Departmental Affiliations
Aruna Chandran, MD, MPH ’04, studies how household and neighborhood factors affect health outcomes, and how resiliency factors can be leveraged to improve well-being.
Contact Info
Research Interests
HIV; cohort studies; program evaluation; child health; respiratory diseases; pediatrics; epidemiologic methods; social epidemiology
Experiences & Accomplishments
Dr. Chandran is a social epidemiologist, interested in applying quantitative and geospatial methods to address the influences of socioeconomic and place-based factors on health outcomes and inequities. She is a co-investigator with the Environmental Influences on Child Health (ECHO) project working on airway-associated outcomes, as well as with the MACS-WIHS Combined Cohort Study exploring HIV-related outcomes. In addition, she is working with the NA-ACCORD collaboration on developing measures of socioeconomic status. Dr. Chandran remains committed to direct public health practice through several projects connected with local health departments. Dr. Chandran previously served for two years as the Chief of Epidemiologic Services at the Baltimore City Health Department.
Dr. Chandran has experience in coordinating and conducting surveillance studies, program evaluations, and clinical trials in numerous low and middle income countries. Her topical areas of study have included child injury and violence prevention, HIV and other infectious disease surveillance and monitoring, as well as vaccines and nutritional interventions for childhood upper and lower respiratory infections. As a pediatrician, Dr. Chandran's clinical practice has centered around childhood emergency and urgent care. She is involved in teaching applied epidemiologic methods courses at the School of Public Health as well as introductory epidemiology courses at the School of Medicine.
Honors & Awards
Board Certified in General Pediatrics
2017 Student Assembly Advising, Mentoring and Teaching Recognition Award, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
2004 Elected Member, Delta Omega Honorary Society in Public Health, Alpha Chapter, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Select Publications
Selected publications from the last 5 years
Chandran A, Burjak M, Petimar J, Hamra G, Melough MM, Dunlop AL, Snyder BM, Litonjua AA, Hartert T, Gern J, Alshawabkeh AN, Aschner J, Camargo Jr CA, Dabelea D, Duarte CS, Ferrara A, Ganiban JM, Gilliland F, Gold DR, Hedderson M, Herbstman JB, Hockett C, Karagas MR, Kerver JM, Lee-Sarwar KA, Lester B, McEvoy CT, Niu Z, Stanford JB, Wright R, Zimmerman E, Farzan S, Zhang Z, Knapp E. “Changes in Body Mass Index Among School-Aged Children Following Implementation of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act.” JAMA Pediatrics 2023; 177(4): 401-9. PMID: 36780186. PMCID: PMC9926355.
Hickson AN, Purbey R, Dean LT, Gallo J, Thorpe RJ, Pollack-Porter K, Chandran A. “A Consequence of Mass Incarceration: County-Level Association between Jail Incarceration Rates and Poor Mental Health Days.” Health & Justice 2022; 10(1): 31. PMID: 36269431. PMCID: PMC9587611.
Chandran A, Purbey R, Leifheit KM, Evans KM, Baez JV, Althoff KN. “County-Level Life Expectancy Change: A Novel Metric for Monitoring Public Health.” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 2022; 19(17): 10672. PMID: 36078387. PMCID: PMC9517827.
Knapp EA, Dong Y, Dunlop AL, Aschner, JL, Stanford JB, Hartert T, Teitelbaum SL, Hudak ML, Carroll K, O’Connor TG, McEvoy CT, O’Shea MT, Carnell S, Karagas MR, Herbstman JB, Dabelea D, Ganiban JM, Ferrara A, MD, Hedderson M, Bekelman TA, Rundle AG, Alshawabkeh A, Gilbert-Diamond D, Fry RC, Chen Z, Gilliland FD, Wright RJ, Camargo CA, Jr, Jacobson L, Lester BM, Hockett CW, Hodges ML, Chandran A, on behalf of program collaborators for Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes. “Changes in BMI during the COVID-19 Pandemic”. Pediatrics 2022; Epub ahead of print. PMID: 35768891. PMCID: PMC9444980.
A Chandran, F Bhondoekhan, TE Wilson, J Mlam, MH Cohen, AA Adimora, A Adedimeji, J Cocohoba, C Parish, M Holstad, S Kassaye, MC Kempf. “Intensity of Social Support Matters: A Latent Class Analysis to Identify Levels of Social Support Associated with Optimal Health Outcomes among Women Living with HIV.” AIDS and Behavior 2022; 26(1): 243-51. PMID: 34287753. PMCID: PMC8776899.