PD Dr. Antje Hebestreit

Dr. Antje Hebestreit is head of the Unit Lifestyle-Related Disorders at the Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology – BIPS, Department Epidemiological Methods and Etiological Research. From 2006 Dr. Hebestreit served as a nutritional epidemiologist and coordinator of the German branch of the largest pan-European intervention study on diet- and lifestyle-related disorders in children (www.ideficsstudy.eu; 2006-2012) and was a member of the steering committee of the subsequent cohort study involving these children and their families (2012-2017). In I.Family she co-chaired work package 3 ‘Assessment of dietary behaviours ‘. Dr. Hebestreit was member of the JPI-HDHL DEDIPAC management team (2013-2016) and currently chairs work package 2 "Monitoring and surveillance" of the JPI-HDHL Policy Evaluation Network (2018-2021); she is also member of the PEN Steering Group. From 2022 to 2025, she is co-project leader of the JPI HDHL project 'Wearable sensors for sensing physical activity and dietary behaviors' (WEALTH).
In 2021 she qualified as professor for Public Health at the University Bremen. From 2000-2001 she conducted the main part of the research for her PhD in the Kilimanjaro Region, Tanzania. After her PhD in 2004, Dr. Hebestreit worked as postdoctoral research fellow for the Harvard University in Tanzania. During this time Dr. Hebestreit also worked as a consultant for the UN World Food Programme in Guinea-Bissau.
Over the years, her work has focused on studying the role of dietary intake, dietary behaviour, and their determinants in association with non-communicable diseases, in particular childhood obesity.