Gloria Santos-Beneit

She is the scientific coordinator of the SHE Foundation–“la Caixa” Foundation in Barcelona and postdoctoral researcher at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York through a “la Caixa” Foundation fellowship.

She received a Ph.D. degree cum laude in Biology by the Complutense University of Madrid in 2011. Her dissertation focused on body composition analysis and nutritional diagnosis. In the 2007-2008 academic year, she completed a pre-doctoral stay at the Musée de l’Homme in Paris, where she participated in several studies on children’s eating habits. Since 2004, she has been involved in more than a dozen international and multidisciplinary research projects focused on the nutritional status of European and Latin American populations.

In 2011 she joined the scientific team of the SHE Foundation as a visiting scientist at the National Center for Cardiovascular Research within the FIS-ISCIII PI11/01885 project of the SI! Program for Comprehensive Health trial in preschoolers. Since then, health promotion and cardiovascular disease prevention have been her main research areas. She played a crucial role in multiple projects of the SI! Program, becoming co-principal investigator of the adolescents’ trial funded by Fundació La Marató de TV3 (369/C/2016) and Fundación “la Caixa” (LCF/PR/CE16/10700001).

She currently coordinates the scientific activities of the health promotion projects at SHE Foundation and Mount Sinai for children and adolescents (SI! Spain, Latin America, and New York), adults (Fifty- Fifty), and at the community level (Healthy Communities).

Her scientific production includes more than a dozen scientific articles as first author in high-impact journals such as the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, the American Heart Journal, and the Revista Española de Cardiología. In 2016 she was awarded for the best publication of the year in an impact journal in the vascular risk and rehabilitation section by the Spanish Society of Cardiology. She has presented her work at more than 20 international congresses and conferences. She is a member of the editorial committee of Revista Española de Cardiología and reviewer in scientific journals such as the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, BMC Public Health, or Revista Argentina de Antropología Biológica. She is also a member of the Epinut-Nutritional Epidemiology Research Group at Complutense University of Madrid.

Publicaciones

Santos-Beneit G, Fernández-Jiménez R, de Cos-Gandoy A et al. Lessons Learned From 10 Years of Preschool Intervention for Health Promotion: JACC State-of-the-Art Review. J Am Coll Cardiol 2022; 79:283-298.
Fernández-Alvira JM, Fernández-Jiménez R, de Miguel M, et al. The challenge of sustainability: Long-term results from the Fifty-Fifty peer group-based intervention in cardiovascular risk factors. Am Heart J. 2021.
Santos-Beneit G, Fuster V, Fernández-Jiménez R. Comentario editorial: Uso de registros clínicos electrónicos en atención primaria con fines de investigación: ¿despegando? Rev Esp Cardiol (Engl Ed). 2021 Dec 22:S1885-5857(21)00356-X. English, Spanish. doi: 10.1016/j.rec.2021.10.018. Epub ahead of print.
Fernandez-Jimenez R, Santos-Beneit G, de Cos-Gandoy A et al. Prevalence and correlates of cardiovascular health among early adolescents enrolled in the SI! Program in Spain: a cross-sectional analysis. Eur. J. Prev. Cardiol, Nov 2020, zwaa096.
Fernández-Jiménez R, Briceño G, Céspedes J et al. Sustainability of and Adherence to Preschool Health Promotion Among Children 9 to 13 Years Old. J Am Coll Cardiol 2020, 75(13):1565-1578.
Laveriano-Santos EP, Parilli-Moser I, Ramírez-Garza SL et al. Polyphenols in Urine and Cardiovascular Risk Factors: A Cross-Sectional Analysis Reveals Gender Differences in Spanish Adolescents from the SI! Program. Antioxidants 2020, 9(10): E910.
Fernández-Alvira JM, Santos-Beneit G, Fernández-Jiménez R. Comentario editorial. El aceite de oliva: beneficios más allá de la cuenca mediterránea. JACC (Spanish Edition) 2020; 01:63-65.
Santos-Beneit G, Marrodán MD. Comentario editorial: Are we on the right track to reduce childhood obesity? Rev Esp Cardiol 2020, 73(4):277-279
Santos-Beneit G, Ibanez B. Comentario editorial. Prevención primordial cardiovascular: la inteligencia resuelve problemas, la sabiduría los evita. J Am Coll Cardiol (Spanish Edition) 2019, 1 (9): 77-88.
Bodega P, Fernández-Alvira JM, Santos-Beneit G et al. Dietary Patterns and Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Spanish Adolescents: A Cross-Sectional Analysis of the SI! Program for Health Promotion in Secondary Schools. Nutrients 2019, 11: 2297-2310.
Fernandez-Jimenez R, Santos-Beneit G, Tresserra-Rimbau A et al. Rationale and design of the school-based SI! Program to face obesity and promote health among Spanish adolescents: A cluster-randomized controlled trial. Am Heart J. 2019, 215:27-40.
Santos-Beneit G, Bodega P, de Miguel M et al. Rationale and design of the SI! Program for health promotion in elementary students aged 6 to 11 years: A cluster randomized trial. Am Heart J. 2019, 210:9-17.

Congresos

Early Imaging Markers of unhealthy lifestyles in Adolescents (EnIGMA): a multi-territory multi-parametric cardiovascular magnetic resonance study. ISCIII, FIS- PI19/01704, 2020-2022. Rodrigo Fernández-Jiménez (IP), CNIC.
School-based educational intervention to face obesity and promote cardiovascular health among Spanish adolescents: a cluster-randomized controlled trial
Fundació La Marató de TV3, 2017-2019.
Gloria Santos-Beneit, FSHE (Co-IP); Rosa M. Lamuela, UB (Co-PI); Juan M. Fernández (CNIC), (Co-PI)
Promoción de la salud cardiovascular en niños de 3 a 5 años: Evaluación del Programa SI! de Educación Infantil mediante un ensayo aleatorizado y controlado en 20 escuelas.
ISCIII, FIS-PI11/01885, 2012-2015.
Juliana Redondo (IP), CNIC.
Estado nutricional y biodiversidad de las poblaciones humanas.
MICINN, GCL2005-03752/BOS, 2005-2010.
Mª Dolores Marrodán (IP), UCM.
Globalización de las conductas alimentarias en adolescentes: un enfoque pluridisciplinar.
MEC, 2008-1253000756, 2008-2009.
Consuelo Prado (Co-IP), Françoise Rovillé-Sausse (Co-IP), UAM-CNRS.
Estudio antropométrico del impacto de los sustitutos alimentarios como estrategia de control de peso e influencia en el cambio de hábitos alimentarios.
UCM 4153016-Herbalife, 2009.
Mª Dolores Cabañas (IP), UCM.
El entorno social y laboral de la mujer rural española: implicaciones en su percepción de salud y bienestar.
MLSA, 49/03, 2003-2007.
Consuelo Prado (IP), UAM.
Límites de la protección social: percepciones sobre opciones y alternativas reales de protección.
MLSA, TAS/1051/2005, 2005-2006.
Mariano Fernández (IP), USAL.

Team