# Statistical methods to understand changes in dietary patterns over time and cardiovascular disease risk among understudied populations

> **NIH NIH K01** · HARVARD UNIVERSITY D/B/A HARVARD SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH · 2024 · $161,013

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
My goal is to establish myself as an independent researcher on cardiovascular disease (CVD) disparities with
expertise in Bayesian nonparametric clustering techniques and nutrition epidemiology. Attaining these
objectives will require focused didactic training and research guidance. My research goals are to develop new
methodology to identify temporal dietary patterns that are related to CVD risk of understudied and marginalized
subgroups. These new methods will identify dietary exposure differences that occur across populations in the
United States over time that otherwise may be overlooked. I will also develop methods to assess how these
temporal dietary exposure patterns impact CVD risk outcomes for adult women. With access to two NIH-
funded female cohort studies—the Black Women’s Health Study and the Nurses’ Health Study II —I will apply
the proposed methods to examine multivariate dietary exposure changes of US women over time and their
association with CVD health disparities, highlighting differences defined by racial/ethnic subpopulations.
Through implementation of the proposed methods and application to two large population-based cohorts, this
research will characterize the dietary behaviors of subgroups at greatest risk of CVD disparities and inform
future policies to improve dietary recommendations and promote population health equity. To achieve my
training goals, the proposed training plan consists of four elements: (1) a didactic component to expand my
expertise in nutrition and CVD epidemiology and disparities; (2) career guidance in methodological
development in repeated measures analysis of nutritional data of large, diverse populations; (3) innovative
research using gained content expertise in nutrition and CVD epidemiology and previous statistical training;
and (4) exchange of ideas in biostatistics, nutrition epidemiology, and CVD disparities through attendance at
conferences, seminars, and workshops. Planned training activities will enhance my understanding of dietary
consumption behaviors, CVD epidemiology, and disparities enabling me to develop useful models to measure
multivariate dietary exposure patterns over time and CVD risk estimation for vulnerable populations. The skills
and experience developed during this award period will prepare me to lead an interdisciplinary research
program addressing factors associated with cardiometabolic health disparities.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10846718
- **Project number:** 5K01HL166442-02
- **Recipient organization:** HARVARD UNIVERSITY D/B/A HARVARD SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH
- **Principal Investigator:** Briana Joy Kennedy Stephenson
- **Activity code:** K01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $161,013
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2023-06-01 → 2028-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10846718

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10846718, Statistical methods to understand changes in dietary patterns over time and cardiovascular disease risk among understudied populations (5K01HL166442-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10846718. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*