Sylvia H Ley, PhD, RD
My research focuses on developing strategies to prevent and manage chronic diseases and investigating earlier life risk factors for diabetes and cardiovascular disease over the life-course.
I am an Assistant Professor, the Department of Epidemiology, Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. I have completed my doctoral study in maternal and infant nutrition and clinical epidemiology at University Toronto and postdoctoral training at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health working with large-scale cohort studies using classical epidemiologic methods. I currently lead research projects on life-course and omics approaches to chronic disease prevention and on COVID-19 and maternal and infant health.
Select Publications
Ley SH, Chavarro JE, Li M, Bao W, Hinkle SN, Wander PL, Rich-Edwards J, Olsen S, Vaag A, Damm P, Grunnet LG, Mills JL, Hu FB, Zhang C. Lactation duration and long-term risk for incident type 2 diabetes in women with a history of gestational diabetes mellitus. Diabetes Care. 2020; 43(4):793-798.
Ley SH. Life-course approaches to investigate adverse effects of caffeine. Am J Clin Nutr. 2019; 109(6):1497-1498
Ley SH, Schulze MB, Hivert M, Meigs JB, Hu FB. Risk factors for type 2 diabetes. In “Diabetes In America”, 3rd Edition. Bethesda, MD, National Institutes of Health, NIH Pub No. 17-1468, 2018; p. 13.1–13.37
Ley SH, Li Y, Tobias DK, Manson JE, Rosner B, Hu FB, Rexrode KM. Duration of reproductive life span, age at menarche, and age at menopause are associated with risk of cardiovascular disease in women. J Am Heart Assoc. 2017; 6(11). doi: 10.1161/JAHA.117.006713.
Ley SH, Pan A, Li Y, Manson JE, Willett WC, Sun Q, Hu FB. Changes in overall diet quality and subsequent type 2 diabetes risk: Three U.S. prospective cohorts. Diabetes Care. 2016; 9(11):2011-2018
Ley SH, Hamdy O, Mohan V, Hu FB. Prevention and management of type 2 diabetes: dietary components and nutritional strategies. Lancet. 2014; 383(9933):1999-2007