J Gittelsohn
Biographic Data
| ID | 3301 |
|---|---|
| NAME | J Gittelsohn |
| GIVEN NAMES | J |
| FAMILY NAME | Gittelsohn |
| SIGNATURE | GITTELSOHN J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Johns Hopkins University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-2761-3280 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 132 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 183 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 132 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1991 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Prevalence, patterns and associated behavioural risk factors of multimorbidity in rural India
The prevalence of multimorbidity is projected to increase substantially in India. Previous studies have focused on urban populations and older adults, who do not represent the majority of those at risk. We aimed to estimate the prevalence and investigate patterns of multimorbidity in a rural population in India and examine their associations with four common behavioural risk factors (BRFs): daily drinking, tobacco consumption, physical inactivity…
From Ideas to Curricula
Lifestyle medicine, an evidence-based approach to preventing and managing chronic disease through behavior change, remains underrepresented in health professional education. Limited institutional support and funding barriers often prevent students from engaging in experiential learning opportunities that reinforce lifestyle medicine competencies. This study examines how student-led initiatives supported by targeted grant funding can serve as an a…
School Administrator and Food Vendor Perspectives on Stocking and Promoting Healthier Offerings in Indonesian Primary Schools
Childhood overweight and obesity is a growing public health challenge in Indonesia, affecting approximately one in five school-aged children. Because children spend substantial time at school and frequently obtain meals and snacks from on-site canteens, these settings represent an important opportunity for nutrition-focused interventions. As an initial step towards understanding factors influencing canteen stocking decisions, we assessed perceive…
Design of the Focus on Restaurant Engagement to Strengthen Health (FRESH) study
Background: High dietary quality can protect against diet-related chronic diseases. In the United States, racial and ethnic minorities and those with lower incomes consistently exhibit lower dietary quality. Independently-owned restaurants are a common prepared food source in minority low-income communities, but there are significant knowledge gaps on how to work with these restaurants to offer healthy food, due to underlying and dynamic complexi…
In-store Features and Healthy Food Availability Among Small Corner and Convenience Stores Serving Urban and Rural Maryland Communities
Structures and systems that promote nutrition security and climate adaptation in Puerto Rico
Objective: This study aimed to develop a shared understanding about the drivers of nutrition security in Puerto Rico (PR) from the collective perspective of multi-sector stakeholders in the agri-food, environmental and the health/disease systems. Design: A participatory community-based system dynamics approach (group model building) engaged stakeholders during one 4-h workshop March 2023 (followed by two 2.5-h member checking sessions). Setting: …
Exploring Definitions, Correlates, and Solutions to Food Insecurity during Covid-19
A mixed methods community-based participatory research study was conducted with Native American Lifelines of Baltimore to: (1) understand prevalence, correlates, and lived experiences with food insecurity and (2) explore the effects of and potential solutions to food insecurity. An online survey was completed by 250 American Indian and Alaska Native adults, and a subset of survey respondents (N=11) completed interviews. Quantitative analysis reve…
Sources of Stress and Coping Strategies Among Urban African American Adolescents
Listening to the community
Multi-level interventions promoting healthy weight in rural preschool children aged 2–5 years are limited. With the goal of developing a community-informed obesity prevention intervention for rural preschool-aged children, the purpose of this descriptive study was to identify: (1) community settings and intervention strategies to prioritize for an intervention; (2) potential implementation challenges and solutions; and (3) immediate interventions…
Protocol for the Support Application for Food PAntrieS trial
Introduction Food-insecure households commonly rely on food pantries to supplement their nutritional needs, a challenge that was underscored during the COVID-19 pandemic. Food pantries, and the food banks that supply them, face common challenges in meeting variable client volume and dietary needs under normal and emergency (e.g., pandemic, natural disaster) conditions. A scalable digital strategy that has the capacity to streamline the emergency …
Health system barriers to hypertension care in Peru
Traditional patient- and provider-level hypertension interventions have proven insufficient to halt hypertension as the leading cause of morbidity and mortality globally. Systems-level interventions are required to address factors challenging hypertension control across a social ecological framework, an under-studied topic particularly salient in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) such as Peru. To inform such interventions, we sought to ide…
Obesity contagion among classmates
A series of influential articles suggests that obesity may spread between couples, siblings, and close friends via an obesity contagion phenomenon. Classmates, as important structural equivalents in one's social network, may experience obesity contagion. However, this has rarely been examined. Anthropometric measurements, questionnaire surveys, and geographic information were collected from 3670 children from 26 schools in Northeast China. We fou…
Ours to eat and own
Objective: Although typically serving higher income and younger demographic groups, meal-kit subscription services have the potential to improve food availability and dietary quality in communities experiencing low food access due to systemic discrimination. This study describes the development and characteristics of a pilot community-led meal-kit service (SouthEats) and evaluates key implementation outcomes of adoption, acceptability, and feasib…
Community Member Perceptions of Dollar Stores in Baltimore City, Maryland
Dollar stores are the fastest-growing type of food retailer in the United States, prompting policy action across the country related to their perceived negative impact on the communities they serve. However, there is little existing research that explores community member perceptions of dollar stores, which is critical to inform new, equitable policies. To address this gap in Baltimore City, Maryland, where dollar store density is high, we aimed …
Cardiometabolic risk among rural Native American adults in a large multilevel multicomponent intervention trial
This cross-sectional analysis of the baseline evaluation sample of the Obesity Prevention and Evaluation of InterVention Effectiveness in Native Americans 2 (OPREVENT2) study included 601 Native American adults ages 18–75 living in rural reservation communities in the Midwest and Southwest United States. Participants completed a self-report questionnaire for individual and family history of hypertension, heart disease, diabetes and obestiy. Body …
Implementing a Community-Led Arsenic Mitigation Intervention for Private Well Users in American Indian Communities
Arsenic is a naturally occurring toxicant in groundwater, which increases cancer and cardiovascular disease risk. American Indian populations are disproportionately exposed to arsenic in drinking water. The Strong Heart Water Study (SHWS), through a community-centered approach for intervention development and implementation, delivered an arsenic mitigation program for private well users in American Indian communities. The SHWS program comprised c…
Childhood obesity inequality in northeast China
Girls from moderate wealth & self-employed families may be the group susceptible to school neighborhood environment. Local policies targeted at improving the school neighborhood environment may be one avenue for reducing socioeconomic disparities in obesity especially for girls
Barriers, facilitators, and opportunities to promote healthy weight behaviors among preschool-aged children in two rural U.S communities
Rural areas experience multiple challenges that make it difficult for children/families to engage in healthy weight behaviors. This study highlights several assets (existing programs/resources, expertise within communities) that can be leveraged as facilitators. Findings will guide the study team in developing a child obesity prevention intervention for the two rural communities
Forms of Community Engagement in Neighborhood Food Retail
Community engagement is well established as a key to improving public health. Prior food environment research has largely studied community engagement as an intervention component, leaving much unknown about how food retailers may already engage in this work. The purpose of this study was to explore the community engagement activities employed by neighborhood food retailers located in lower-income communities with explicit health missions to unde…
Balancing Mission and Margins
Mission-driven, independently-owned community food stores have been identified as a potential solution to improve access to healthy foods, yet to date there is limited information on what factors contribute to these stores' success and failure. Using a multiple case study approach, this study examined what makes a healthy community food store successful and identified strategies for success in seven community stores in urban areas across the Unit…
A Commentary on the Healthy Community Stores Case Study Project
In the United States, low-income, underserved rural and urban settings experience poor access to healthy, affordable food. Introducing new food outlets in these locations has shown mixed results for improving healthy food consumption. The Healthy Community Stores Case Study Project (HCSCSP) explored an alternative strategy: supporting mission-driven, locally owned, healthy community food stores to improve healthy food access. The HCSCSP used a mu…
Fresh Shelves, Healthy Pantries
The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of a multi-modal pilot intervention on the stocking and acquisition of healthy foods in urban food pantries. An intervention that consisted of three 8-week phases, each focused on promotion of one food group: (1) lean & low-sodium proteins; (2) fruits & vegetables; and (3) healthy carbohydrates was conducted in 3 intervention and 4 comparison food pantries. Food stocking variety scores measur…
Increasing Healthy Food Access for Low-Income Communities
Improving healthy food access in low-income communities continues to be a public health challenge. One strategy for improving healthy food access has been to introduce community food stores, with the mission of increasing healthy food access; however, no study has explored the experiences of different initiatives and models in opening and sustaining healthy food stores. This study used a case study approach to understand the experiences of health…
Refining the Nutrition Environment Measures Survey (Nems) for Healthy Community Stores
Inadequate consumption of healthy food is an ongoing public health issue in the United States. Food availability measures of supply versus consumption of healthy foods are disconnected in many studies. There is a need for an objective assessment of the food environment in order to assess how the food supply aligns with the Healthy Eating Index (HEI). Data were collected as part of the Healthy Community Stores Case Study Project, including a refin…
The Baltimore Urban Food Distribution (BUD) App
Low-income urban communities in the United States commonly lack ready access to healthy foods. This is due in part to a food distribution system that favors the provision of high-fat, high-sugar, high-sodium processed foods to small retail food stores, and impedes their healthier alternatives, such as fresh produce. The Baltimore Urban food Distribution (BUD) study is a multilevel, multicomponent systems intervention that aims to improve healthy …
Opening the box
Health and access to care
Homeless youth suffer from high rates of health problems, yet little is known about their perceptions of or context for their own health issues. In this study, a combination of qualitative techniques from participatory rural appraisal and rapid assessment procedures was used to investigate the perceptions of health needs of shelter-based youth in Baltimore, MD in the U.S.A. The most common youth-identified health problems included STDs, HIV/AIDS,…
Cultural factors, caloric intake and micronutrient sufficiency in rural Nepali households
This study examined the allocation of food within 105 Nepali households using a combination of recall and observation methods. While a relationship exists between caloric intake and sufficiency of intake of several key micronutrients (i.e., beta carotene, vitamin C and iron) for the study population as a whole this relationship is weaker for certain subgroups. In particular, micronutrient intakes of adolescent girls and adult women are much less …
Understanding the local food environment
Child as change agent. The potential of children to increase healthy food purchasing
Reproductive Decision Making and the HIV/Aids Epidemic in Zimbabwe
The fertility-stimulating effect of high rates of child mortality on reproductive decision making (RDM) is a central tenet of population studies, yet the effects of the HIV/AIDS epidemic on RDM have not been thoroughly explored in the literature. This paper investigates how RDM is articulated in the context of high HIV/AIDS prevalence in Zimbabwe. Using qualitative methods (35 focus groups and 46 in-depth interviews), we found that childbearing i…
Motivations for Exercise and Weight Loss Among African-American Women
This information was used to develop two culturally appropriate interventions for African-American women, which is presented. Conducting formative research in study design protocols can provide an important role in intervention development
Urban environment and dietary behaviours as perceived by residents living in socioeconomically diverse neighbourhoods
Perceptions of the food marketing environment among African American teen girls and adults
Longitudinal Associations between Change in Neighborhood Social Disorder and Change in Food Swamps in an Urban Setting
Cause it's family talking to you
This article presents research findings from the formative phase of OPREVENT, a pilot obesity prevention intervention trial for American Indian households on two reservations in the Upper Midwestern United States. We describe processes by which American Indian children acting as change agents influence adult food and physical activity behaviors on an Ojibwa and a Potawatomi reservation. This study borrows from Bronfenbrenner and Ceci's socio-ecol…
Dietary Intake in a Population Undergoing a Rapid Transition in Diet and Lifestyle
Child feeding and care behaviors are associated with xerophthalmia in rural Nepalese households
The study examined caregiver-child interactions, intrahousehold food allocation and general child care behaviors and their effect on children's xerophthalmia status in the rural Terai region of Nepal. Seventy-eight households with a child having a history of xerophthalmia (cases) were matched with 78 households with a child of the same age having no history of xerophthalmia (controls). Seven day-long continuous monitoring observations were perfor…
Dynamics of intervention adoption, implementation, and maintenance inside organizations
Comparing Reports of Health-Seeking Behavior From the Integrated Illness History and a Standard Child Morbidity Survey
The Integrated Illness History (IIH) is a concurrent mixed methods adaptation of event history narratives to study illnesses in social context. Qualitative and quantitative techniques are integrated in the instrument design, interview, and data analysis. This method permits the simultaneous collection of qualitative and quantitative data about perceptions of an illness, the sequence of illness-related events, and the context of seeking care. A st…
Impacts of Covid-19 on a Food Security Study with the Baltimore Native Community
Urban American Indian/Alaska Native peoples experience disproportionate levels of food insecurity when compared to the general US population. Through a collaborative research partnership between Native American Lifelines of Baltimore, an Urban Indian Health Program, and a Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health student-led research team, food security was identified as a priority issue. A sequential explanatory mixed methods study was pla…
Association of Walkability With Obesity in Baltimore City, Maryland
Objectives. To investigate the association between walkability and obesity, we studied adults residing in Baltimore City, Maryland, in neighborhoods of varying racial and socioeconomic composition. Methods. We conducted a cross-sectional study of 3493 participants from the study Healthy Aging in Neighborhoods of Diversity across the Life Span. We used the Pedestrian Environment Data Scan to measure neighborhood walkability in 34 neighborhoods of …
Food-related behavior, physical activity, and dietary intake in First Nations 1 – a population at high risk for diabetes
Diabetes prevention programs for First Nations should focus on improving physical activity and dietary intake by targeting specific risk group needs. Food knowledge, self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and intention are important factors in understanding those needs
The Social Context of Smoking Among African-American and White Adolescents in Baltimore City
Interventions targeted at schools and families offer promise for reducing adolescent cigarette use
Agreements between small food store retailers and their suppliers
Work, worksites, and wellbeing among North American Indian women
The purpose of this study was to understand what factors influenced work-family balance and related health behaviors among a sample of rural North American Indian women. We interviewed 89 women through both in-depth interviews and focus groups across four tribal communities in the American Southwest and Upper Midwest between July 2010 and August 2011. Interviews were transcribed, coded, and analyzed for emerging themes related to work- family dem…
Strategies used by overweight and obese low-income mothers to feed their families in urban Brazil
Opening the box
GOfer vs. ZyIndex
Development and use of the Women’s Health Protocol
In January 1990, we began working with Moni Nag and Pertti Pelto on a Ford Foundation-funded project entitled "Increasing Social Science Research Capacity for Women's Reproductive Health in India." Little research had been carried out on women's reproductive health in India, and the majority of studies that had been done were clinic-based. The one community-based epidemiological study of gynecological disease that had been published found that 92…
Transferring Anthropological Techniques in Applied Research
A variety of manuals, handbooks, and field research protocols have been developed over the past decade to facilitate the application of anthropological concepts, methods, and techniques to applied settings. These are variously titled depending on their genesis and disciplinary base; they include community diagnoses, needs analyses, rapid anthropological procedures/assessments (RAP/RAA), focused ethnographic surveys (FES), and to some extent, also…
Estimating Reactivity in Direct Observation Studies of Health Behaviors
Direct observation techniques are increasingly being used to measure human behavior as part of health research and intervention studies. One problem with this approach that has not been well-explored is the effect of the observer's presence on the behaviors being observed, the reactivity effect. This article examines reactivity effects in a direct observation study of child care and feeding practices in rural Nepal. Trained field workers conducte…
Cultural factors, caloric intake and micronutrient sufficiency in rural Nepali households
This study examined the allocation of food within 105 Nepali households using a combination of recall and observation methods. While a relationship exists between caloric intake and sufficiency of intake of several key micronutrients (i.e., beta carotene, vitamin C and iron) for the study population as a whole this relationship is weaker for certain subgroups. In particular, micronutrient intakes of adolescent girls and adult women are much less …
Health and access to care
Homeless youth suffer from high rates of health problems, yet little is known about their perceptions of or context for their own health issues. In this study, a combination of qualitative techniques from participatory rural appraisal and rapid assessment procedures was used to investigate the perceptions of health needs of shelter-based youth in Baltimore, MD in the U.S.A. The most common youth-identified health problems included STDs, HIV/AIDS,…
Child feeding and care behaviors are associated with xerophthalmia in rural Nepalese households
The study examined caregiver-child interactions, intrahousehold food allocation and general child care behaviors and their effect on children's xerophthalmia status in the rural Terai region of Nepal. Seventy-eight households with a child having a history of xerophthalmia (cases) were matched with 78 households with a child of the same age having no history of xerophthalmia (controls). Seven day-long continuous monitoring observations were perfor…
Inter-Ethnic Differences in Youth Tobacco Language and Cigarette Brand Preferences
These findings have implications for the design of intervention programs aimed at curbing teen smoking. When working with teens who already smoke, using youth language to target messages at perceived characteristics of commonly used brands may be more effective and meaningful than talking about cigarette use in general. Another implication of this work is to shed light on what impact an advertising ban would have on teen brand preferences, brand …
Night blindness, diet and health in Nepalese children
This paper describes concepts of diet and health in Nepal related to night blindness in children. We compared beliefs of mothers with xerophthalmic children with those of mothers with children without xerophthalmia and those of selected community members participating in ethnographic interviews. Knowledge of night blindness terms, symptoms and local availability of vitamin A capsules were well understood. Night blindness was classified as a “hot”…
Project Joy
OBJECTIVE: The authors tested the impact on cardiovascular risk profiles of African American women ages 40 years and older after one year of participation in one of three church-based nutrition and physical activity strategies: a standard behavioral group intervention, the standard intervention supplemented with spiritual strategies, or self-help strategies. METHODS: Women were screened at baseline and after one year of participation. The authors…
Motivations for Exercise and Weight Loss Among African-American Women
This information was used to develop two culturally appropriate interventions for African-American women, which is presented. Conducting formative research in study design protocols can provide an important role in intervention development
The Social Context of Smoking Among African-American and White Adolescents in Baltimore City
Interventions targeted at schools and families offer promise for reducing adolescent cigarette use
Reproductive Decision Making and the HIV/Aids Epidemic in Zimbabwe
The fertility-stimulating effect of high rates of child mortality on reproductive decision making (RDM) is a central tenet of population studies, yet the effects of the HIV/AIDS epidemic on RDM have not been thoroughly explored in the literature. This paper investigates how RDM is articulated in the context of high HIV/AIDS prevalence in Zimbabwe. Using qualitative methods (35 focus groups and 46 in-depth interviews), we found that childbearing i…
Who infects whom? HIV-1 concordance and discordance among migrant and non-migrant couples in South Africa
OBJECTIVES: To measure HIV-1 discordance among migrant and non-migrant men and their rural partners, and to estimate the relative risk of infection from inside versus outside primary relationships. DESIGN: A cross-sectional behavioural and HIV-1 seroprevalence survey among 168 couples in which the male partner either a migrant, or not. METHODS: A detailed questionnaire was administered and blood was collected for laboratory analysis. A mathematic…
The Impact of Migration on HIV-1 Transmission in South Africa
BACKGROUND: To investigate the association between migration and HIV infection among migrant and nonmigrant men and their rural partners. GOAL: The goal was to determine risk factors for HIV-1 infection in South Africa. STUDY DESIGN: This was a cross-sectional study of 196 migrant men and 130 of their rural partners, as well as 64 nonmigrant men and 98 rural women whose partners are nonmigrant. Male migrants were recruited at work in two urban ce…
Formative Research and Stakeholder Participation in Intervention Development
This approach resulted in project acceptance, stakeholder collaboration, and a culturally appropriate program
Dietary intake and a food-frequency instrument to evaluate a nutrition intervention for the Apache in Arizona
Objective To demonstrate how dietary data collected from 24-hour dietary recalls were incorporated into the development of a quantitative food-frequency questionnaire (QFFQ) for the Apache in Arizona. Design A cross-sectional study was first conducted using 24-hour dietary recalls to identify foods for inclusion on a QFFQ that would be used to evaluate a nutrition intervention. Setting The White Mountain and San Carlos Apache reservations in East…
Comparing Reports of Health-Seeking Behavior From the Integrated Illness History and a Standard Child Morbidity Survey
The Integrated Illness History (IIH) is a concurrent mixed methods adaptation of event history narratives to study illnesses in social context. Qualitative and quantitative techniques are integrated in the instrument design, interview, and data analysis. This method permits the simultaneous collection of qualitative and quantitative data about perceptions of an illness, the sequence of illness-related events, and the context of seeking care. A st…
Dietary intake and development of a quantitative food-frequency questionnaire for a lifestyle intervention to reduce the risk of chronic diseases in Canadian First Nations in north-western Ontario
Objectives To characterise the diet of First Nations in north-western Ontario, highlight foods for a lifestyle intervention and develop a quantitative food-frequency questionnaire (QFFQ). Design Cross-sectional survey using single 24 h dietary recalls. Setting Eight remote and semi-remote First Nations reserves in north-western Ontario. Subjects 129 First Nations (Oji-Cree and Ojibway) men and women aged between 18 and 80 years. Results The great…
Food-related behavior, physical activity, and dietary intake in First Nations 1 – a population at high risk for diabetes
Diabetes prevention programs for First Nations should focus on improving physical activity and dietary intake by targeting specific risk group needs. Food knowledge, self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and intention are important factors in understanding those needs
A corner store intervention in a low-income urban community is associated with increased availability and sales of some healthy foods
Objective While corner store-based nutrition interventions have emerged as a potential strategy to increase healthy food availability in low-income communities, few evaluation studies exist. We present the results of a trial in Baltimore City to increase the availability and sales of healthier food options in local stores. Design Quasi-experimental study. Setting Corner stores owned by Korean-Americans and supermarkets located in East and West Ba…
Formative Research for a Healthy Diet Intervention Among Inner-City Adolescents
Suggested adolescent nutritional interventions include promotion of home-based eating, improving availability of healthy foods in school and neighborhood stores, and targeted educational materials
Dietary Intake in a Population Undergoing a Rapid Transition in Diet and Lifestyle
Determinants of customers' intention to participate in a Korean restaurant health promotion program
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of personal characteristics and theory of planned behavior (TPB) constructs on the intention to participate in a restaurant health promotion program. In total, 830 adults residing in Seoul were sampled by a multi-stage cluster and random sampling design. Data were collected from a structured self-administered questionnaire, which covered variables concerning demographics, health status and …
Medicine (112 works) · Environmental health (86 works) · Obesity, Physical Activity, Diet (79 works) · Business (50 works) · Gerontology (48 works) · Psychology (47 works) · Sociology (47 works) · Food Security and Health in Diverse Populations (42 works) · Geography (41 works) · Nursing (40 works)