Rate My Professor Simonette Mallard

Dr. Simonette Mallard is a Research Fellow in the Department of Preventive and Social Medicine within the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Otago. She earned her MBChB with Distinction, Diploma in Public Health with Distinction, and MSc in Human Nutrition with Distinction, all from the University of Otago. Her academic journey includes studies in Human Nutrition from 2008 to 2012 and Medicine from 2013 to 2017. Mallard's research specializations center on nutritional epidemiology and public health nutrition, with a focus on maternal and child nutrition, dietary patterns, micronutrient adequacy, infant and young child feeding practices, and the health impacts of dietary factors such as sugars, vitamin D, zinc, folic acid, and iodine. She employs systematic reviews and meta-analyses to investigate associations between diet and outcomes like body weight, growth, cardiometabolic risk, and public health policy implications.

Mallard's career includes roles as an independent contractor for the World Health Organization's Nutrition for Health and Development unit in Geneva since 2014, conducting systematic review summaries and scoping reviews; a consultant at the Best Practice Advocacy Centre in New Zealand from 2017 to 2018, developing educational resources and clinical tools; and a fellow at the University of Auckland's School of Population Health in 2016-2017. Key publications include 'Dietary sugars and body weight: systematic review and meta-analyses of randomised controlled trials and cohort studies' (BMJ, 2013, co-authored with Te Morenga and Mann), 'Vitamin D status and weight loss: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized and nonrandomized controlled weight-loss trials' (Obesity Reviews, 2016), 'Dietary Diversity at 6 Months of Age Is Associated with Subsequent Growth and Mediates the Effect of Maternal Education on Infant Growth in Urban Zambia' (Journal of Nutrition, 2014), 'Public health policy to redress iodine insufficiency in pregnant women may widen sociodemographic disparities' (Public Health Nutrition, 2014), 'Predictors of periconceptional folic acid supplement use' (MSc thesis, University of Otago, 2012), and recent works on zinc absorption and requirements in children (Nutrition Reviews, 2022-2023). Her research has garnered over 2,100 citations, influencing discussions on dietary guidelines and public health interventions.