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Cristina_Cleghorn_profileBSc, MSc, PhD
Associate Professor, SiHMNet, HePPRU, (formerly) BODE³

Email cristina.cleghorn@otago.ac.nz

Research interests and activities

Associate Professor Cristina Cleghorn is a Public Health Nutrition researcher with a strong interest in sustainable nutrition and the prevention of chronic disease through diet, physical activity and tobacco control.

In her current role as a Senior Research Fellow in the SiHMNet modelling network, and formerly as part of the Burden of Disease Epidemiology, Equity and Cost-Effectiveness Programme (BODE3), Cristina is working on modelling intervention effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of dietary interventions in the New Zealand population. This work has included the quantification of the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with dietary consumption in New Zealand which can now be used to measure the impact of various dietary interventions on GHG emissions. She leads a Healthier Lives-funded project on assessing the health and environmental benefits of sustainable NZ diets; A sustainable diet for health and the climate in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Cristina completed her PhD investigating the relationships between agrobiodiversity, dietary diversity and nutritional status in Tanzania at Leeds University (UK).

Publications

Cleghorn, C., Kidd, B., Morris, T., & McKerchar, C. (2026). Food policies to support healthy and environmentally sustainable diets. The Briefing, (8 April). Retrieved from https://www.phcc.org.nz/briefing/food-policies-support-healthy-and-environmentally-sustainable-diets Journal - Research Other

Cleghorn, C., McKerchar, C., Kidd, B., & Ni Mhurchu, C. (2026). Modelled health impacts of three stakeholder-selected policies to support healthy and environmentally sustainable population diets in New Zealand. Food Policy, 140, 103049. doi: 10.1016/j.foodpol.2026.103049 Journal - Research Article

Jacob, A. E., Drew, J., Macmillan, A., & Cleghorn, C. (2026). Updating greenhouse gas emission estimates in the New Zealand-specific dietary life cycle-assessment (LCA) database. Environmental Research Communications, 8(1), 014502. doi: 10.1088/2515-7620/ae36f5 Journal - Research Article

McNaughton, E., Smith, M., Cleghorn, C., & Signal, L. (2026). Real-time recording: A scoping review of methods to study children's real-time exposure to food and food marketing online. Appetite, 216, 108275. doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2025.108275 Journal - Research Other

Kidd, B., Enright, H., McKerchar, C., & Cleghorn, C. (2025). Developing policy to support sustainable diets in Aotearoa New Zealand with stakeholders. Food Frontiers. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1002/fft2.70096 Journal - Research Article

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