Robin Ortiz

• Assistant Professor in the Departments of Pediatrics and Population Health NYU Grossman School of Medicine
• Fellow at National Institutes of Health

Although it is known that caregiver dietary behaviors influence child eating patterns, a gap remains in addressing the diet of a caregiver as much as their child in pediatric practice. A dyadic (caregiver-child) dietary approach would enhance the promotion of healthy eating patterns in children (and their caregivers) and achieve the population heal...

Background: Young adulthood (YA, 19–39 years) is the life stage of greatest increase in cardiovascular (CV) risk and decline in CV health (CVH). Cosmos is a database of Electronic Health Record (EHR) data from all Epic EHR sites – including >250 million patients. Previous observations of CVH in YA have been limited to small, epidemiological cohort...

Background: Despite emphasis on establishing cardiovascular health (CVH) early in life with an intergenerational approach, it remains unknown if child health professionals are aware of the American Heart Association (AHA) framework and recommendations. Methods: Survey design included: 1) Likert scales of AHA CVH framework awareness (Simple 7 (LS7)...

Background: Young adulthood (19–39 years) is the life stage of greatest declines in cardiovascular health (CVH). It is hypothesized that this decline may be related to competing demands (e.g., stressors) of this period of the lifecourse such as work and child-rearing. The AHA’s Life’s Essential 8 CVH framework identifies the scored domains (behavio...

Child lifestyle behaviors are influenced by their caregivers. Targeting the caregiver–child relationship can establish healthy habits, especially healthful eating patterns, in both the caregiver and child. The purpose of this study was to identify the context for addressing strategies used to establish nutritious eating for the caregiver and child...

Background Evidence suggests historical redlining shaped the built environment and health outcomes in urban areas. Only a handful of studies have examined redlining’s association with air pollution and adverse birth outcomes in New York City (NYC). Additionally, no NYC-specific studies have examined the impact of redlining on birth weight. Methods...

Parental educational attainment significantly shapes child socioeconomic status, potentially influencing various aspects of adolescent health. This study aimed to uncover the relationships between parental education and self-reported adolescent health outcomes, including overall health, mental well-being, and body mass index (BMI). Analyzing data f...

Importance Immigrant birthing people have lower rates of preterm birth compared with their US-born counterparts. This advantage and associated racial and ethnic disparities across the gestational age spectrum have not been examined nationally. Objective To examine associations of maternal nativity, ethnicity, and race with preterm birth. Design,...

Background This study aimed to quantify the association between childhood family environment and longitudinal cardiovascular health (CVH) in adult CARDIA (Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults) Study participants. We further investigated whether the association differs by adult income. Methods We applied the CVH framework from the Ameri...

(Abstracted from JAMA Network Open 2023;6(5):e2315306) In the United States, approximately 1 in 10 births are considered preterm, or born at <37 weeks of gestation. Historically, studies on preterm birth (PTB) have focused on maternal characteristics. However, an appreciation for the impact of community factors, such as poverty, air pollution, and...

Remote schooling during the COVID-19 pandemic offered a window into unique concerns regarding student well-being, particularly for students lacking a safe and supportive home environment. We sought to identify school-related concerns voiced by youth under age 25 who reported distress to a hotline via text or chat while in remote school during the p...

Research has linked spatial concentrations of incarceration with racial disparities in adverse birth outcomes. However, little is known about the specific mechanisms of this association. This represents an important knowledge gap in terms of intervention. We theorize two pathways that may account for the association between county-level prison rate...

Background: Telehealth use in pediatrics increased during the COVID-19 pandemic and may improve healthcare access. It may also exacerbate healthcare disparities among families with limited English proficiency (LEP). Objectives: To systematically review the feasibility, acceptability, and/or associations between telehealth delivery and health out...

Lifestyle medicine interventions that emphasize healthy behavior changes are growing in popularity in U.S. health systems. Safety-net healthcare settings that serve low-income and uninsured populations most at risk for lifestyle-related disease are ideal venues for lifestyle medicine interventions. Patient-reported outcomes are important indicators...

Importance: Appreciation for the effects of neighborhood conditions and community factors on perinatal health is increasing. However, community-level indices specific to maternal health and associations with preterm birth (PTB) have not been assessed. Objective: To examine the association of the Maternal Vulnerability Index (MVI), a novel county...

Background and objectives Infant weight patterns predict subsequent weight outcomes. Rapid infant weight gain, defined as a >0.67 increase in weight-for-age z-score (WAZ) between two time points in infancy, increases obesity risk. Higher oxidative stress, an imbalance between antioxidants and reactive oxygen species, has been associated with low bi...

Child adversity is often associated with poor quality of life in pediatric gastrointestinal disorders, including non-allergic food reactions (food intolerances), which may be improved using mind-body interventions. We conducted an observational study to (1) describe child adversity (stressors) and resilience factors in children with food intoleranc...

Background: Early life stress (ELS) is associated with increased morbidity and mortality across the lifecourse. Studies observing a relationship between ELS and stress physiology (cortisol), may help explain the connection to poor health outcomes, but have been limited by cortisol measures used. Purpose: We examined the association between ELS m...

Stress, in both intrinsic psychosocial and extrinsic physical environmental forms, can impact the development of, and outcomes in, cardiovascular disease (CVD) through allostatic load. Cortisol is a core hormonal mediator of allostatic load produced in response to various stresses. Alterations in morning serum cortisol and daily diurnal cortisol ha...

Structural racism represents a key determinant of the racial health disparities that has characterized the U.S. population throughout its existence. While this reality has recently begun to gain increasing acknowledgment and acceptance within the health sciences, there are still considerable challenges related to defining the concept of structural...

The purpose of this study was to identify changes in family conflict and abuse dynamics during COVID-19 stay-at-home orders from the perspectives of youth calling a national child abuse hotline. We analyzed text and chat transcripts from Childhelp’s National Child Abuse Hotline from May–June 2020 that were flagged as coming from a child with a COVI...

Background Community-based research inclusive of self-assessment and objective environmental metrics can be enhanced by the collection of biomarker data in unity toward assessing the health impacts of the totality of environmental stress driven by structural racism. Cortisol dynamic range (CDR), a measure of chronic stress burden, may underpin plac...

Introduction Violence against women (VAW) can result in long-term and varied sequela for survivors, making it difficult to evaluate healthcare intervention. This study seeks to improve understanding of the healthcare experiences of women survivors prior to a violence-related diagnosis, allowing healthcare systems to better design strategies to meet...

Background: Childhood adversity has been associated with poor health outcomes including cardiovascular disease (CVD) and mortality across the lifecourse. In contrast, ideal cardiovascular health (CVH) inclusive of seven lifestyle-related target metrics, has demonstrated protection from morbidity and mortality. While the relationship between adversi...

Obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus are highly prevalent and increasing in the United States among racial/ethnic minority groups. Type 2 diabetes mellitus, which is driven by many factors including elevated levels of adiposity, is an exemplar health disparities disease. Pervasive disparities exist at every level from risk factors through outcomes...

Background The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has exacerbated multiple stressors for caregivers of children in the United States, raising concern for increased family conflict, harsh parenting, and child maltreatment. Little is known regarding children's perceptions and experiences of caregiver stress during the COVID-19 pandemic. Ob...

Research Objective To use text and chat transcripts from a national child helpline to examine how children perceive, identify, and describe caregiver stress during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Study Design We obtained 105 deidentified text and chat transcripts from March through June of 2020 from the Childhelp National Child A...

Background: The coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) has placed strains on communities. In the midst of this public health crisis, health systems have created remote methods of monitoring symptom progression and delivering care virtually. Objective: Using a text message-based system, we sought to build and test a remote model to explore community nee...

BACKGROUND The COVID-19 pandemic has placed strains on communities. During this public health crisis, health systems have created remote methods of monitoring symptom progression and delivering care virtually. OBJECTIVE Using an SMS text message-based system, we sought to build and test a remote model to explore community needs, connect individual...

Restrictive immigration policies are important social determinants of health, but less is known about the health implications and health-related content of protective immigration policies, which may also represent critical determinants of health. We conducted a content analysis of types, themes, and health-related language in 328 "sanctuary" polici...

This cross-sectional study assesses inquiries to a child distress hotline during the COVID-19 pandemic compared with inquiries during the same period the previous year.

Objective Altered hormonal regulation, including cortisol, is a proposed mechanism linking adiposity to obesity‐related disorders. We examined the association of anthropometric, adipokine, and body fat distribution measures of adiposity with morning serum cortisol in an African American (AA) cohort. Methods We investigated the cross‐sectional asso...

Introduction A flatter diurnal cortisol curve has been associated with incident diabetes among older white adults. However, this relationship has not been examined among middle-aged individuals or African Americans [AA]. We analyzed the longitudinal association of baseline diurnal cortisol curve features with incident diabetes over a 10 year period...

BACKGROUND The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic continues to disrupt global health and well-being. We built a digital, remote interactive tool for local community patients to engage in wellbeing resources and connection through a text platform during March-May 2020. OBJECTIVE To prospectively investigate the ability of a health-system based, digita...

Background COVID-19 continues to disrupt global health and well-being. In April-May 2020, we generated a digital, remote interactive tool to provide health and well-being resources and foster connectivity among community members through a text messaging platform. Objective This study aimed to prospectively investigate the ability of a health syste...

Some chronic pain conditions and comorbidities suppress the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and response to dynamic testing. We measured HPA axis responses to corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) administration in relation to chronic pelvic pain and endometriosis. In a cross-sectional study of women (n = 54) with endometriosis-associated...

Background: Serum cortisol levels have been associated with type 2 diabetes (T2D). However, the role of cortisol in glycemia and T2D is not fully elucidated among African Americans (AAs). We hypothesized that among AAs morning serum cortisol would be positively associated with glycemic measures and prevalent T2D. Methods: We examined the cross-s...

Background: Subclinical hypercortisolism and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis dysfunction are associated with type 2 diabetes (T2DM), cardiovascular disease, and metabolic dysfunction. Intronic methylation of FKBP5 has been implicated as a potential indicator of chronic cortisol exposure. Our overall objective in this study was to determi...

Research suggests that many children are exposed to adverse experiences in childhood. Such adverse childhood exposures may result in stress and trauma, which are associated with increased morbidity and mortality into adulthood. In general populations and trauma-exposed adults, mindfulness interventions have demonstrated reduced depression and anxie...

Objectives To examine qualitative responses regarding the use of placebo treatments in medical care in a sample of US patients. Survey studies suggest a deliberate clinical use of placebos by physicians, and prior research has found that although most US patients find placebo use acceptable, the rationale for these beliefs is largely unknown. Setti...

Objectives: To quantify the influence of abuse, particularly in childhood, with pain sensitivity and other adverse symptoms experienced by women with fibromyalgia (FM). Methods: Subjects with FM completed a detailed abuse interview, dolorimetry, and questionnaire-based assessments of fatigue, cognitive self-appraisal, and depression. Student's t...

To evaluate sensitization, myofascial trigger points, and quality of life in women with chronic pelvic pain with and without endometriosis. A cross-sectional prospective study of women aged 18-50 years with pain suggestive of endometriosis and healthy, pain-free volunteers without a history of endometriosis. Patients underwent a physiatric neuromus...

Fibromyalgia, the second most common widespread pain disorder in America, is commonly associated with a history of abuse. Discerning the relationship between fibromyalgia pain and abuse may inform investigations of its pathology and diagnostics. We aimed to test the hypothesis that childhood, but not adult abuse, would be related to fibromyalgia pa...

Pain modulation by placebo mechanisms is one of the most robust and best-studied phenomena, yet almost all research investigating the mechanisms and implications of the placebo analgesia are based on adult research. After highlighting crucial aspects that need to be considered in studying pain modulation in children, this comprehensive review exami...

Glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) exerts neurotrophic and neuroprotective effects on substantia nigra (SN) dopamine neurons and has great therapeutic potential for Parkinson's disease (PD). Hindering this potential is the fact that GDNF cannot cross the blood-brain barrier. The aim of this study was to assess the effects of GDNF ad...

Myofascial pain syndrome (MPS) is a common, yet poorly understood, acute and chronic pain condition. MPS is characterized by local and referred pain associated with hyperirritable nodules known as myofascial trigger points (MTrPs) that are stiff, localized spots of exquisite tenderness in a palpable taut band of skeletal muscle. Our objective was t...

Myofascial pain syndrome (MPS) is a common, yet poorly understood, acute and chronic pain condition. MPS is characterized by local and referred pain associated with hyperirritable nodules known as myofascial trigger points (MTrPs) that are stiff, localized spots of exquisite tenderness in a palpable taut band of skeletal muscle. Recently, our resea...