Detail

Keywords

Aging; Chronic Disease; Cohort Studies; Diet, Vegetarian; Epidemiology; Intervention Studies; Nutrition Assessment; Nutrition Surveys; Nutritional and Metabolic Diseases; Obesity; Primary Prevention; Secondary Prevention; Women's Health

Research interests

My research focuses on nutritional epidemiology and disease prevention, with the overarching goal of understanding how dietary patterns, nutritional status, and environmental dietary exposures influence health across the life course. I am particularly interested in identifying nutritional vulnerabilities in biologically susceptible populations and developing evidence-based strategies for targeted prevention.

My work integrates dietary assessment, nutritional biomarkers, and large-scale epidemiological studies to investigate how diet interacts with physiological characteristics and environmental exposures to influence the risk of chronic diseases, including cardiometabolic diseases, cancer, respiratory diseases, and women's health. A particular focus is the identification of high-risk nutritional scenarios, such as the interaction between iron deficiency and dietary cadmium exposure in women consuming predominantly plant-based diets, and the development of preventive approaches that preserve the benefits of sustainable diets while minimizing potential risks.

I also develop and validate innovative dietary assessment methods and translate nutritional epidemiology into practical applications through risk stratification, targeted dietary interventions, and prevention strategies. As Scientific Development Lead of the Vienna Prevention Project (ViPP), I contribute to integrating nutritional epidemiology, biomarker research, and population-based prevention into next-generation preventive health research.

Techniques, methods & infrastructure

• Design and analysis of prospective cohort studies investigating dietary exposures, biomarkers, and lifestyle factors in relation to chronic disease prevention and healthy ageing.
• Dietary assessment using food frequency questionnaires, diet records, diet quality indices, and brief dietary screeners.
• Development, validation, and implementation of innovative dietary assessment tools and diet quality indices.
• Integration of self-reported dietary data with objective nutritional and clinical biomarkers to improve dietary exposure assessment and evaluate nutritional status.
• Contribution to the study design and scientific development of large-scale research infrastructures combining clinical and lifestyle assessment, biological sampling, imaging, and long-term follow-up to support precision prevention research.
• Experience in grant development and analyses of large population-based datasets, including UK Biobank, the U.S. Nurses’ Health Study II, NHANES, and international collaborative cohorts.

Grants

• VEGANScreener development project (2022)
  Source of Funding: FFG (Austrian Research Promotion Agency), HDHL-INTIMIC 2021 Call STAMIFY ”Standardised measurement, monitoring and/or biomarkers to study food intake, physical activity and health”
  Coordinator of the collaborative project
• Developing and validating a diet quality assessment tool for global use (2019)
  Source of Funding: EU, ANH Academy/IMMANA Postdoctoral Fellowship
  Principal Investigator

Selected publications

1. Kronsteiner-Gicevic, S. et al. (2026) “Urinary sodium, table salt use, and incidence of late-onset asthma in females and males: evidence from a large prospective cohort,” ERJ Open Research. Edited by , pp. 01654–2025. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1183/23120541.01654-2025.
2. Kronsteiner-Gicevic, S. et al. (2026) “The Prime Diet Quality Score (PDQS), chronic disease and cause-specific mortality in UK Biobank: a prospective study,” European Journal of Nutrition. Edited by , 65(3). Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-025-03877-6.
3. Kronsteiner-Gicevic, S. et al. (2024) “Adding salt to food at table as an indicator of gastric cancer risk among adults: a prospective study,” Gastric Cancer. Edited by , 27(4), pp. 714–721. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10120-024-01502-9.
4. Kronsteiner-Gicevic, S. et al. (2023) “Validation of the Rapid Prime Diet Quality Score Screener (rPDQS), A Brief Dietary Assessment Tool With Simple Traffic Light Scoring,” Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Edited by , 123(11), pp. 1541–1554.e7. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jand.2023.05.023.
5. Kronsteiner-Gicevic, S. et al. (2018) “Evaluating pre-pregnancy dietary diversity vs. dietary quality scores as predictors of gestational diabetes and hypertensive disorders of pregnancy,” PLOS ONE. Edited by C.S. Rosenfeld, 13(4), p. e0195103. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0195103.