Solveig Argeseanu Cunningham

Emory University | EU · Department of Global Health

We investigate associations between a diabetes diagnosis and financial and instrumental transfers between parents and adult children. Data are from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, a nationally representative household cohort from the USA with prospective data on diabetes and cross-sectional data on transfers for households in which the head and...

We investigated the influence of parents’ weight status on their children’s growth trajectories and how it associates with the age at onset of overweight and obesity. We used 16,396 height and weight records from 3,284 youth from the U.S. Panel Study of Income Dynamics followed across childhood into adulthood (1997-2017). Across age groups, we mode...

Objective: We examined multimorbidity among foreign-born adults in the United States. This population may be particularly affected by chronic conditions and limited health care access. Design: Longitudinal cohort. Setting: United States. Participants: Foreign-born adults at the point of legal permanent residency. Main outcome measures: Mul...

We evaluated the relationship of urinary sodium excretion with a conditional mean, 10th and 90th percentiles of body mass index (BMI), and waist circumference among 10,034 person-visits of Bangladeshi population. We fitted linear mixed models with participant-level random intercept and restricted maximum likelihood estimation for conditional mean m...

OBJECTIVES Examine childhood obesity incidence across recent cohorts. METHODS We examined obesity incidence and prevalence across 2 cohorts of children in the United States 12 years apart using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Studies, parallel data sets following the kindergarten cohorts of 1998 and 2010 with direct anthropometric measurements at...

Objectives Immigrants' health may deteriorate when moving from a non-Western to a Western country due to acculturation and environmental differences. The microbiome appears to play a large role in human health: dysbacteriosis may cause disease predisposition. Thus, we investigated the relationship between migration and microbiome composition. Meth...

Introduction Obesity prevalence among children and adolescents has risen sharply, yet there is a limited understanding of the age-specific dynamics of obesity as there is no single nationally representative cohort following children into young adulthood. Investigators constructed a pooled data set of 5 nationally representative panels and modeled a...

This study examines the association of changes in weight status from teen to young adult ages with the number of ideal cardiovascular health (CVH) and clinical CVH metrics by adulthood. We hypothesized that increases in weight status from teen to young adult ages are associated with less ideal CVH metrics in adulthood. Data from a subset of partici...

Background: India holds the world's largest burden of chronic and acute child undernutrition. Poverty and systemic inequities are basic causes of undernutrition that also drive households to engage in circular migration for livelihood. Short-term, temporary movement of the whole family, including young children, is common; yet, the nutritional imp...

Changes in food choice often accompany globalization and economic growth. These changes have not been well documented in rural settings and among young people. To advance research on food choice, we demonstrate adolescents’ selection of local vs.non-local foods in a rural area of India where globalization is just reaching. A representative sample o...

Objectives Assess differences in movement behaviours within the 24-hour cycle, including light intensity physical activity (LPA), moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), sedentary time and sleep, before and during the COVID-19 pandemic and assess these differences stratified by several relevant factors in a subcohort of the Cancer Prevention...

Background Diabetes poses a heavy burden on patients due to its progressive and chronic nature; it requires continuous management to promote a high-quality and long life. Disease management is especially challenging in emergency settings. We examined how displaced people with diabetes experienced managing their illness before and throughout the pro...

Low socioeconomic position (SEP) across the lifecourse is associated with Type 2 diabetes (T2DM). We examined whether these economic disparities differ by race and sex. We included 5448 African American (AA) and white participants aged ≥45 years from the national (United States) REasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) coho...

Background: Pregnancy identification and follow-up surveillance can enhance the reporting of pregnancy outcomes, including stillbirths and perinatal and early postnatal mortality. This paper reviews pregnancy surveillance methods used in Health and Demographic Surveillance Systems (HDSSs) in low- and middle-income countries. Methods: We searched ar...

Objectives To describe temporal trends in child marriage between 1990 and 2019 in a rural sub-district of Bangladesh and characterize relationships between age, time to pregnancy, complications during delivery, and perinatal mortality. Design Health and demographic surveillance system. Setting Baliakandi sub-district, Bangladesh. Participants 56,15...

Purpose This study contributes to the growing literature on the association between sleep and obesity by examining the associations between hours of sleep, consistency of bedtime, and obesity among children in the US. Design Analysis of a nationally representative sample of non-institutionalized children from the 2016-17 National Survey of Childre...

Healthy eating and active lifestyles are associated with children’s healthy weight and cognitive development. This study examines whether family behaviors relevant for nutrition and activity levels are associated with children’s working memory, independent of their weight status. A convenience sample of child–caregiver dyads (n = 85 dyads) were rec...

Objectives On average, U.S. immigrants experience increases in body mass during their time in the country. These changes are related to important shifts in diet post immigration but could also continue to be influenced by sending-area environments. We assess the level of variance in dietary change that is attributable to country of origin and U.S....

Objectives Little is known about the association of family eating behaviors with young children's cognitive development, particularly among non-White populations. The objective of this study is to determine if healthier family eating behaviors are associated with young Mexican children's cognitive functioning. Methods We used cross-sectional data...

Objectives To identify changes in diet, physical activity and BMI after 3–6 months of relocation among international students in Georgia, USA. Methods Data were collected from 74 international students attending 2 urban universities in the Southeast. Students were interviewed within 10 days of arrival in the U.S and again 3–6 months later. Partici...

We examined food subsidies and dietary intake in a remote district of India in the context of globalizing food environments. We used bespoke quantitative instruments to collect data on frequency of intake of 69 foods and a dietary variety score among 937 adults. We compared frequency of intake between urban and rural people receiving and not receiv...

Introduction: The persistence of obesity from adolescent to adult ages is associated with risk of cardiovascular disease later in life. Data from cohorts that passed through childhood before 1980 show that when obesity is first observed in youth it often persists into adulthood. However, less is known about current weight trajectories of adolescent...

Background: Asset-based indices are widely-used proxy measures of wealth in low and middle-income countries (LMIC). The stability of these indices within households over time is not known. Methods: We develop a harmonized household asset index using Principal Component Analysis for the participants (n = 2392) of INCAP Longitudinal Study, Guatema...

Objective: We investigated the risk of depression and anxiety in people whose spouse did or did not have diabetes. We also examined associations between depression and anxiety and severity of spouse's diabetes. Research design and methods: We analyzed prospective self-reported data about diagnosed depression/anxiety and diabetes in cohabiting co...

Background Asset-based indices are widely-used proxy measures of wealth in low and middle-income countries (LMIC). The stability of these indices within households over time is not known. Methods We develop a harmonized household asset index for the participants (n = 2392) of INCAP Longitudinal Study, Guatemala using data from six waves of follow-u...

Background Adolescence is marked by a decline in physical activity, rapid physical growth and changes in body composition, which have been linked to body composition. Prospective data on these associations are rare, particularly in Africa. Aim The aim of this study was to examine the association of longitudinal patterns across adolescent in physic...

Objectives The Child Health and Mortality Prevention Surveillance (CHAMPS) Network is designed to elucidate and track causes of under-5 child mortality and stillbirth in multiple sites in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia using advanced surveillance, laboratory and pathology methods. Expert panels provide an arguable gold standard determination of...

BACKGROUND The effectiveness of school‐based physical activity interventions for improving cardiopulmonary fitness (CPF) of overweight and obese children is not well established. In this study, we evaluated whether overweight and obese children had similar changes in body mass index (BMI) and CPF as normal weight children after participating in a p...

Most Indian adolescents, particularly girls and private school students, do not engage in sufficient physical activity (PA). Current understanding of these sociodemographic differences is limited by a focus on exercise, which may not fully capture PA in developing countries. We examined how gender and school type are associated with multiple PA dom...

Background: In low-resource settings, urbanization may contribute to the individual-level double burden of malnutrition (DBM), whereby under- and overnutrition co-occur within the same individuals. Objective: We described DBM prevalence among Malawian women by urban-rural residence, examined whether urban residence was associated with DBM, and a...

Introduction: Neighborhood economic conditions are important predictors of incident stroke. Neighborhood economic conditions can be characterized differently but studies have not identified which characterizations are most predictive of incident stroke. Previous work has suggested that the income distribution within the population may be more relev...

Body mass index (BMI) is generally used to classify adiposity. Despite the fact that the consequences of adiposity for chronic health accumulate and manifest over time, most population health research exploring the implications of high BMI measures only its recent intensity. Some studies have used retrospective measures involving maximum weight, an...

Background In India, the prevalence of overweight and obesity has increased rapidly in recent decades. Given the association between overweight and obesity with many non-communicable diseases, forecasts of the future prevalence of overweight and obesity can help inform policy in a country where around one sixth of the world’s population resides. M...

Purpose: While high levels of obesity prevalence and incidence have been well documented, there is less research on obesity dynamics over time. In this article, we sought to understand the body mass index (BMI) trajectories in and out of obesity from adolescence to adulthood. Methods: We used the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adul...

Health and demographic surveillance systems (HDSSs) provide a foundation for characterizing and defining priorities and strategies for improving population health. The Child Health and Mortality Prevention Surveillance (CHAMPS) project aims to inform policy to prevent child deaths through generating causes of death from surveillance data combined w...

Studies from the social and health sciences have tended to view the household as the locus of access to and distribution of care, resources, monitoring and modeling for children's wellbeing. Obesity may present a special case for the study of investments in children, being a component of health for which more of certain inputs may not lead to bette...

Background: Adolescence is a critical phase of human development that lays the foundation for health in later life. Of the 1.8 billion adolescents in the world, roughly 90% live in low and middle-income countries. Yet most longitudinal studies of adolescent physical activity, sedentary behavior, and sleep come from high-income countries. There is...

Objectives: The objective of this study was to estimate the prevalence of child malnutrition and the determinants of nutrition status among circular migrant families working in the brick industry in Bihar, India, focusing on differences by origin. Methods: We used a stratified, cluster sampling design consisting of a cross-sectional survey in 55...

Objectives: Pre- and post-migration environments have differing demographic, social and economic characteristics which can affect health (Figure 1). What level of variance in bodyweight is attributable to individual-, country of origin-, and state of resettlement-level factors? Methods: We test what portion of the variance (as captured through i...

Introduction: Childhood obesity is a growing epidemic in the United States with approximately 1 in 5 children being obese. Although prevalence estimates for childhood obesity are regularly updated, little is known about the current incidence of childhood obesity among a nationally representative population, since initial estimates were provided by...

Introduction: The increasing global burden of CVD mortality is primarily attributable to the rising number of deaths in developing countries; India alone accounted for 15% of global CVD deaths in 2016. Little is known about patterns and predictors of physical activity (PA), a key modifiable risk factor for CVD, among Indian adolescents. Existing re...

Objective: Unhealthy weight is a major global health concern. This study examines unhealthy weight among children in Spain and the role of the home environment therein. Data are from a 2010 national survey of families with children. We examined unhealthy weight among children ages 5-10 years using the WHO Child Growth Standards and used multivaria...

While the benefits of additional schooling in the developing world are widely recognised, the best use of scarce resources to improve academic achievement remains unclear. We compare public investments in school infrastructure, school improvement grants, teacher qualifications, and attendance incentives on independently-gathered measures of academi...

Purpose: When a person is given a diagnosis of diabetes, the changes in his or her health behaviors may influence the behaviors of his or her partner. The diabetes diagnosis may affect household members' perceptions of their own health risks, which could trigger behavioral change. The purpose of this study was to assess whether partners of persons...

Purpose: To examine associations of adolescent sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) intake with parent SSB intake and parent and adolescent knowledge of SSB-related health risks. Design: Quantitative, cross-sectional. Setting: 2014 SummerStyles survey. Subjects: Nine hundred and ninety parent and adolescent (12-17 years) pairs. Measures: The out...

India faces a dual burden of increasing obesity and persistent underweight as it experiences the nutrition transition—the dietary and lifestyle changes that accompany globalization, economic development, and technological change. Yet, the nutrition transition is not solely a top-down process; rather, global forces converge with local practices at m...

Introduction: Prior research suggests early life stressors (ELS) influence development of cardiovascular (CV) risk over the lifecourse, but few national studies have evaluated this. We examined the association of ELS with adult CV defined by Life’s Simple 7 (LS7) score within a national US population-based cohort. Methods: We used data on 7,469 REG...

Purpose: Health and administrative systems are facing spatial clustering in chronic diseases such as diabetes. This study explores how geographic distribution of diabetes in the United States is associated with socioeconomic and built environment characteristics and health-relevant policies. Methods: We compiled nationally representative county-...

The gut microbiome is a critical component of an individual's metabolism and overall health. The prenatal period is marked by unique inflammatory and immune changes that alter maternal gut function and bacterial composition as the pregnancy advances. The composition of the maternal gut microbiome contributes to obstetric outcomes with long-term hea...

People socially connected with each other often share health risks, possibly due to shared environments and behaviors. In a cohort study, we examined whether incidence of diabetes was different for individuals with recently diagnosed partners compared to individuals similar on other characteristics but whose partners were never diagnosed with diabe...

This study uses freelists to document perceptions of healthfulness, modernity, and availability of foods and beverages among adolescents ages 13–18 years (n = 26) in urbanizing India. Among the 10 foods and beverages adolescents perceived as “new,” half were also seen as modern and unhealthy, 4 as traditional and unhealthy, and 3 as modern and heal...

Background The prevalence of obesity and other chronic diseases is increasing in India and around the world. As globalization and social changes are believed to be at the root of these epidemiological changes, these factors must be better understood. This study engaged older adults to gain an important perspective on globalization and health. Meth...

Aims Clinical trials show lifestyle change programs are beneficial, yet large-scale, successful translation of these programs is scarce. We investigated the association between participation in the largest U.S. lifestyle change program, MOVE!, and diabetes control outcomes. Methods This longitudinal, retrospective cohort study used Veterans Health...

Purpose Given high levels of obesity among U.S. children, we examine whether obesity in childhood is a passing phenomenon or remains entrenched into adolescence. Methods Data are from the prospective nationally representative Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-1999 (analytic sample=6,600). Anthropometrics were measured...

Weight-related behaviors such as sedentary activity, physical activity, and diet have been the focus of efforts to prevent and reduce the occurrence of obesity and overweight in children, but few longitudinal studies have examined the effects of weight-related behaviors on changes in weight status over time in children. This study examines the effe...

This article reviews the biology, prevalence and risks for obesity in people and companion dogs and cats, and explores the links between obesity and diabetes mellitus and cancer across these species. Obesity is a major healthcare problem in both human and veterinary medicine and there is an increasing prevalence of obesity in people and pets. In pe...

Evidence is accumulating that obesity risks become established early in life. The goal of this systematic review is to assess whether there is evidence that rapid postnatal growth holds different implications for childhood obesity risks for children who experienced different patterns of prenatal growth. We conducted systematic database searches in...

Objectives This study examines the relationship between alcohol consumption and incident stroke among older adults and tests whether alcohol consumption contributes to observed race and sex differences in stroke. Method Data are from a U.S. national cohort of black and white adults aged 45 and older, the REasons for Geographic And Racial Differenc...

Objective: To develop and evaluate a Nutrition Transition-FFQ (NT-FFQ) to measure nutrition transition among adolescents in South India. Design: We developed an interviewer-administered NT-FFQ comprising a 125-item semi-quantitative FFQ and a twenty-seven-item eating behaviour survey. The reproducibility and validity of the NT-FFQ were assessed...

Introduction: Lifestyle change programs implemented within healthcare systems could reach many Americans, but their impact on cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains unclear. The MOVE! program is the largest lifestyle change program implemented in a healthcare setting in the U.S. This study aimed to determine whether MOVE! participation was associate...

Background: We examined the relationship between parents' perception of neighborhood safety and children's physical activity and use of recreation facility in a U.S. nationally representative sample of 5th grade children. Methods: We used data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study Kindergarten cohort, 5th grade sample (N=9,827). Multivaria...

Objective: To assess the relationship between neighborhood socioeconomic characteristics and incident stroke in a national cohort of black and white participants. Methods: The study comprised black (n = 10,274, 41%) and white (n = 14,601) stroke-free participants, aged 45 and older, enrolled in 2003-2007 in Reasons for Geographic and Racial Diff...

This study provides a foundation for understanding how globalization and changing food environments are linked to cultural models of food prestige in adolescents. We used methods from cognitive anthropology, including free lists, pile sorts, and consensus modeling, to explore the meanings that Indian adolescents attribute to foods. Adolescents (n =...

Objective To describe adolescents’ eating patterns of traditional, global/non-local and mixed foods, and the factors that may influence food consumption, access and preferences, in a globalizing city. Design A representative sample of school-going adolescents completed a cross-sectional survey including an FFQ designed to identify traditional and...

Background Emerging research suggests changes in dietary patterns among adults and youth during the global nutrition transition, but there is no dietary score to measure the extent of nutrition transition that may be occurring. Objective To develop and validate an index-based Nutrition Transition Diet Score for adolescents in India. Methods An ev...

Background There are no validated Food Frequency Questionnaires (FFQ) for adolescents in India, a population that may be undergoing nutrition transition – the rapid changes in dietary patterns from globalization. Objective To develop and evaluate the reproducibility and validity of a Nutrition Transition-FFQ (NT-FFQ) among adolescents ages 14–18 y...

Background The nutrition transition in low- and middle-income countries including India may involve changes not only in dietary patterns but also food behaviors; these need to be understood to design appropriate public-health messages and interventions to promote health and well being among adults and youth. For instance, in the nutrition transitio...

Background: In the USA, half of children are regularly cared for before or after school by someone other than a parent. Objective: Describe the relationship between childcare arrangements and obesity among school-aged children. Methods: Data are from the fifth-grade wave of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study - Kindergarten Cohort 1998-1999...

Concerns about increasing obesity in poorer parts of the world, including India, have often been premised in terms of global shifts in activity levels and caloric consumption. Lifestyle changes have been documented in large cities, but we do not know whether these changes are reaching young people in less urban locations. This study used photo jour...