Senior Research Associate
Behavioural Epidemiology and Interventions in Young People 

Current work and interests

Andrea is a multidisciplinary public health scientist researching health behaviours of young people, focusing on the interplay of diet and physical activity, and relationships with mental and physical health across adolescence. She is also interested in the development of innovative family-centred health behaviour change interventions.

Background and experience

Prior to joining the Unit, Andrea studied Biomedical Sciences at the University of Sussex before completing an MPhil in Public Health at the University of Cambridge. She joined the Obesity Research Group in the Research Department of Behavioural Science and Health at UCL in 2014 to pursue an MRC-funded PhD on the genetic and environmental aetiology of dietary preferences, and relationships with adiposity in young adults. From 2017-2020, Andrea worked as a postdoc in the NIHR Obesity Policy Research Unit at UCL where she led on research on various studies into the prevention of childhood obesity specifically within the UK public health policy context.

Andrea has experience in behavioural genetic modelling (twin analyses), meta-analytic techniques (e.g., dose-response modelling), design and conduct of behaviour change interventions, and mixed methods research approaches. She also is a core member of the UCL-based Gemini twin study team (a longitudinal birth cohort of 2400 families studying the origins of appetite and growth in early childhood into adolescence).

Publications

• MRC Epidemiology Unit publications on the Publications Database
• All Publications via Google Scholar

Qualifications

• BSc in Biomedical Science, University of Sussex
• MPhil in Public Health, University of Cambridge
• PhD in Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London

Professional memberships

• Association for the Study of Obesity (ASO)
• Society for Social Medicine & Population Health