John Bellettiere, PhD
Assistant Adjunct Professor - Department of Family Medicine and Public Health, UC San Diego School of Medicine
Professor Bellettiere is Assistant Professor of Epidemiology at the UC San Diego Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science. Dr. Bellettiere’s research focuses on behavioral epidemiology and chronic disease prevention using observational epidemiologic study designs, randomized clinical trials, and other experimental studies. He is an expert in the measurement of ambulatory physical behavior, which often involves wearable or stationary sensors to objectively quantify human behavior. As part of the MAS in Clinical Research, Dr. Bellettiere teaches the Epidemiology 1 & Epidemiology 2 courses and has served on several MAS thesis committees. Dr. Bellettiere also teaches classes focused on applied epidemiology research in the San Diego State University and UC San Diego Joint Doctoral Program in Epidemiology. He serves on several MPH thesis and doctoral dissertation committees. Dr Bellettiere is also an active member of the UC San Diego Women’s Health Center of Excellence, an associate member of the Women’s Health Initiative, and a mentor in the UC San Diego T32 Training Program in Improving the Health of Aging Women and Men.
Accomplishments
- Dr. Bellettiere received a $816,896 New Investigator Award from the Tobacco Related Disease Research Program to study in-home cannabis and tobacco smoking and vaping and their impact on child health. This study is a collaboration with Dr. Melbourne Hovell at San Diego State University and researchers at the CDC Tobacco Laboratory and focuses on secondhand and thirdhand smoke exposure.
- Dr. Bellettiere helped develop the UCSD Contact Tracing team in close collaboration with Dean Cheryl Anderson, Dr. Kanya Long, Stephen Larkin, Dr. Richard Garfein, Dr. Nancy Binkin, Dr. Bob Gunn, and Jazmine Cuevas-Mota. This team started with 3 people, and grew to include over 70 paid faculty and staff. The team provides COVID-19 case investigation, contact tracing, and outbreak investigation for the entire UCSD campus as well as for all San Diego County close contacts between the ages of 18 and 29. So far, the team has published 1 paper about contact tracing in high risk for transmission situations, and is in the process of conducting research on contact tracing efficacy and on ways to promote compassionate contact tracing.
- Dr. Bellettiere and co-director Dr. Andrea LaCroix launched the UCSD Aging and Behavioral Epidemiology Laboratory. This applied epidemiology lab is designed to study behavioral risk factors that impact healthy aging. The lab currently includes 2 co-directors, 2 post-doctoral researchers, 3 PhD students, 1 MPH student, 1 statistician, and 1 undergraduate public health student.
- Dr. Bellettiere published 21 peer-reviewed research articles. Students or post-docs were first author on 7 articles, Dr. Bellettiere was first-author on 3, senior author on 1, and second or co-corresponding author on 7 articles.
- Dr. Bellettiere gave two invited talks to Women’s Health Initiative Special Interest Groups. The work of Dr. Bellettiere with collaborating investigators was also presented at 5 national or international scientific conferences including Gerontological Society of America Annual Scientific Meeting, International Society for Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity Meeting, and American Heart Association’s Epidemiology and Lifestyle Scientific Sessions.
- Dr. Bellettiere’s collaborative work resulted in two UCSD press releases that reached more than 33 news outlets around the world, and was featured in the UCSD N=1 podcast. Drs. John Bellettiere and Jonathan Unkart were also featured on San Diego’s local KUSI news for their study of sedentary behavior and heart disease risk that was led by Drs. Ya-Ju Chang and Dorothy Sears.
- The National Institute on Aging featured research by Dr. Bellettiere and his team on sedentary behavior and physical activity in relation to maintaining mobility and preventing disability.
- Dr. Bellettiere and his coauthors Drs. Andrea LaCroix and Mike LaMonte won the Paul Dudley White International Scholar Award given to the top performing US abstract at the 2020 American Heart Association’s Epidemiology and Lifestyle Sessions. Dr. Bellettiere was also coauthor on a top scoring abstract led by Dr. Humberto Parada for the 44th Annual American Society of Preventive Oncology Meeting.