Research

My research focuses on evaluating interventions that aim to prevent infectious diseases using methods in causal inference. My published and ongoing research includes work related to:

1. Child Growth Failure
2. Influence of Weather on Enteric Pathogens and WASH Interventions
3. School-Based Influenza Vaccinations
4. Epidemiological Methods for Infectious Diseases
5. Reproducibility

For a full list of my publications, please refer to my CV.

Child Growth Failure

Current estimates of global child growth faltering rely on cross-sectional data, but little is known about the timing and recurrence of stunting and wasting. Our team found that the highest incidence of child wasting and stunting happened within the first three months of life and that early growth faltering was associated with persistent growth faltering.

• Benjamin-Chung J, Mertens A, Colford JM, Hubbard AE, Laan MJ van der, Coyle J, Sofrygin O, Cai W, Nguyen A, et al. Early childhood linear growth failure in low- and middle-income countries. 2023. Nature. 621, 550–557

• Mertens A, Benjamin-Chung J, Colford JM, Hubbard AE, Laan MJ van der, Coyle J, Sofrygin O, Cai W, Jilek W, Dayal S, Nguyen A, et al. Child wasting and concurrent stunting in low- and middle-income countries. 2023. Nature. 621, 558–567

• Mertens A, Benjamin-Chung J, Colford JM, Coyle J, Laan M van der, Hubbard AE, Dayal S, Malenica I, Hejazi N, Sofrygin O, Cai W, Nguyen A, et al. Causes and consequences of child growth failure in low- and middle-income countries. 2023. Nature. 621, 568–576

Influence of Weather on Enteric Pathogens and WASH Interventions

Our group previously found that low-cost, point-of care water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) interventions did not have substantial effects on enteric disease. In a series of follow-up studies, we found that environmental conditions influence the prevalence of enteropathogens, efficacy of WASH interventions, and contamination pathways.

• Nguyen A, Grembi JA, Riviere M, et al. Influence of temperature and precipitation on the effectiveness of water, sanitation, and handwashing interventions against childhood diarrheal disease in rural Bangladesh: a reanalysis of the WASH Benefits Bangladesh trial. Environmental Health Perspectives. 2024. In Press.

• Ante-Testard P, Rerolle F, Nguyen A, et al. WASH interventions and child diarrhea at the interface of climate and socioeconomic position in Bangladesh. 2024. Nature Communications. 15:1556

• Grembi JA, Nguyen A, et al. Influence of climatic and environmental risk factors on child diarrhea and enteropathogen infection and predictions under climate change in rural Bangladesh. Under Review.

• Niven C, Islam M, Nguyen A, et al. Effects of weather extremes on fecal contamination along pathogen transmission pathways in rural Bangladeshi households. Under Review.

School-Based Influenza Vaccinations

Children are super-spreaders of influenza, largely due to high contact rates with their peers in school settings. Increasing vaccination rates among children might lower the burden of influenza by directly preventing infections in the age group and indirectly reducing transmission in the broader community. Our team found that a school-based influenza vaccination program was associated with higher school-aged vaccination, lower school absenteeism, and all-age hospitalizations in the community, but that differences in program impact by race/ethnicity.

• Nguyen A, Arnold BF, Kennedy CJ, Mishra K, et al. Evaluation of a city-wide school-located influenza vaccination program in Oakland, California with respect to race and ethnicity: a matched cohort study. 2022. Vaccine. 40(2):266-274

• Benjamin-Chung J, Kennedy C, Arnold BF, Nguyen A, et al. City-wide school-located influenza vaccination: a retrospective cohort study. 2021. Vaccine. 39(42):6302-6307

• Benjamin-Chung J, Arnold BF, Kennedy CJ, Mishra K, Pokpongkiat N, Nguyen A, Jilek W, Holbrook K, Pan E, Kirley PD, Libby T, Hubbard AE, Reingold A, Colford Jr, JM. Impact of a city-wide school-located influenza vaccination program over four years on vaccination coverage, school absences, and laboratory-confirmed influenza: a prospective matched cohort study. 2020. PLoS Medicine. 17(8): e1003238.

Epidemiological Methods for Infectious Diseases

Traditional statistical methods often make parametric assumptions that cannot be assessed when transmission dynamics are not well defined, such as in emerging disease and disease elimination settings. To better understand the epidemiology of infectious diseases, we can apply novel techniques that leverage advances in statistics and computing.

• Wu SL, Mertens AN, Crider YS, Nguyen A, Pokpongkiat N, Djajadi S, Seth A, Hsiang MS, Colford Jr. JM, Reingold A, Arnold BF, Hubbard A, Benjamin-Chung J. Substantial underestimation of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the United States. 2020. Nature Communications. 11, 4507.

• Arinaminpathy N, Reed C, Biggerstaff M, Nguyen A, et al. School-located influenza vaccination and community-wide indirect effects: reconciling mathematical models to epidemiologic models. Under Review.

Reproducibility

In my research, I maintain reproducible computational workflows and regularly publish analysis code on my GitHub page. I have also contributed to the Benjamin-Chung Lab Manual which outlines best practices for transparency and reproducibility in computational epidemiology, and have written an invited commentary on rigor and reproducibility for Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology.

• Nguyen A, Benjamin-Chung J. Rigor and reproducibility in perinatal and paediatric epidemiologic research using big data. 2023. Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology. 37(4): 322–325.