Christina A. Roberto
· Mitchell J. Blutt and Margo Krody Blutt Presidential Professor of Health Policy; Director of the PEACH Lab; Associate Director of CHIBEUniversity of Pennsylvania · Ethics and Health Policy
Active 2006–2024
About
Christina A. Roberto, PhD, is the Mitchell J. Blutt and Margo Krody Blutt Presidential Professor of Health Policy at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. She is also the Director of the Psychology of Eating and Consumer Health lab (PEACH lab) and the Associate Director of the Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics at Penn. The PEACH lab's mission is to identify and evaluate policies and interventions that promote healthy eating habits and prevent nutrition-related chronic diseases. The lab strives to help create a just and equitable food system where those with the fewest resources and opportunities have the same chance to live a long, healthy life as those with the most. Dr. Roberto works closely with policymakers, community-based organizations, companies, and institutions to generate timely research that can provide those partners with science-based guidance. Her research focuses on health policy, behavioral economics, and nutrition, aiming to inform local and national government food policy.
Research topics
- Medicine
- Environmental health
- Business
- Sociology
- Agricultural economics
- Psychology
- Political Science
- Artificial Intelligence
- Economics
- Chemistry
- Computer Science
- Food science
- Marketing
- Developmental psychology
- Engineering
- Demography
- Toxicology
- Geography
- Economic growth
- Advertising
- Gerontology
- Nursing
- Animal science
- Social psychology
Selected publications
Food Is Medicine: A Presidential Advisory From the American Heart Association
Circulation · 2023 · 184 citations
- Medicine
- Environmental health
- Gerontology
Unhealthy diets are a major impediment to achieving a healthier population in the United States. Although there is a relatively clear sense of what constitutes a healthy diet, most of the US population does not eat healthy food at rates consistent with the recommended clinical guidelines. An abundance of barriers, including food and nutrition insecurity, how food is marketed and advertised, access to and affordability of healthy foods, and behavioral challenges such as a focus on immediate versus delayed gratification, stand in the way of healthier dietary patterns for many Americans. Food Is Medicine may be defined as the provision of healthy food resources to prevent, manage, or treat specific clinical conditions in coordination with the health care sector. Although the field has promise, relatively few studies have been conducted with designs that provide strong evidence of associations between Food Is Medicine interventions and health outcomes or health costs. Much work needs to be done to create a stronger body of evidence that convincingly demonstrates the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of different types of Food Is Medicine interventions. An estimated 90% of the $4.3 trillion annual cost of health care in the United States is spent on medical care for chronic disease. For many of these diseases, diet is a major risk factor, so even modest improvements in diet could have a significant impact. This presidential advisory offers an overview of the state of the field of Food Is Medicine and a road map for a new research initiative that strategically approaches the outstanding questions in the field while prioritizing a human-centered design approach to achieve high rates of patient engagement and sustained behavior change. This will ideally happen in the context of broader efforts to use a health equity-centered approach to enhance the ways in which our food system and related policies support improvements in health.
Food choice in transition: adolescent autonomy, agency, and the food environment
The Lancet · 2021 · 284 citations
- Political Science
- Sociology
- Psychology
The Influence of Front-of-Package Nutrition Labeling on Consumer Behavior and Product Reformulation
Annual Review of Nutrition · 2021 · 195 citations
1st authorCorresponding- Computer Science
- Artificial Intelligence
- Sociology
) studies that objectively assess product reformulation in response to a front-of-package nutrition label implementation. We argue that there is sufficient scientific evidence to recommend that governments implement mandatory front-of-package nutrition labeling systems to improvepopulation health. We also present a conceptual framework to describe front-of-package label influence and provide recommendations for the optimal label design, emphasizing that labeling systems should be highly visible and salient, be simple and easy to understand, leverage automatic associations, and integrate informational and emotional messaging. The existing research suggests that Guideline Daily Amount labels should be avoided and that the Health Star Rating and Nutri-Score systems are promising but that systems with warning labels like the one in Chile are likely to produce the largest public health benefits.
JAMA Network Open · 2021 · 32 citations
Senior authorCorresponding- Food science
- Business
- Agricultural economics
Importance: The relationship between a sweetened beverage tax and changes in the prices and purchases of beverages and high-sugar food is understudied in the long term and in small independent food retail stores where sugar-sweetened beverages are among the most commonly purchased items. Objective: To examine whether a 1.5 cent-per-fluid-ounce excise tax on sugar- and artificially sweetened beverages Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was associated with sustained changes in beverage prices and purchases, as well as calories purchased from beverages and high-sugar foods, over 2 years at small independent stores. Design, Setting, and Participants: This cross-sectional study used a difference-in-differences approach to compare changes in beverage prices and purchases of beverages and high-sugar foods (candy, sweet snacks) at independent stores in Philadelphia and Baltimore, Maryland (a nontaxed control) before and 2 years after tax implementation, which occurred on January 1, 2017. Price comparisons were also made to independent stores in Philadelphia's neighboring counties. Main Outcomes and Measures: Changes in mean price (measured in cents per fluid ounce) of taxed and nontaxed beverages, mean fluid ounces purchased of taxed and nontaxed beverages, and mean total calories purchased from beverages and high-sugar foods. Results: Compared with Baltimore independent stores, taxed beverage prices in Philadelphia increased 2.06 cents per fluid ounce (95% CI, 1.75 to 2.38 cents per fluid ounce; P < .001), with 137% of the tax passed through to prices 2 years after tax implementation, while nontaxed beverage prices had no statistically significant change. A total of 116 independent stores and 4738 customer purchases (1950 [41.2%] women; 4351 [91.8%] age 18 years or older; 1006 [21.2%] White customers, 3185 [67.2%] Black customers) at independent stores were assessed for price and purchase comparisons. Purchases of taxed beverages declined by 6.1 fl oz (95% CI, -9.9 to -2.4 fl oz; P < .001), corresponding to a 42% decline in Philadelphia compared with Baltimore; there were no significant changes in purchases of nontaxed beverages. Although there was no significant moderation by neighborhood income or customer education level, exploratory stratified analyses revealed that declines in taxed beverage purchases were larger among customers shopping in low-income neighborhoods (-7.1 fl oz; 95% CI, -13.0 to -1.1 fl oz; P = .001) and individuals with lower education levels (-6.9 fl oz; 95% CI, -12.5 to -1.3 fl oz; P = .001). Conclusions and Relevance: This cross-sectional study found that a tax on sweetened beverages was associated with increases in price and decreases in purchasing. Beverage excise taxes may be an effective policy to sustainably decrease purchases of sweetened drinks and calories from sugar in independent stores, with large reductions in lower-income areas and among customers with lower levels of education.
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition · 2020 · 45 citations
Senior authorCorresponding- Medicine
- Food science
- Animal science
Health Affairs · 2020 · 59 citations
Senior authorCorresponding- Business
- Advertising
- Environmental health
In January 2017 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, implemented an excise tax of 1.5 cents per ounce on beverages sweetened with sugar or artificial sweeteners. Small independent stores are an important yet understudied setting. They are visited frequently in urban and low-income areas, and sugary beverages are among the most commonly purchased items in them. We compared changes in beverage prices and purchases before and twelve months after tax implementation at small independent stores in Philadelphia and an untaxed control city, Baltimore, Maryland. Our sample included 134 stores with price data and 4,584 customer purchases. Compared with Baltimore, Philadelphia experienced significantly greater increases in the price of taxed beverages (1.81 cents per ounce, or 120.4 percent of the tax) and significantly larger declines in the volume of taxed beverages sold (5.76 ounces, or 38.9 percent) after tax implementation. Beverage excise taxes may be an effective policy tool for decreasing the purchase of sweetened drinks in small independent stores, particularly among populations at higher risk for sugar-sweetened beverage consumption.
Recent grants
Communicating the Health Risks of Sugar-Sweetened Beverages
NIH · $1.9M · 2017–2023
NIH · $26k · 2011
Frequent coauthors
- 56 shared
Evelyn Attia
- 53 shared
B. Timothy Walsh
Columbia University Irving Medical Center
- 43 shared
Michael J. Devlin
- 40 shared
Jason P. Block
Harvard Pilgrim Health Care
- 37 shared
Jack Wang
Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center New Orleans
- 37 shared
Steven B. Heymsfield
Louisiana State University
- 37 shared
Deborah R. Glasofer
- 37 shared
Richard N. Pierson
Massachusetts General Hospital
Education
B.A., Psychology
Princeton University
Ph.D., Clinical Psychology and Chronic Disease Epidemiology
Yale University
Awards & honors
- National Academy of Medicine Emerging Leader Fellow
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