Christine Olson
Professor
2009
HENutrSci

Web Bio Page

Current Activities

Current Professional Activities
Cornell University Graduate Field Membership: Nutrition; International Development

Current Research Activities
An impact evaluation of a community-based intervention (the Healthy Start Partnership) that has as its goal the promotion of healthy body weights in mothers and their infants;
An assessment of the rural food and physical activity environments and their relation to body weight in women and children; 
A  longitudinal study of the dynamics of food insecurity status across time in low-income rural families in the United States; and
Formative research on electronically-mediated education and behavior change programs for pregnant and postpartum women.

Current Extension Activities
The Healthy Start Partnership of over 40 health, nutrition and other professionals in an 8-county area of rural New York State that works to promote healthy body weights in women and their children through environmental interventions;
The Eat Well, Eat Local, Eat Together (Eat3) Campign in 20 New York State counties; and
The Cornell NutritionWorks Course: Preventing Childhood Obesity: An Ecological Approach.

Biography

Biographical Statement
The nutritional concerns of women, infants, and children are the focus of my scholarly work. Our research group is completing a major extension-outreach project (the Healthy Start Partnership) focused on building the capacity of community-based health and nutrition professionals to design and implement environmental interventions promoting healthy weights in women and their infants. We are finishing an evaluation of the impact of the Healthy Start Partnership on women's weights and their infants' rates of growth in the first 6 months of life this year.  In addition, we are examining the inter-relationships between the food environments in which the women live, their diets, and body weights.  

Our group is also finishing a long-term, longitudinal  research project on food insecurity in rural low-income families.  Our focus in the current year is on factors that facilitate and inhibit families from moving out of food insecurity across time.

We are beginning a new project on using electronic communication technology to help pregnant and postpartum women be healthy.  These projects are motivated by a concern for improving the nutritional well-being of populations using well-designed interventions.

Keywords
Nutrition, maternal and child health, disease prevention, pregnancy, obesity, poverty, domestic food insecurity

Courses, Websites, Pubs

Related Websites
DNS Home Page
Healthy Start Partnership

Selected Publications

Davis EM, Zyzanski SJ, Olson CM, Stange KC, Horwitz RI. Racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic differences in the incidence of obesity related to childbirth. American Journal of Public Health 99:294-299, 2009.

Davis E, Olson C. Obesity in pregnancy. Primary Care: Clinics in Office Practice 36:341-356, 2009.

Lent MD, Petrovic LE, Swanson JA, Olson CM. Maternal mental health and the persistence of food insecurity in poor rural families. Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved 20:645-661, 2009.

Olson CM, Strawderman MS, Dennison BA. Maternal weight gain during pregnancy and child weight at age 3 years. Maternal and Child Health Journal 13:839-846, 2009. 

Olson CM. Achieving a healthy weight gain during pregnancy. Annual Review of Nutrition 28:17.1-17.13, 2008.

Fernandez ID, Olson CM, Dye TD. Discordance in the assessment of prepregnancy weight status of adolescents: A comparison between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sex- and age-specific body mass index classification and the Institute of Medicine-based classification used for maternal weight gain guidelines. Journal of the American Dietetic Association 108:998-1002, 2008.

Swanson JA, Olson CM, Miller EO, Lawrence FC. Rural mothers’ use of formal programs and informal social supports to meet family food needs: A mixed methods study. Journal of Family Economic Issues 29:674-690, 2008.

Olson C.M. The third decade of the Journal of Nutrition Education (1988-1997): vibrant expansion in research content, audiences, and topics for nutrition education. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior 40(5):274-278, 2008.

Olson CM. A call for intervention in pregnancy to prevent maternal and child obesity. Letter to the editor. American Journal of Preventive Medicine 33(5):435-426, 2007.

Olson CM, Bove CF, Miller EO. Growing up poor: The long-term implications for eating patterns and body weight. Appetite 49:198-207, 2007.

Wells NM, Olson CM. The ecology of obesity: Perspectives from life course, design and economics. Journal of Hunger & Environmental Nutrition 1(3):99-129, 2006.

Bove CF, Olson CM.  Obesity in low-income rural women:  Qualitative insights about physical activity and eating patterns.  Women & Health 44(1):57-78, 2006.

Lee S-K, Sobal J, Frongillo EA, Olson CM, Wolfe WS.  Parity and body weight in the United States: Differences by race and size of place of residence.  Obesity Research 13 (7):1263-1269, 2005.

Olson CM.  Food insecurity in women: A recipe for unhealthy trade-offs.  Topics in Clinical Nutrition 20(4):321-328, 2005.

Lee JS, Frongillo EA, Olson CM.  Meanings of targeting from program workers.  Journal of Nutrition 135:882-885, 2005.

Olson CM. Tracking of food choices across the transition to motherhood. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior 37:129-136, 2005.

Olson CM, Anderson K,Kiss E, Lawrence F, Seiling S. Factors protecting against and contributing to food insecurity among rural families. Family Economics and Nutrition Review 16:12-20, 2004

Olson CM, Strawderman MS, Reed RG. Efficacy of an intervention to prevent excessive gestational weight gain. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 191(2):530-6, 2004.

Olson CM, Strawderman MS. Modifiable behavioral factors in a biopsychosocial model predict inadequate and excessive gestational weight gain. Journal of the American Dietetic Association 103:48-54, 2003.

Olson CM, Strawderman MS, Hinton PS, Pearson TA. Gestational weight gain and postpartum behaviors associated with weight change from early pregnancy to 1 y postpartum. International Journal of Obesity 27:117-127, 2003.

Dollahite JS, Olson CM, Scott-Pierce M. The impact of nutrition education on food insecurity among low-income participants in EFNEP. Family and Consumer Sciences Research Journal 32(2):127-139, 2003.
 
Olson CM, Strawderman MS.  Modifiable behavioral factors in a biopsychosocial model predict inadequate and excessive gestational weight gain.  Journal of the American Dietetic Association 103:48-54, 2003.

Edlefsen M, Olson CM. Perspectives of volunteers in emergency feeding programs on hunger, its causes, and solutions. Journal of Nutrition Education 34:93-99, 2002.

Alaimo K, Olson CM, Frongillo EA. Family food insufficiency, but not low family income, is positively associated with dysthymia and suicide symptoms in adolescents. Journal of Nutrition 132:719-725, 2002. 

Alaimo K, Olson CM, Frongillo EA, Jr. Food insufficiency and American school-aged children's cognitive, academic, and psychosocial development. Pediatrics 108:44-53, 2001.