Anna Maria Siega-Riz

Ph.D., Professor, Epidemiology and Nutrition
Associate Dean for Academic Affairs

siegariz@virginia.edu

Campus Phone Number: (434) 924-1791

Dr. Siega-Riz's Curriculum Vitae

Dr. Siega-Riz's publications in PubMed

Dr. Siega-Riz's CPC publications

Siega-Riz’s research focuses on reproductive epidemiology, maternal nutritional status and its relationship with birth outcomes, gestational weight gain and obesity development, and dietary trends among minority populations. Her work documented gestational weight gain patterns in the US and how weight gain greater than the Institute of Medicine recommendations leads to adverse birth outcomes and childhood obesity. Obesity among women of childbearing age is a major health issue and has an impact on short- and long-term maternal and child outcomes. She has contributed to the science in this field through her work on the Pregnancy, Infection and Nutrition (PIN) study as well as other U.S. cohorts studies. She is recognized as a leader in examining the association between maternal dietary exposures such as folate, iron, vitamin D, food insecurity and overall patterns and birth outcomes. Her expertise in the maternal and child nutrition field has been recognized internationally through her involvement as a committee member for two IOM committees related to the revised 2009 gestational weight gain recommendations and its dissemination, a chapter on “Long-term consequences of obesity in pregnancy for the mother” in Gillman and Poston’s Maternal Obesity book, and a clinical monograph in Obstetrics and Gynecology on women’s nutrition across the lifespan. Her present research work in this area involves the examination of the role of food reward in maternal diet and weight change during pregnancy and postpartum. The study examines the associations of food reward responsivity (i.e., between-individual variation in the neural response to food stimuli) and food reinforcement value (i.e., between-food variation in the neural reward response) with behavioral control and related aspects of eating behavior during pregnancy and postpartum.

For the last 9 years, Siega-Riz has worked on The Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos (HCHS/SOL), a cohort of 16,415 adults (18-74 years) from four U.S. cities. It is the largest health study of Hispanics/Latinos in the US. Her first paper from this cohort examined nutrient and food group differences by Hispanic/Latino background and a second one is in final stages related to adherence of the dietary guidelines. She supervised a doctoral dissertation on the use of botanical supplements in this population that has resulted in 2 manuscripts under peer review.

Siega-Riz’s future work involves examining the relationship between adherence to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans in this population and its association with various health outcomes including cardiometabolic markers and birth and child outcomes.