About

Simone French, PhD, is a Professor in the Division of Epidemiology & Community Health at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. Her research focuses on obesity prevention interventions targeting children, youth, and families in their natural settings such as homes, schools, and neighborhoods. She investigates the social and environmental influences on eating and physical activity behaviors, emphasizing the role of the home food environment, food policies, and physical activity in shaping population health outcomes. Dr. French is a behavioral epidemiologist with 30 years of experience in the social and behavioral aspects of obesity, nutrition, and physical activity, conducting community-partnered, randomized trials to evaluate environmental and behavioral interventions aimed at improving body weight, dietary intake, and activity levels. Her work is highly policy-relevant and designed to be translatable to community-serving organizations, with a particular focus on low-income and diverse populations. She has led multiple NIH-funded projects, including studies on neighborhood park programs to promote physical activity among low-income children and culturally tailored programs for Native American youth to reduce cardiovascular disease risk. Dr. French is actively involved in professional societies such as the International Society of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity and the Society of Behavioral Medicine, and she has contributed to the academic community as a founding editor of the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity.

Research topics

• Medicine
• Computer Science
• Demography
• Developmental psychology
• Food science
• Demographic economics
• Psychology
• Database
• Advertising
• Environmental health
• Internal medicine
• Business
• Marketing
• Pediatrics

Selected publications

• Urban park use and children’s physical activity in Minneapolis-Saint Paul Minnesota: Parks and Recreation for Kids Study (PARKS)

  BMC Pediatrics · 2026-05-09

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  BACKGROUND: This study examined urban park use and physical activity (PA) among diverse children to better understand the potential for park use to increase child PA and reduce early childhood cardiometabolic risk factors. METHODS: Cross-sectional data were collected (2022-2023) from 430 parent-child dyads who lived within a two-mile radius of one of 20 urban parks. Children ages 6-12 years wore an accelerometer for a minimum of 4 days (one weekend day and three weekdays) for ten hours each day to capture moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), light and sedentary activity. Parents reported the child's past week PA and past year frequency of any park use. General linear models examined differences in child PA by any park use frequency. RESULTS: Objectively-measured child PA (MVPA, light and sedentary) was not significantly associated with any park use frequency during the past year. Parent-reported child PA was significantly higher among children who most frequently used parks during the past year (12 + park visits/month; active on an average 6.5 days per week (95% Confidence Interval (CI): 6.1, 6.9) compared with children whose park use was less frequent (0-4 park visits / month; active on average of 5.6 days per week (95% CI: 5.3, 6.0; p < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Child park use frequency was not associated with objectively-measured child PA but was significantly positively associated with parent report of child PA. Objective measures of individual child total daily PA paired with location data are needed to understand the incremental contribution of park use to child PA. TRIAL REGISTRATION: NCT05231827.

  PublisherDOI

• Early‐Life Sociodemographic Factors and Cardiovascular Health in Preadolescence Among Low‐Income and Racially and Ethnically Diverse Children

  Journal of the American Heart Association · 2025-10-23 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  BACKGROUND: This study examined the relationship between early childhood sociodemographic factors, a subset of social determinants of health, and preadolescent cardiovascular health (CVH) among a cohort of children from low-income and racially and ethnically diverse households using the American Heart Association Life's Essential 8 (except sleep). METHODS: This secondary data analysis used data from the NET-Works (Now Everybody Together for Amazing and Healthful Kids) randomized controlled trial and NET-Works 2 at the U follow-up study. Children (n=268) were 2 to 4 years at enrollment and followed through preadolescence (7-11 years). Sociodemographic factors at baseline were exposures. The main outcome was the CVH score (high (≥80) versus lower (<80)), calculated using Life's Essential 8 factors measured at preadolescence. Modified Poisson regression models estimated risk ratios (RRs) and 95% CIs for the association between sociodemographic factors and CVH. RESULTS: In early childhood, living in households with an annual income of $35 000 to $64 999 (relative to <$15 000) (RR, 2.01 [95% CI, 1.3-3.0]), a parent with at least a bachelor's degree (RR, 2.1 [95% CI, 1.3-3.3]), enrollment in social security, disability, or unemployment (RR, 1.6 [95% CI, 1.0-2.4]), and Non-Hispanic White (RR, 2.2 [95% CI, 1.5-3.3]) were associated with high CVH in preadolescence. Among Life's Essential 8 factors, lower body mass index percentile and cholesterol, and higher physical activity levels and diet quality were most strongly associated with high CVH scores. CONCLUSIONS: Early-life disadvantaged sociodemographic factors were negatively associated with preadolescent CVH among children from low-income and racially and ethnically diverse households. Current public health prevention efforts to alleviate social disadvantage in early childhood are insufficient for long-term CVH. REGISTRATION: URL: https://clinicaltrials.gov; Unique identifier: NCT01606891.

  PublisherDOI

• Physical activity and screen time: prospective associations with child emotional and behavioral well-being during the COVID pandemic

  Pediatric Research · 2025-03-03

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• The Jamaica Handheld Ultrasound Project: a novel longitudinal point-of-care ultrasound curriculum in a resource-limited setting

  World Journal of Emergency Medicine · 2025-01-01

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Home-Delivered Pediatric Weight Management for Low-Income Families: A Randomized Controlled Trial

  PEDIATRICS · 2025-03-05

  articleOpen access

  BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Children from lower-income households lose less weight in family-based weight management interventions, likely due to barriers to treatment attendance and adherence. The CHECK randomized controlled trial tested whether delivering pediatric weight management interventions in the home improves weight loss outcomes relative to clinic-delivered intervention. METHODS: Enrolled families included 269 children (137 boys) who were aged 6 to 12 years, had overweight/obesity, and lived in lower-income English- or Spanish-speaking households in Chicago, Illinois (2017-2022). All families received a 12-month pediatric weight management intervention with 18 planned in-person sessions and 12 planned telephone contacts. The sole difference between arms was the location (home vs clinic) of in-person intervention sessions. Intention-to-treat analyses compared treatment arms on 12-month change in BMI z-score (zBMI), intervention session attendance and contact time, and secondary clinical outcomes. RESULTS: Twelve-month zBMI change did not differ (P = .58) between the home-delivered (n = 133; -0.031, SD = 0.26) and clinic-delivered arms (n = 136; -0.002, SD = 0.30). Across both arms, session attendance and total contact time predicted larger decreases in zBMI. Both variables were higher in the home-delivered arm (median = 11 sessions, 500 minutes) than the clinic-delivered arm (median = 6.5 sessions, 315.5 minutes; P values < .001). Post hoc analyses indicated that home-delivered (vs clinic-delivered) intervention led to 0.03 (SE = 0.008, P = .0004) greater zBMI reductions across time points prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, but not after. CONCLUSIONS: Home delivery did not improve overall 12-month weight loss outcomes. Home-delivered intervention did increase session attendance and contact time and may have had beneficial weight loss effects prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• 772 Increasing oral glucose tolerance test completion rates in children at large CF center

  Journal of Cystic Fibrosis · 2024-09-01

  article
  PublisherDOI

• EE161 Evaluating the Cost-Effectiveness of Home-Delivered Versus Clinic-Based Pediatric Weight Management in Low-Income Families

  Value in Health · 2024-12-01

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Cumulative environmental stress and emerging cardiometabolic risk during childhood

  Pediatric Obesity · 2024-03-28 · 6 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  OBJECTIVE: To prospectively evaluate the relationship between cumulative environmental stress and cardiometabolic risk in middle childhood, and to examine whether hair cortisol, a measure of hypothalamic pituitary adrenal-axis activity, mediates this relationship. METHODS: In a cohort of children from low-income households (n = 320; 59% Hispanic, 23% Black, body mass index (BMI) percentile >50th at enrollment), environmental stressors including family and neighbourhood factors representing disadvantage/deprivation, and cortisol concentrations from hair samples, were measured over five timepoints beginning when children were 2-4 years old. Cardiometabolic risk factors (i.e., BMI, blood pressure, lipids, blood sugar, C-reactive protein) were measured at the final timepoint when children were 7-11 years of age. RESULTS: In adjusted logistic regression models, greater cumulative environmental stress was associated with a higher likelihood of elevated cardiometabolic risk in middle childhood (p = 0.01). Children from minoritized racial/ethnic groups had a higher prevalence of both stressors and cardiometabolic risk factors. Cumulative environmental stress was associated with higher hair cortisol concentrations (p < 0.01). However, hair cortisol was not directly associated with cardiometabolic risk factors and did not explain the association between environmental stress and cardiometabolic risk in causal mediation analysis. CONCLUSIONS: The influence of cumulative stress on cardiometabolic health can be observed in middle childhood and may contribute to cardiometabolic health disparities, highlighting the importance of public health interventions to mitigate disadvantage.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Do Children's Health Behaviors Buffer the Impact of Cumulative Environmental Stress on Emerging Cardiometabolic Risk?

  Journal of the American Heart Association · 2024-09-09 · 4 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Background Previous studies have found that exposure to childhood environmental stress is associated with cardiometabolic risk. However, it is not known whether individual health behaviors disrupt this relationship. This study prospectively evaluated the relationship between cumulative environmental stress in a low‐income sample and cardiometabolic risk in middle childhood and examined whether child health behaviors attenuated this relationship. Methods and Results In a cohort of children (n=338; 57% Hispanic children; 25% Black children), environmental stressors (family and neighborhood factors representing disadvantage/deprivation) and child health behaviors (accelerometry measured physical activity; parent‐reported screen time and diet recalls) were measured over 5 time points beginning when children were aged 2 to 4 years and ending when they were aged 7 to 11 years. Children's cardiometabolic risk factors (body mass index, blood pressure, triglyceride/high‐density lipoprotein ratio, glucose, hemoglobin A 1c , C‐reactive protein) were measured at 7 to 11 years. Emerging cardiometabolic risk was defined as having ≥1 elevations that exceeded clinical thresholds. In adjusted path analyses, greater cumulative environmental stress was associated with higher likelihood of emerging cardiometabolic risk in middle childhood ( P &lt;0.001). Higher levels of moderate to vigorous physical activity and fewer sedentary minutes attenuated the positive relationship between stress and cardiometabolic risk ( P &lt;0.05). Children with &gt; 2 hours of average daily screen time had a higher likelihood of elevated cardiometabolic risk ( P &lt;0.01), but screen time did not moderate the stress–cardiometabolic risk relationship. Dietary intake was not related to cardiometabolic risk. Conclusions Interventions that promote moderate to vigorous physical activity and limit sedentary behavior may have particular importance for the cardiometabolic health of children exposed to high levels of cumulative environmental stress.

  PublisherDOI

• Weight change over 9 years and subsequent risk of venous thromboembolism in the ARIC cohort

  UNC Libraries · 2024-04-18

  articleOpen access
  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• Linking Primary Care, Communities and Families to Prevent Obesity Among Preschool

  NIH · $11.0M · 2010–2018

• NIH Grant R01HL079478

  NIH · $2.6M · 2009

• NIH Grant R01HD037743

  NIH · $2.6M · 2005

• NIH Grant R01HL056577

  NIH · $625k · 2001

• Neighborhood and Parent Variables Affect Low-Income Preschool Age Child Physical Activity

  NIH · $231k · 2019–2022

Frequent coauthors

• Mary Story

  Duke University

  114 shared

• Robert W. Jeffery

  University of Plymouth

  63 shared

• Lisa Harnack

  University of Minnesota

  55 shared

• Sarah Levin

  52 shared

• Alberta Becenti

  Indian Health Service

  51 shared

• June Stevens

  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

  51 shared

• Joel Gittelsohn

  51 shared

• Scott B. Going

  University of Massachusetts Boston

  50 shared

Labs

• Simone French LabPI

Awards & honors

• Fellow, International Society of Behavioral Nutrition and Ph…
• Fellow, Society of Behavioral Medicine (SBM)
• Fellow, University of Minnesota Masonic Cancer Center