Research Fellow
- About
-
- Email Address
- magaly.aceves@abdn.ac.uk
- Office Address
The Rowett Institute of Nutrition and Health
University of Aberdeen
Foresterhill
Aberdeen AB25 2ZD- School/Department
- School of Medicine, Medical Sciences and Nutrition
Biography
Magaly passionately advocates nutrition, healthy lifestyles, and health policies for building a better and sustainable future. She is very interested in using data and new technologies (such as Artificial Intelligence) to drive innovation in nutrition and health. She uses nutrition-relevant data and meta-data to frame knowledge and enhance understanding of current nutritional problems and environmental sustainability challenges and looks to communicate and inform citizens and policy effectively.
She joined The Rowett Institute in 2020 and has been working on different RESAS-funded projects researching the relationships between healthiness, environmental sustainability, and cost diets. Also, she is working on assessing Scottish adults’ readiness to change towards a more sustainable diet. She joined the University of Aberdeen in 2017 and was part of the Health Services Research Unit. During this time, she was involved in the Knowledge Syntheses Team, which conducts high-quality research to inform healthcare professionals, policymakers, and service users across a wide range of healthcare interventions.
During her career, she has been involved in different childhood and adolescent obesity prevention and lifestyle improvement projects. She has vast experience in assessing nutritional health through quantitative and qualitative research methods and fieldwork experience in clinical nutrition, health promotion, and nutrition interventions. She has also experience in evidence synthesis and meta-analysis.
Qualifications
- Doctoral degree in Biomedicine & Nutrition (PhD, summa cum laude)2016 - Rovira i Virgili University (Tarragona, Spain)
- Master’s degree in Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism (MSc)2013 - Barcelona University (Barcelona, Spain)
- Bachelor’s degree in Nutrition and Integral Wellbeing (BSc, Hons)2011 - Tec de Monterrey (Mexico City, Mexico)
Memberships and Affiliations
- Internal Memberships
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She is a mentor at the SUCCESS PLUS (Socio-cUltural Coaching for Careers and Employability to Support Success: Pathways for Life Underpinning Success) Mentoring programme at the University of Aberdeen.
- External Memberships
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- Cochrane Member
- Associate Editor at Public Health Nutrition, which provides an international forum for the publication and dissemination of research aimed at understanding the causes of, and approaches and solutions to, nutrition-related public health achievements, situations and problems around the world.
- Board of Editors at the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior (JNEB), the official journal of the Society for Nutrition Education and Behaviour, represents the unique professional interests of nutrition educators worldwide.
- Research
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Research Overview
As a woman working in and for health and nutrition sciences, Magaly tends to think broader about how science interacts with the real world and translates into better environments so that people can make healthier choices. She has been involved in different childhood and adolescent obesity prevention and lifestyle improvement projects. She has vast experience in assessing nutritional health through quantitative and qualitative research methods and fieldwork experience in clinical nutrition, health promotion, and nutrition interventions. She has also experience in evidence synthesis and meta-analysis. She is also interested in methods regarding knowledge transference, public engagement, and the implementation of research findings into clinical practice and policymaking.
Research Areas
Nutrition and Health
Applied Health Sciences
Biomedical Sciences
Current Research
Currently, she is working with data from the UK National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS) to model the relationships between the ‘healthiness’, ‘carbon footprint’ and ‘cost’ of UK diets, using our newly developed NDNS nutrient database. This work aims to establish determinants of healthy and sustainable diets. Also, she is working on assessing Scottish adults’ readiness to change towards a more sustainable diet.
Past Research
She has collaborated on national and international research projects, such as:
- Childhood Obesity in MexicO (COMO) project
- European Youth Tackling Obesity (EYTO) Project
- EYTO-Kids Project
- Health Behaviours in School-aged Children (HBSC) Study
She has also been involved in different Health Technology Assessment Programme commissioned by the National Institute of Health Research. Some of these include:
- A systematic review and integrated report on the quantitative, qualitative and economic evidence base for the management of severe obesity (REBALANCE) project;
- Testosterone Effects and Safety in Men with Low Testosterone levels (TestES Consortium): An evidence synthesis (including an individual participant data meta-analysis) and economic evaluation;
- The ARCHITECT Urine NGAL assay, NephroCheck Test and NGAL Test to help assess the risk of acute kidney injury for people who are being considered for admission to critical care;
- A rapid review of child food insecurity in the UK: evidence on its extent, nature and effects and what can be done to address it.
Knowledge Exchange
Magaly was part of the Public Engagement Group from the Health Services Research Unit. Through such activities, sharing information, she shared daily work experiences with the general public. Such experience showed her that public engagement comprises interaction and listening, which results in mutual learning.
She is a huge supporter of #WomenInScience and #WomenInSTEM. More women are needed in the scientific environment, and once they are in it, we need to retain them. There are still many stereotypes and gaps that need to be avoided, and she is willing to help achieve so.
- Teaching
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Teaching Responsibilities
Magaly is the Course Coordinator for course RN5002 - Assessment of Nutritional Health. She also is currently involved in delivering online material and lectures in the Challenges in Global Nutrition course.
Non-course Teaching Responsibilities
Magaly has been an Associate Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy (aFHEA) since 2020. She has experience teaching higher education in Mexico, Spain, and the UK.
- Publications
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What Environmental Metrics Are Used in Scientific Research to Estimate the Impact of Human Diets?
Nutrients, vol. 16, no. 18, 3166Contributions to Journals: ArticlesEnhancing Abstract Screening Classification in Evidence-Based Medicine: Incorporating Domain Knowledge into Pre-trained Models
Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Conference Proceedings- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-66538-7_26
- [ONLINE] View publication in Scopus
Towards the automation of systematic reviews using natural language processing, machine learning, and deep learning: a comprehensive review
Artificial Intelligence Review, vol. 57, 200Contributions to Journals: ArticlesA Zero-Shot Monolingual Dual Stage Information Retrieval System for Spanish Biomedical Systematic Literature Reviews
Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Conference ProceedingsConsumption of foods with the highest nutritional quality, and the lowest GHGE and price, differs between socioeconomic groups in the UK population
Public Health Nutrition, vol. 26, no. 12, pp. 3370-3378Contributions to Journals: ArticlesThe Challenges of Measuring Food Insecurity Among Children and Adolescents in High-Income Countries
Researching Poverty and Austerity: Theoretical Approaches, Methodologies and Policy Applications. Moraes, C., McEachern, M. G., O'Loughlin, D. (eds.). 1 edition. Routledge, 15 pagesChapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003226222-10
Symptomatic benefits of testosterone treatment in patient subgroups: a systematic review, individual participant data meta-analysis, and aggregate data meta-analysis
The Lancet Healthy Longevity, vol. 4, no. 10, pp. e561-e572Contributions to Journals: ArticlesObesity and its Association with Mental Health among Mexican Children and Adolescents: Systematic Review
Nutrition Reviews, vol. 81, no. 6, pp. 658-669Contributions to Journals: ArticlesA novel application of machine learning and zero-shot classification methods for automated abstract screening in systematic reviews
Decision Analytics Journal, vol. 6, 100162Contributions to Journals: ArticlesReady meals, especially those that are animal-based and cooked in an oven, have lower nutritional quality, higher greenhouse gas emissions and are more expensive than equivalent home-cooked meals
Public Health Nutrition, vol. 26, no. 3, pp. 531-539Contributions to Journals: ArticlesEvaluation of Attention-Based LSTM and Bi-LSTM Networks For Abstract Text Classification in Systematic Literature Review Automation
Contributions to Journals: Conference Articles“Som la Pera,” a School-Based, Peer-Led Social Marketing Intervention to Engage Spanish Adolescents in a Healthy Lifestyle: A Parallel-Cluster Randomized Controlled Study
Childhood Obesity, vol. 18, no. 8, pp. 556-571Contributions to Journals: ArticlesCultural factors related to childhood and adolescent obesity in Mexico: A systematic review of qualitative studies
Obesity Reviews, vol. 23, no. 9, e13461Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/obr.13461
MSR1 Using Artificial Intelligence Methods for Systematic Review in Health Sciences: A Systematic Review
ISPOR 2022, pp. S517Contributions to Journals: Abstracts- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jval.2022.04.1208
Obesity and oral health in Mexican children and adolescents: systematic review and meta-analysis
Nutrition Reviews, vol. 80, no. 6, pp. 1694–1710Contributions to Journals: ArticlesAdverse cardiovascular events and mortality in men during testosterone treatment: an individual patient and aggregate data meta-analysis
The Lancet Healthy Longevity, vol. 3, no. 6, pp. e381–393Contributions to Journals: ArticlesDoes weight management research for adults with severe obesity represent them? Analysis of systematic review data
BMJ Open, vol. 12, no. 5, e054459Contributions to Journals: ArticlesUsing artificial intelligence methods for systematic review in health sciences: A systematic review
Research Synthesis Methods, vol. 13, no. 3, pp. 353-362Contributions to Journals: ArticlesEffect of brown seaweed on plasma glucose in healthy, at-risk, and type 2 diabetic individuals: systematic review and meta-analysis
Nutrition Reviews, vol. 80, no. 5, pp. 1194–1205Contributions to Journals: ArticlesInterventions to Prevent Obesity in Mexican Children and Adolescents: Systematic Review
Prevention Science, vol. 23, pp. 563-586Contributions to Journals: Review articlesFood-Level Analysis to Identify Dietary Choices With the Highest Nutritional Quality and Lowest Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Price
Frontiers in Nutrition, vol. 9, 851826Contributions to Journals: ArticlesIdentifying the outcomes important to men with hypogonadism: a qualitative evidence synthesis
Journal of Andrology, vol. 10, no. 4, pp. 625-641Contributions to Journals: ArticlesA Review of Aerosol Generation Mitigation in International Dental Guidance
International Dental Journal, vol. 72, no. 2, pp. 203-210Contributions to Journals: ArticlesNutritional Quality, Environmental Impact and Cost of Ultra-Processed Foods: A UK Food-Based Analysis
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, vol. 19, no. 6, 3191Contributions to Journals: ArticlesThe effect of grape interventions on cognitive and mental performance in healthy participants and those with mild cognitive impairment: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials
Nutrition Reviews, vol. 80, no. 3, pp. 367-380Contributions to Journals: Review articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/nutrit/nuab025
- [OPEN ACCESS] http://aura.abdn.ac.uk/bitstream/2164/18172/1/Bird_etal_the_effect_of_VOR.pdf
- [ONLINE] View publication in Scopus
Interventions to Treat Obesity in Mexican Children and Adolescents: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Nutrition Reviews, vol. 80, no. 3, pp. 544–560Contributions to Journals: ArticlesBiomarkers for assessing acute kidney injury for people who are being considered for admission to critical care: a systematic review and cost-effectiveness analysis
Health Technology Assessment, vol. 26, no. 7, pp. 1-286Contributions to Journals: ArticlesAdolescents encouraging healthy lifestyles through a peer-led social marketing intervention: Training and key competencies learned by peer leaders
Health Expectations, vol. 25, no. 1, pp. 455-465Contributions to Journals: ArticlesCost-effectiveness and value of information analysis of NephroCheck and NGAL tests compared to standard care for the diagnosis of acute kidney injury
BMC Nephrology, vol. 22, 399Contributions to Journals: ArticlesSubstance use prevention interventions for children and young people in Sub-Saharan Africa: A systematic review
International Journal of Drug Policy, vol. 94, 103251Contributions to Journals: Literature Reviews- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugpo.2021.103251
Strategies to improve retention in randomised trials
Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, vol. 3, no. 3, MR000032Contributions to Journals: ArticlesAerosol Generating Procedures and their Mitigation in International Dental Guidance Documents - A Rapid Review
Cochrane Oral Health. 69 pagesBooks and Reports: Other ReportsA systematic review of UK based long-term non-surgical interventions for people with severe obesity (BMI ≥35kg/m2)
Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics, vol. 33, no. 3, pp. 351-372Contributions to Journals: ArticlesRecommendations for the re-opening of dental services: a rapid review of international sources
Cochrane Oral Health. 36 pagesBooks and Reports: Other ReportsResponse to: Comment about Statistical Analysis of a Cluster-Randomized Trial about Clustering and Nesting (DOI: 10.1089/chi.2019.0142)
Childhood Obesity, vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 67-69Contributions to Journals: Comments and Debates- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1089/chi.2019.0265
- [ONLINE] View publication in Scopus
Current recommendations for the discharge of COVID-19 patients from hospital and ICU: a rapid review
University of AberdeenBooks and Reports: Commissioned ReportsImpact of a youth-led social marketing intervention run by adolescents to encourage healthy lifestyles among younger school peers (EYTO-Kids project): a parallel-cluster randomised controlled pilot study
Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, vol. 73, no. 4, pp. 324-333Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2017-210163
- [OPEN ACCESS] http://aura.abdn.ac.uk/bitstream/2164/11857/3/Impact_of_a_youth_led_social_marketing_intervention_run_by_adolescents_to_encourage_healthy_lifestyles_among_younger_school_peers.pdf
- [ONLINE] View publication in Scopus
- [ONLINE] View publication in Mendeley
- [ONLINE] https://abdn.pure.elsevier.com/en/en/researchoutput/impact-of-a-youthled-social-marketing-intervention-run-by-adolescents-to-encourage-healthy-lifestyles-among-younger-school-peers-eytokids-project(88c536f0-528a-4578-ae81-4824eac88d0a).html
Involving young people in health promotion, research and policy-making: practical recommendations
International Journal for Quality in Health Care, vol. 31, no. 2, pp. 147-153Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/intqhc/mzy113
- [ONLINE] View publication in Scopus
- [ONLINE] View publication in Mendeley
The ARCHITECT and Alinity urine NGAL assays, urine NephroCheck test, and urine and plasma NGAL tests to help assess the risk of acute kidney injury in people who are being considered for admission to critical care
National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). 376 pagesBooks and Reports: Commissioned ReportsThe acceptability and feasibility of weight management programmes for adults with severe obesity: A qualitative systematic review
BMJ Open, vol. 9, no. 9, e029473Contributions to Journals: ArticlesBariatric surgery, lifestyle interventions and orlistat for severe obesity: the REBALANCE mixed-methods systematic review and economic evaluation
Health Technology Assessment, vol. 22, no. 68, pp. 1-286Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.3310/hta22680
- [OPEN ACCESS] http://aura.abdn.ac.uk/bitstream/2164/11603/2/Avenell_etal_HTA_Bariatric_Surgery_Lifestyle_VOR.pdf
- [ONLINE] Corrigendum
Child food insecurity in the UK: a rapid review
Public Health Research, vol. 6, no. 13Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.3310/phr06130
- [OPEN ACCESS] http://aura.abdn.ac.uk/bitstream/2164/11624/1/Public_Health_Research_Review.pdf
The "Som la Pera" intervention: Sustainability capacity evaluation of a peer-led social-marketing intervention to encourage healthy lifestyles among adolescents
Translational Behavioral Medicine, vol. 8, no. 5, pp. 739-744Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/tbm/ibx065
Self-reported weight and predictors of missing responses in youth
Nutrition, vol. 53, pp. 54-58Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nut.2018.01.003
Follow-up of a healthy lifestyle education program (the EdAl study): four years after cessation of randomized controlled trial intervention
BMC Public Health, vol. 18, 104Contributions to Journals: ArticlesCost-Effectiveness of the EdAl (Educació en Alimentació) Program:: A Primary School-Based Study to Prevent Childhood Obesity
Journal of Epidemiology , vol. 28, no. 12, pp. 477-481Contributions to Journals: ArticlesA Youth-Led, Social Marketing Intervention Run by Adolescents to Encourage Healthy Lifestyles among Younger School Peers (EYTO-Kids Project): A Protocol for Pilot Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial (Spain)
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, vol. 14, no. 8, 923Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph14080923
- [OPEN ACCESS] http://aura.abdn.ac.uk/bitstream/2164/9725/1/A_Youth_Led_Social_Marketing_Intervention_Run_by_Adolescents_to_Encourage_Healthy_Lifestyles_among_Younger_School_Peers_EYTO_Kids_Project_A_Protocol_for_Pilot_Cluster_Randomized_Controlled_Trial_Spain.pdf
Healthy habits and life style promotion to fight obesity. Social marketing and communication 2.0 in the project European youth tackling obesity (EYTO)
Educación, comunicación y salud: Perspectivas desde las ciencias humanas y sociales. URV Publications, pp. 199-223, 25 pagesChapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: ChaptersRestaurant-based intervention to facilitate healthy eating choices and the identification of allergenic foods at a family-oriented resort and a campground
BMC Public Health, vol. 17, 393Contributions to Journals: ArticlesEffectiveness of social marketing strategies to reduce youth obesity in European school-based interventions: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Nutrition Reviews, vol. 74, no. 5, pp. 337-351Contributions to Journals: Articles