Sonia Hernandez-Diaz
Harvard University, MA·Public Health & Epidemiology
Obesity is one of the most common medical complications of pregnancy and raises the risk of many problems for mothers and babies. Prescriptions for anti-obesity drugs are rising.
- Fields
Public Health & Epidemiology
Pharmacology
Medicine & Clinical Research
- Topics
pharmacoepidemiology
anti-obesity medications
obesity in pregnancy
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Apr 2030
What they work on
- Estimate whether specific anti-obesity drugs used before conception reduce obesity-related obstetric and newborn complications among more than 100,000 women with obesity in the MarketScan pregnancy–infant cohort.
- Quantify the safety for mother and fetus of anti-obesity drugs used during pregnancy, intentionally or accidentally, using pharmacy dispensing records and validated diagnosis-based outcomes.
- Emulate hypothetical target trials with active comparison groups and propensity score weighting, and estimate absolute risk differences with generalized linear models and quantitative bias analyses.
More about the research
About half of pregnancies are unplanned, so many women take these drugs around conception or early in pregnancy. Early pregnancy is when the baby's organs form. Little is known about whether these drugs reduce obesity-related pregnancy complications when used before conception, or whether they are safe for the fetus when use continues. Randomized trials in pregnant women are not realistic, so the questions must be answered with large, carefully designed observational studies of real-world health data.
Why it matters
Women with obesity who may become pregnant and their doctors currently lack evidence about anti-obesity drugs. This work could inform clinical guidelines and the pregnancy safety sections of drug labels. It could also show whether pre-pregnancy treatment lowers complication risks. Where risks prove low, it could provide reassurance to women accidentally exposed during pregnancy.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Yuri Sebastiao
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC·Public Health & Epidemiology
Emulate a randomized trial of elective induction of labor at 39 weeks versus expectant management using observational LABOR study data, estimating causal effects on cesarean delivery and on combined fetal and neonatal illness and death among low-risk first-time mothers in Zambia, Ghana and India.
Stefanie Hinkle
University of Pennsylvania, PA·Public Health & Epidemiology
Create a preconception cohort by linking NHANES national health survey data with later Medicaid pregnancy records for low-income women of reproductive age.
Hong Zhu
University of Virginia, VA·Mathematics & Statistics
Develop a copula-based model, a statistical tool that links the timing of two related events, with time-varying effects and random effects, for clustered semi-competing risks data such as cancer recurrence and death.
The school
Harvard University: 42 labs on PI Pages, $1.5B a year on research, 712 research doctorates a year.
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