Brenda Abu

Associate Professor, Dietetics and Nutrition

Wegmans School of Health and Nutrition

College of Health Sciences and Technology

Program Director

baaihst@rit.edu

585-475-4516

Office Location

SLA-A624

Brenda Abu

Associate Professor, Dietetics and Nutrition

Wegmans School of Health and Nutrition

College of Health Sciences and Technology

Program Director

Education

BS, University for Development Studies (Ghana); MPhil, University of Ghana (Ghana); Ph.D., University of the Free State (South Africa)

Bio

Dr. Abu is an Associate Professor in the Wegmans School of Health and Nutrition at RIT. She was formerly an Assistant Professor and Post-doctoral Research Fellow in her current department at RIT. Before joining RIT, she served as a Post-Doctoral Research Associate in the Nutritional Sciences Department at Texas Tech University.

Dr. Abu received her PhD in Nutrition from the University of the Free State (South Africa), completed her Dietetics internship at Iowa State University (USA), a Master of Science in Nutrition from the University of Ghana (Ghana), and a Bachelor of Science Degree (Honors) in Community Nutrition from the University for Development Studies (Ghana).

Dr. Abu has experience as a clinical dietician, lecturer, and nutrition consultant. Her research interests include micronutrient deficiencies, oral health, food security, maternal and child nutrition, program/project design and impact assessment, and stakeholder engagement. She works with others using a multi-disciplinary approach to address micronutrient nutrition and oral health among women and their children. She applies the same approach to address food and nutrition security among diverse populations (the USA and South Africa). She is also involved with addressing anemia in low-income communities using sustainable food-based approaches while facilitating stakeholder engagement (Ghana).

baaihst@rit.edu

585-475-4516

Personal Links

ORCID

Google Scholar

Areas of Expertise

Food and Nutrition Insecurity

Micronutrient Intake and Deficiencies

Iron and Iodine Nutrition Program Design and Development

Impact Assessment

Stakeholder Engagement

Dental and Oral Health

Select Scholarship

Journal Paper

Godleski, S., Abu, B.A, and Kothari, A. "A Qualitative Needs Assessment and Analysis of Perceptions of a Mobile Health App for Low-Income, At-Risk Mothers." J. technol. behav. sci.. (2020): online. Web.

Abu, Brenda Ariba Zarhari, Jacques Eugene Raubenheimer, and Violet Louise van den Berg. "Iron-focussed Nutritional Status of Mothers with Children (6–59 months) in Rural Northern Ghana." Heliyon 6. 6 (2020): e04017. Web.

Kothari, A., Godleski, S., and Abu B.A.Z. "Mobile-based Consortium of Parenting Resources for Low-income and Underserved Mothers and Caregivers: App Development, Testing and Lessons Learned." Health Technol.. 10 (2020): 1603–1608. Web.

Abu, Brenda A.Z., Wilna Oldewage‐Theron,, and Richmond N.O. Aryeetey. "Risks of Excess Iodine Intake in Ghana: Current Situation, Challenges, and Lessons for the Future." Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1446. 1 (2019): 117-138. Web.

Abu, Brenda A. Z., et al. "Qualitative Assessments of Anemia‐related Programs in Ghana Reveal Gaps and Implementation Challenges." Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. (2020): 1-15. Web.

Abu, Brenda and Wilna Oldewage-Theron. "Food insecurity among college students in West Texas." British Food Journal 121. 3 (2019): 738-754. Web.

Saha, Sanjoy, et al. "Available food options at local shops in relation to food insecurity among older adults in Sharpeville, South Africa." African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and Development 19. 2 (2019): 14500-14516. Web.

Saha, Sanjoy, et al. "Is iodine deficiency still a problem in sub-Saharan Africa?: a review." Proceedings of the Nutrition Society 78. (2019): 554–566. Print.

Garcia-Casal, Maria Nieves, et al. "Risk of excessive intake of vitamins and mineralsdelivered through public health interventions: objectives,results, conclusions of the meeting, and the way forward." Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1446. (2018): 5–20. Web.

Oldewage-Theron, Wilna, et al. "Food insecurity and food access among seniors in Lubbock, Texas." Journal of Hunger & Environmental Nutrition. (2018): 1-15. Web.

Invited Article/Publication

Abu, Brenda, Barbara Lohse, and Leslie Cunningham-Sabo. "Parent BMI Increase 2 to 5 Years Post-study Related to Change in Age but Independent of Other Sociodemographics, Health Behavior, and Study Engagement (P16-001-19)." Current Developments in Nutrition. (2019). Print.

Abu, Brenda, et al. "Multifocal Assessment Reveals Anemia-related Program Gaps and Implementation Challenges in Ghana (P10-088-19)." Current Developments in Nutrition. (2019). Print.

In the News

May 24, 2022

RIT researcher studies pica practices and iron nutrition among pregnant women

Brenda Abu, assistant professor in RIT’s Wegmans School of Health and Nutrition, seeks to understand the effect pica, iron deficiency anemia, and food insecurity have on maternal health during pregnancy. Pica refers to excessive craving and/or eating of non-food items, such as, clay, soil, paper, ice, and paint chips.

More News