Rate My Professor Claire Smith

Dr Claire Smith is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Human Nutrition within the Division of Sciences at the University of Otago, where she has served since 2019. She is a graduate of the University of Otago, holding a BSc in Human Nutrition, a BA in History, an MSc in Human Nutrition, and a PhD in Human Nutrition completed in 2010. Her doctoral research focused on 'Barriers and Solutions to Achieving Food Security for New Zealand Households'. Before her current appointment, Smith was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow and Research Fellow in the Department of Women's and Children's Health at the University of Otago. She contributed to major national efforts including the Children's Nutrition Survey 2002 and the 2008/09 New Zealand Adult Nutrition Survey, as well as ongoing work on the New Zealand Food Cost Survey. In her teaching role, she coordinates HUNT 343 (Community and Public Health Nutrition) and HUNT 443 (Practice in Public Health Nutrition), and supervises postgraduate students researching household food insecurity, food costs, and dietary assessment.

Smith's research interests centre on household food insecurity, food costs, dietary assessment methods, and the experiences of families facing food insecurity. Additional areas include sleep hygiene and screen use in adolescents and children, as investigated in the SNAP-IT Study. Her scholarly output includes key publications such as 'Navigating infant feeding in the context of household food insecurity: A qualitative study of New Zealand mothers' (Journal of the Academy of Nutrition & Dietetics, 2026), 'Household food insecurity, nutrient intakes and BMI in New Zealand infants' (Public Health Nutrition, 2025), 'Barriers and enablers to providing healthy food and beverages in New Zealand secondary school canteens' (Health Promotion International, 2025), 'Prebedtime Screen Use in Adolescents: A Survey of Habits, Barriers, and Perceived Acceptability of Potential Interventions' (International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2020), and 'Feasibility of Automated Cameras to Measure Screen Use in Adolescents' (American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 2019). These works contribute to understanding nutrition challenges and informing public health strategies in New Zealand.