Head of Institute

Prof. Kaijun Niu

School of Public Health building, Room nr. 507

History

Nutritional Epidemiology Institute of Tianjin Medical University was established in November 2013 with the full approval from the university’s Institutional Review Board.

Projects

Chronic diseases, such as metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular disease, and cancer, cause loss of quality of life, disability, and premature death for individuals, and inflict a heavy economic burden on families and the national healthcare system. Noteworthily, around 50% of chronic diseases are preventable with appropriate interventions, among which diet changes have been recognized to have enormous benefit. However, there remains considerable uncertainty about nutritional determinants of chronic disease and their associated biological mechanisms.

The primary objective of our institute is to construct a standardized system suitable for assessing nutritional status of Tianjin citizens, to explore the lifestyle, environmental, and genetic determinants of chronic diseases and develop effective approaches for their prediction and intervention. We work in an interdisciplinary way with a large cohort study named as the Tianjin chronic low-grade systemic inflammation and health cohort study (the TCLSIH cohort study)” with more than 100,000 participants and research on biomarkers to understand associations, experimental studies to investigate the underlying mechanisms, and interventional studies to establish strategies for lifestyle modification. Moreover, we have special interest in the association between chronic inflammation and diet and their interaction in the development of chronic diseases. This will be explored by investigating the anti-inflammatory and pro-inflammatory components of diet and their relationship with chronic diseases using studies in cultured cells, mice and humans.

Recent research outputs

[1]   Yeqing Gu, Vu Thi Quynh Chi, Qing Zhang, Li Liu, Ge Meng, Hongmei Wu, Xue Bao, Shunming Zhang, Shaomei Sun, Xing Wang, Ming Zhou, Qiyu Jia, Kun Song, Kaijun Niu., *. Low-normal thyroid function predicts incident anemia in the general population with euthyroid status. Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. 2019 (in press). accepted on July 18, 2019.

[2]   Shunming Zhang., #, Yeqing Gu., #, Liu Wang, Qing Zhang, Li Liu, Min Lu, Ge Meng, Zhanxin Yao, Hongmei Wu, Yang Xia, Xue Bao, Honglei Wang, Hongbin Shi, Shaomei Sun, Xing Wang, Ming Zhou, Qiyu Jia, Kun Song, Huiling Xiang, Niu K, ,*. Association between dietary raw garlic intake and newly diagnosed nonalcoholic fatty liver disease: A population-based study. European Journal of Endocrinology. 2019 (in press). accepted on June 25, 2019.

[3]   Gu Y, Meng G, Wu H, Zhang Q, Liu L, Bao X, Wang Y, Zhang S, Sun S, Wang X, Zhou M, Jia Q, Song K, Niu K, ,*. Thyroid function as a predictor of handgrip strength among middle-aged and elderly euthyroid adults: the TCLSIH cohort study. J Am Med Dir Assoc. 2019 (in press). accepted on June 17, 2019.

[4]   Bin Yu, Yeqing Gu, Xue Bao, Ge Meng, Hongmei Wu, Qing Zhang, Li Liu, Shaomei Sun, Xing Wang, Ming Zhou, Qiyu Jia, Kun Song, Niu K, ,*. Distinct Associations of Computer/Mobile Devices Use and TV Watching with Depressive Symptoms in Adults: A Large Population Study in China. Depress Anxiety. 2019.

[5]   Gu Y, Zhang S, Wang J, Chi VTQ, Zhang Q, Liu L, Meng G, Yao Z, Wu H, Bao X, Sun S, Zhou M, Jia Q, Song K, Huang J, Huo J, Zhang B, Ding G, Niu K, ,*. Relationship between consumption of raw garlic and handgrip strength in a large-scale adult population. Clin Nutr. 2019 (in press). accepted on May 16, 2019.

[6]   Hongmei Wu, Mingyue Liu, Vu Thi Quynh Chi, Jing Wang, Qing Zhang, Li Liu, Ge Meng, Zhanxin Yao, Xue Bao, Yeqing Gu, Shunming Zhang, Yanyan Wang, Shaomei Sun, Ming Zhou, Qiyu Jia, Kun Song, Jian Huang, Junsheng Huo, Bing Zhang, Gangqiang Ding, Niu K, ,*. Handgrip strength is inversely associated with metabolic syndrome and its separate components in middle aged and older adults: a large-scale population-based study. Metabolism. 2019.

[7]   Shan Hu., #, Yeqing Gu., #, Zuolin Lu, Qing Zhang, Li Liu, Ge Meng, Zhanxin Yao, Hongmei Wu, Xue Bao, Vu Thi Quynh Chi, Shunming Zhang, Mingyue Liu, Yanyan Wang, Liu Wang, Lixiao Zheng, Xiaona Wang, Chunling Tian, Jingzhu Fu, Shaomei Sun, Ming Zhou, Qiyu Jia, Kun Song, Zhong Sun., *, Niu K, ,*. Relationship Between Grip Strength and Prediabetes in a Large-Scale Adult Population. Am J Prev Med. 2019.

[8]   Ge Meng., #, Liu Wang., #, Xiaona Wang, Vu Thi Quynh Chi, Qing Zhang, Li Liu, Zhanxin Yao, Hongmei Wu, Xue Bao, Yeqing Gu, Shunming Zhang, Shaomei Sun, Ming Zhou, Qiyu Jia, Kun Song, Zhong Sun, Yuntang Wu., *, Niu K, ,*. Association between Neutrophil to Lymphocyte Ratio and Depressive Symptoms among Chinese Adults: A Population Study from the TCLSIH Cohort Study. Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2019.