in several developed countries. Despite country-specific evidence about the effects of TFA on cardiovascular disease in Costa Rica, policy regulation has yet to occur. This qualitative study uses a conceptual framework to identify factors that may impede or promote the process of translation of scientific evidence about TFA into p…
The Influence of Social Context on Changes in Fruit and Vegetable Consumption
As part of the Harvard Cancer Prevention Program Project, we used a social contextual model of health behavior change to test an intervention targeting multiple risk-related behaviors in working-class, multiethnic populations. We examined the relationships between the social contextual factors in our conceptual model and changes in fruit and vegetable consumption from baseline to completion of intervention in health centers and small business stu…
Nativity and Duration of Time in the United States
Limited research has examined the association of diet with immigrant status, adjusting for multiple socio-demographic and contextual influences. Among 662 WIC-eligible postpartum women, those who were foreign-born and had lived in the United States for 4 or fewer years consumed 2.5 more fruit and vegetable servings daily than native-born women; this difference diminished with longer US residence. White women consumed 1 serving less than Latinas, …
Maternal social and pyschological conditions and physical growth in low-income children in Piauí, Northeast Brazil
The Influence of Acculturation on Breast-Feeding Initiation and Duration in Low-Income Women in the Us
While the ‘immigrant health paradox’ posits better health behaviours and outcomes for immigrants upon arrival to the US, research suggests that this advantage may deteriorate over time. This study analysed the relationship of acculturation and breast-feeding initiation and duration among a sample of predominantly Latina, low-income women in the US. The four measures of acculturation included: mother’s nativity (foreign born vs US born), mother’s …
The Influence of Immigrant Status and Acculturation on the Development of Overweight in Latino Families
Individual and Neighborhood Differences in Diet Among Low-Income Foreign and U.S.-Born Women
Childhood overweight and maternal depressive symptoms
AIM: Given the rising global prevalence of overweight associated with the nutrition transition, the objective of this study was to evaluate whether maternal depressive symptoms are related to overweight in infants aged 6-24 months. METHODS: Participants in this cross-sectional study included 589 mother-child dyads from low-income urban communities in Teresina, Piauí, northeast Brazil. While adjusting for sociodemographic and biological determinan…
Maternal Depressive Symptoms, Parenting Self-Efficacy, and Child Growth
Objectives. We assessed whether maternal depressive symptoms and parenting self-efficacy were associated with child growth delay. Methods. We collected data from a random sample of 595 low-income mothers and their children aged 6 to 24 months in Teresina, Piauí, Brazil, including information on sociodemographic characteristics, mothers’ depressive symptoms and parenting self-efficacy, and children’s anthropometric characteristics. We used adjuste…
Brazilian Mothers’ Beliefs, Attitudes and Practices Related to Child Weight Status and Early Feeding Within the Context of Nutrition Transition
S ummary. With the rapid pace of the nutrition transition worldwide, understanding influences of child feeding practices within a context characterized by the co-existence of overweight and undernutrition in the same population has increasing importance. This qualitative study describes Brazilian mothers’ child feeding practices and their perceptions of their association with child weight status and explores the role of socioeconomic, cultural an…
Screen time and adiposity in adolescents in Mexico
Objective To assess the association of time spent viewing television, videos and video games with measures of fat mass (BMI) and distribution (triceps and subscapular skinfold thicknesses (TSF, SSF)). Design Cross-sectional validated survey, self-administered to students to assess screen time (television, videos and video games) and lifestyle variables. Trained personnel obtained anthropometry. The association of screen time with fat mass and dis…
Medicine (55 works) · Environmental health (31 works) · Obesity, Physical Activity, Diet (30 works) · Demography (29 works) · Psychology (28 works) · Internal Medicine (25 works) · Obesity (19 works) · Demography (17 works) · Gerontology (17 works) · Sociology (17 works)