Anisha Patel

Anisha Patel, MD, Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Division of General Pediatrics Stanford School of Medicine

Research Description: Dr. Patel's research interests focus on reducing socioeconomic disparities in chronic diseases, including childhood obesity. Over the past 10 years, Dr. Patel has led numerous studies to encourage healthy beverage intake among children and adolescents. These studies include analyses of large national data sets, conduct of randomized controlled trials in schools, child care, and community settings to examine how interventions to increase children’s intake of water instead of sugar-sweetened beverages impact child health, and the evaluation of policy efforts to improve the healthfulness of beverages offered in schools and community settings. Dr. Patel is also conducting research to examine the role of schools in reducing food insecurity among children and families.

Selected relevant publications (Stanford DRC Members in BOLD):

  1. Moreno GD, Schmidt LA, Ritchie LD, McCulloch CE, Cabana MD, Brindis CD, Green LW, Altman EA, Patel AI. A cluster-randomized controlled trial of an elementary school drinking water access and promotion intervention: Rationale, study design, and protocol. Contemp Clin Trials. 2020 Dec 25;101:106255. doi: 10.1016/j.cct.2020.106255. PMID: 33370616. 

  2. Cooper AY, Altman E, Hecht CE, Bruce J, Patel AI. Stories of success: a qualitative examination of contributors to excellence in school drinking water access. Public Health Nutr. 2020 Jul;23(10):1800-1809. doi: 10.1017/S1368980019003975. PMID: 32100660. 

  3. Falbe J, Thompson HR, Patel A, Madsen KA. Potentially addictive properties of sugar-sweetened beverages among adolescents. Appetite. 2019 Feb 1;133:130-137. doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2018.10.032. PMID: 30385262; PMCID: PMC6488513. 

  4. Grummon AH, Cabana MD, Hecht AA, Alkon A, McCulloch CE, Brindis CD, Patel AI. Effects of a multipronged beverage intervention on young children's beverage intake and weight: a cluster-randomized pilot study. Public Health Nutr. 22 (15): 2856-2867, 2019. 

  5. Patel AI, Moghadam SD, Freedman M, Hazari A, Fang ML, Allen IE. The association of flavored milk consumption with milk and energy intake, and obesity: A systematic review. Prev Med. 2018 Jun;111:151-162. doi: 10.1016/j.ypmed.2018.02.031. PMID: 29501475.