Ayesha Sania

I study the role of early life exposures on child health and development outcomes relevant to maternal and child health programs and policy among the underserved population. My current research focuses on estimating prenatal alcohol and tobacco exposure, maternal depression on child development in Northern Plains, USA, and Cape Town, South Africa. I strive to make causal inferences while I examine the role of prenatal psychosocial exposures influenced by complex social and biologic processes at individual and structural levels. I use traditional and advanced epidemiologic methods as well as machine learning techniques in my research. I have a Doctor of Science in Epidemiology from Harvard T H Chan School of Public Health. My doctoral research and part of postdoctoral research focused on the role of preterm birth and intrauterine growth restriction on infant mortality, postnatal growth, and development of HIV unexposed and exposed infants in Tanzania and South Africa. In addition, as a postdoctoral fellow, I led a large pooling study examining the role of early life risk factors on child development in 14 low-and middle-income countries.

Research Interests

Children
Early Interventions or Prenatal to Age Three Interventions
Long Reach of Childhood or Childhood Origins of Adult Health
Neurodevelopment
Policy
Racism

Datasets

Health and Retirement Study (HRS)