Research Description
This proposal seeks to develop a cutting-edge methods research tool for the context of nutritional lifestyle exposures. The objective of this proposal’s advancement and application of this tool, the Target Trial Framework, is to ultimately leverage observational data to identify the most likely dietary preventive strategies for subsequent investment in larger and longer-term randomized clinical trials (RCTs). The extension of TTF to nutrition research is highly innovative and has promise in identifying strategies for prevention of this increasingly prevalent and costly chronic disease. Upward trends in the incidence and prevalence of type 2 diabetes (T2D) underscore how critical it is to identify effective strategies for prevention. Although diet is a cornerstone of healthy lifestyle recommendations, the identification of acceptable, effective, and sustainable dietary modification strategies remains a top public health priority. Further, large, long-term randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of dietary interventions for T2D prevention are uncommon, given the scale and investment required. The aims propose to pioneer compare the potential effectiveness of several dietary patterns for T2D prevention in the Nurses’ Health Study (NHS), NHS II, and Health Professional Follow-up Study (HPFS) cohorts observational data. The NHS/NHS II/HPFS cohorts, with over 200,000 participants, diet, lifestyle, and health outcomes updated every 2-4 years, and several decades of follow-up. Further, with these wealth of existing data, they will investigate high risk subgroups and across the life span to efficiently inform precision nutrition initiatives, creating a more efficient workflow to inform dietary guidelines for T2D prevention in various patient populations.Research Profile
What area of diabetes research does your project cover? What role will this particular project play in preventing, treating and/or curing diabetes?Our research includes prevention of type 2 diabetes in adults. This research focuses on novel approaches to identify effective dietary patterns that are sustainable long-term.
If a person with diabetes were to ask you how your project will help them in the future, how would you respond?We hope to accelerate the pace for nutrition science to identify personalized dietary approaches for prevention of type 2 diabetes. These approaches could also extend to advancements in treatment and other areas of type 2 diabetes care.
Why important for you, personally, to become involved in diabetes research? What role will this award play?As a nutritional epidemiologist, I have been dedicated to examining dietary risk factors related to long-term diabetes risk. This award supports our innovative research to systematically investigate and fine-tune cutting-edge epidemiologic methods in observational cohorts with dietary data over long-term follow-up, with the ultimate goal of identifying effective strategies for diabetes prevention.
In what direction do you see the future of diabetes research going?It is increasingly accepted that there is no single optimal approach, but rather a variety of dietary patterns to prevent type 2 diabetes. By ranking and comparing dietary approaches for specific sub-populations, we may inform tailored optimal recommendations on the subgroup level to maximize prevention on the population level.