Dongqing Wang

I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Global and Community Health. My research focuses on the nutritional determinants of maternal, child, and adolescent health in low- and middle-income countries. A primary domain of my research is the distributions, determinants, and consequences of inadequate and excessive gestational weight gain in low- and middle-income countries. My research addresses knowledge gaps related to gestational weight gain by pooling individual participant data from national surveys, observational cohort studies, and randomized controlled trials. Another key area of my work is on the impacts of maternal nutrient and food supplementation on the short- and long-term health of mothers and children. I am also interested in adolescent nutrition and school-based interventions to address the double burden of adolescent malnutrition. An emerging area of my interest is using data science and machine learning for the targeted provision of nutritional interventions in resource-limited settings. I am the Co-Investigator of several randomized controlled trials of nutritional interventions among mothers, children, and adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa.

• Effectiveness and feasibility of BEP targeting strategies, Ethiopia: The goal of this project is to conduct a randomized controlled trial among pregnant women in Ethiopia to evaluate the effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, and implementational aspects of different targeting strategies of antenatal balanced energy and protein supplementation.
• Nutritional management of growth faltering in infants aged under six months in Asia and Africa; An individually randomized trial: The goal of this project is to determine the effect of nutritional supplementation plus intensive breastfeeding support compared with intensive breastfeeding support alone on mortality, morbidity, and growth in infants aged 0-6 months in low-resource settings in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
• Family planning and anemia: an assessment of evidence and opportunities: The goal of this project is to build a comprehensive overview of the links between family planning and anemia. Wang’s role in the project is to lead a systematic review to summarize the available epidemiological evidence on the effect of nutritional status on reproductive measures among adolescents and women of reproductive age.
• Prenatal and postnatal vitamin B-12 supplementation and breast milk status of B-12 in Tanzania: The goal of this project is to examine the effect of high-dose prenatal and postnatal maternal vitamin B-12 supplementation on breast milk vitamin B-12 status among women in Tanzania.
• Meals, Education, and Gardens for In-School Adolescents (MEGA): The goal of this project is to implement and evaluate an integrated, school-based nutrition intervention package among secondary schools in Dodoma, Tanzania.