Brenda Heaton, PhD, MPH
Associate Professor
Boston University Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine
Dept of Health Policy & Health Svcs Research

PhD, Boston University School of Public Health
MPH, Boston University School of Public Health




Brenda Heaton, PhD, MPH is an Associate Professor jointly appointed in the Department of Health Policy and Health Services Research at the Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine and the Department of Epidemiology at the School of Public Health, Boston University. Her research interests include a focus on the social production of oral health, with an overall goal of addressing the complex mechanisms responsible for the emergence of oral health disparities. In support of these interests, she is the principal investigator on four currently active research grants from the NIDCR, including two 5-year R01 research grant awards aimed at studying the potential role of caregivers' social networks, including network-based interventions, in mitigating social disparities in oral health among young children. In addition to mapping and generating social network data, this work includes the development of dynamic computational models that facilitate experimental simulations of hypothetical public health interventions. Heaton also maintains scholarship and collaborations in the area of periodontal disease with interests in the validity of clinical and self-report measures for population-level research and in the potential for causal associations between periodontal disease and other chronic disease outcomes, such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease, and perinatal outcomes.

Brenda Heaton has a wide range of experience conducting oral health research among less advantaged and minority populations, particularly residents of public housing, in her role as a co-investigator with the Center for Research to Evaluate and Eliminate Dental Disparities (www.creedd.org). She has also worked with American Indian/Alaska Native populations in addressing Early Childhood Caries through NIDCR-funded work with the California Tribal Epidemiology Center (CTEC). She maintains collaborations with the Black Women's Health Study to study predictors and consequences of poor oral health among this cohort.

She serves as a faculty member in the Dental Public Health postgraduate and residency program at the Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine, has been a faculty research fellow at the Rafik B. Hariri Institute for Computing & Computational Sciences and Engineering, and leads the Hariri-funded Focused Research Program in Simulation Modeling for Population Health (FY 2022). She is an active member of the Behavioral, Epidemiology and Health Services Research Scientific Group of the International Association for Dental Research and is completing a three-year term as an elected member of the Board of Directors for the American Association for Dental, Oral and Craniofacial Research.

Associate Professor
Boston University School of Public Health
Epidemiology


Member
Boston University
Evans Center for Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research




Modeling Complex Mechanisms Underlying Oral Health Disparities In Young Children And Their Caregivers
09/21/2021 - 08/31/2026 (PI)
NIH/National Institute of Dental & Craniofacial Research
1R01DE030302-01A1

Social networks and oral health-related risk behaviors in public housing communities
08/15/2018 - 07/31/2023 (Multi-PI)
PI: Brenda Heaton, PhD, MPH
NIH/National Institute of Dental & Craniofacial Research
5R01DE027985-04

Complex Systems Science Approaches to Addressing Oral Health Disparities
09/01/2018 - 08/31/2022 (PI)
NIH/National Institute of Dental & Craniofacial Research
5R00DE025917-05

Photo-enhanced messaging to address dietary sugars as a common risk factor for chronic disease
08/01/2019 - 07/31/2022 (PI)
NIH/National Institute of Dental & Craniofacial Research
5R21DE028993-02

Complex systems science approaches to oral health disparities
09/01/2016 - 08/31/2018 (PI)
NIH/National Institute of Dental & Craniofacial Research
5K99DE025917-02



Title


Yr Title Project-Sub Proj Pubs
2021 Modeling Complex Mechanisms Underlying Oral Health Disparities in Young Children and Their Caregivers 1R01DE030302-01A1
2021 Social networks and oral health-related risk behaviors in public housing communities 5R01DE027985-04
2020 Photo-enhanced messaging to address dietary sugars as a common risk factor for chronic disease 5R21DE028993-02
2020 Complex Systems Science Approaches to Addressing Oral Health Disparities 5R00DE025917-05
2020 Social networks and oral health-related risk behaviors in public housing communities 5R01DE027985-03
2019 Photo-enhanced messaging to address dietary sugars as a common risk factor for chronic disease 1R21DE028993-01
2019 Complex Systems Science Approaches to Addressing Oral Health Disparities 5R00DE025917-04
2019 Social networks and oral health-related risk behaviors in public housing communities 5R01DE027985-02
2018 Complex Systems Science Approaches to Addressing Oral Health Disparities 4R00DE025917-03
2017 Complex Systems Science Approaches to Addressing Oral Health Disparities 5K99DE025917-02 1
Showing 10 of 11 results. Show All Results

Publications listed below are automatically derived from MEDLINE/PubMed and other sources, which might result in incorrect or missing publications. Faculty can login to make corrections and additions.

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  1. Alshihayb TS, Sharma P, Dietrich T, Heaton B. Exploring periodontitis misclassification mechanisms under partial-mouth protocols. J Clin Periodontol. 2022 May; 49(5):448-457.View Related Profiles. PMID: 35246856
     
  2. Bond JC, McDonough R, Alshihayb TS, Kaye EA, Garcia RI, Heaton B. Edentulism is associated with increased risk of all-cause mortality in adult men. J Am Dent Assoc. 2022 Jul; 153(7):625-634.e3.View Related Profiles. PMID: 35241269
     
  3. Alshihayb TS, Heaton B. Response to Letter to the editor: "A quantitative bias analysis to assess the impact of unmeasured confounding on associations between diabetes and periodontitis". J Clin Periodontol. 2022 01; 49(1):86-87.View Related Profiles. PMID: 34725850
     
  4. Bond JC, Wise LA, Willis SK, Yland JJ, Hatch EE, Rothman KJ, Heaton B. Self-reported periodontitis and fecundability in a population of pregnancy planners. Hum Reprod. 2021 07 19; 36(8):2298-2308.View Related Profiles. PMID: 33822056; PMCID: PMC8289328; DOI: 10.1093/humrep/deab058;
     
  5. Alshihayb TS, Heaton B. Simulation of Random Differential Periodontitis Outcome Misclassification with Perfect Specificity. JDR Clin Trans Res. 2022 Apr; 7(2):174-181.View Related Profiles. PMID: 33899555
     
  6. Wright CD, Heaton B, McNeil DW. Development and validation of a latent, multidimensional, self-report periodontal disease measure. J Periodontol. 2021 11; 92(11):1554-1563. PMID: 33651894; PMCID: PMC8849589; DOI: 10.1002/JPER.20-0066;
     
  7. Kaye E, Heaton B, Aljoghaiman EA, Singhal A, Sohn W, Garcia RI. Third-Molar Status and Risk of Loss of Adjacent Second Molars. J Dent Res. 2021 07; 100(7):700-705.View Related Profiles. PMID: 33541172
     
  8. Sharma P, Fenton A, Dias IHK, Heaton B, Brown CLR, Sidhu A, Rahman M, Griffiths HR, Cockwell P, Ferro CJ, Chapple IL, Dietrich T. Oxidative stress links periodontal inflammation and renal function. J Clin Periodontol. 2021 03; 48(3):357-367. PMID: 33368493; PMCID: PMC7986430; DOI: 10.1111/jcpe.13414;
     
  9. Heaton B, Wright JA, Bond JC, Quintiliani LM. A measure development study of sugar-sweetened beverage-related knowledge, self-efficacy, and intention among urban, low-income adults. BMC Public Health. 2021 01 07; 21(1):69.View Related Profiles. PMID: 33413264; PMCID: PMC7792019; DOI: 10.1186/s12889-020-10073-0;
     
  10. Wang ML, Minyé HM, Egan KA, Heaton B. Community-based sugar-sweetened beverage intervention associated with short-term improvements in self-rated oral health. Community Dent Oral Epidemiol. 2021 08; 49(4):362-368.View Related Profiles. PMID: 33389770
     
Showing 10 of 29 results. Show More

This graph shows the total number of publications by year, by first, middle/unknown, or last author.

Bar chart showing 29 publications over 11 distinct years, with a maximum of 8 publications in 2021

YearPublications
20122
20131
20141
20151
20161
20173
20184
20192
20204
20218
20222


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