Joel Gittelsohn, PhD, MSc
Director of Community Interventions
Professor, Department of International Health, Center for Human Nutrition
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
For the past 24 years, Dr. Gittelsohn has focused on developing, implementing and evaluating community-based programs for the primary prevention of chronic disease in disadvantaged ethnic minority populations. Dr. Gittelsohn has led multiple food source-centered intervention trials aimed at improving the food environment and providing skills and nutrition education needed to support healthy food choices in the Marshall Islands, on multiple American Indian reservations and First Nations reserves, in Baltimore City, and for Native Hawaiian communities.
Dr. Gittelsohn developed a multi-institutional program for diabetes prevention in First Nations, which was extended to five American Indian communities (OPREVENT), and a multi-level program for child obesity prevention in Baltimore City (BHCK) which is currently underway. These programs have shown success in increasing knowledge, healthy food purchasing and consumption of healthy promoted foods at the consumer level, in reducing obesity, and in improving stocking and sales at the retail level.
Representative Publications:
- Gittelsohn J, Steeves EA, Mui Y, Kharmats AY, Hopkins LC, Dennis D. (2014) “B’More Healthy Communities for Kids: Design of a Multi-Level Intervention for Obesity Prevention for Low-Income African American Children,” BMC Public Health, 14: 942. DOI: 10.1186/1471-2458-14-942.
- Shin AH, Surkan P.J., Coutinho A.J., Suratkar S, Kramer R.F., Rowan M.T., Sharma S, Dennisuk L.A., Cook M, Gass A, Gittelsohn J. “Impact of Baltimore Healthy Eating Zones: An environmental intervention to reduce obesity and obesity-related factors among African-American youth,” Health Education and Behavior, (in press).
- Christiansen K, Qureshi F, Schaible A, Park S, Gittelsohn J. (2013) "Environmental factors that impact the eating behaviors of low-income African American adolescents in Baltimore City," Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, Jul 31. doi:pii: S1499-4046(13)00484-3. 10.1016/j.jneb.2013.05.009. [Epub ahead of print].
- Gittelsohn J, Dennisuk LA, Christiansen K, Bhimani R, Johnson A, Alexander E, Lee M, Lee SH, Rowan M, and Coutinho A. (2013) “Development and implementation of Baltimore Healthy Eating Zones: A youth-targeted intervention to improve the food environment around recreation centers in Baltimore City” Health Education Research, Jun 13. [Epub ahead of print], doi: 10.1093/her/cyt066.
- Dennisuk LA, Coutinho AJ, Suratkar S, Surkan P, Christiansen K, Riley M, Anliker JA, Sharma S, Gittelsohn J. (2011) "Food expenditures and food purchasing among low-income urban African-American youth." Am J Prev Med, 40(6): 625-628.
Full list of publications here.