Faculty profile

Catherine Birken

ResearcherNutritional SciencesUniversity of Toronto

This profile is built from public research funding records (CIHR, NSERC and SSHRC) and PubMed. We have not imported them from a University of Toronto directory, so their courses and email address may be missing. Find their university profile.

Catherine Birken

Researcher

Nutritional Sciences

Health Sciences

University of Toronto

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Supervision signals

Has led research grants, which requires an independent research appointment. Ask their department whether they supervise graduate students.
28 publications in the last five years, latest in 2026.
Senior (last) author on 6 recent papers, a sign of leading a research group.
Principal investigator on 14 research grants (14 CIHR), most recently in 2024.
Supervised 4 trainees who won CIHR awards, most recently in 2025.

These signals come from public records, including CIHR, NSERC and SSHRC funding decisions. Ask the professor or the graduate program whether they are taking new students.

Academic metrics

Publications

331

Citations

h-index

107

Collaborators

Grants

Publications by year

Counts cover the works listed on the university profile; citation counts come from Dimensions.

Profiles and links

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Signals and details

Research

Epidemiology Covid-19 Nutrition Cohort Pediatrics Learning Randomized Controlled Trial Preconception

Latest papers

eMental Health Resources for Youth: Parent Perceptions of AI Matched eMental Health Resources for Their Child.
Clinical child psychology and psychiatry · 2026
Caregiver Hospital-Based Food Insecurity in a Canadian Tertiary Care Pediatric Hospital.
Hospital pediatrics · 2026
Influence of Paternal Preconception Health on Miscarriage and Time to Pregnancy: A Scoping Review.
Archives of medical research · 2026

All 54 publications

Latest funding

The Role of Parents in Establishing Healthy Eating Behaviours in Children
CIHR · 2025 · Supervisor
$120,000
A pragmatic, individualized, e-health lifestyle intervention to optimize cardiometabolic health in pregnancy planning women and their partners: setting the stage for improved intergenerational health across diverse Canadian communities.
CIHR · 2024 · Principal investigator
$20,000
Exploring Partnerships with Community Health Centre's: A Planning and Dissemination Initiative to Implement TARGet Kids! across Ontario
CIHR · 2024 · Nominated PI
$22,941

All 50 grants and awards

54 publications.

eMental Health Resources for Youth: Parent Perceptions of AI Matched eMental Health Resources for Their Child.

de la Roche L, Korczak D, Charach A, Birken C, Tsujimoto K, Crosbie J, Cost K, Schumacher A, Anagnostou E, Monga S, Kelley E

Clinical child psychology and psychiatry2026

DOI: 10.1177/13591045251413293 PMID: 41460022

Caregiver Hospital-Based Food Insecurity in a Canadian Tertiary Care Pediatric Hospital.

Hardy C, Devenyi RB, Beck CE, Mauti SM, Maccarone T, Sappleton K, Hamilton J, Lazor T, Tootoonchinia S, Birken C, van den Heuvel M

Hospital pediatrics2026

DOI: 10.1542/hpeds.2024-008315 PMID: 41554509

Influence of Paternal Preconception Health on Miscarriage and Time to Pregnancy: A Scoping Review.

Dol J, Goyal D, McQueen K, Dennis-Grantham A, de Sousa JCG, Singla DR, Nkurunziza A, Dick JA, Birken C, Dennis CL

Archives of medical research2026

DOI: 10.1016/j.arcmed.2026.103447 PMID: 42184595

Reliability of Anthropometric Measurement of Young Children with Parent Involvement.

Rae S, Pullenayegum E, Ong F, Dennis CL, Hamilton J, Maguire J, Birken C

Childhood obesity (Print)2025Senior author

DOI: 10.1089/chi.2023.0065 PMID: 39169843

Influential Factors on Participation in Mental Health Research:Directing Future Research Methods.

de la Roche L, Korczak D, Charach A, Birken C, Tsujimoto K, Crosbie J, Cost K, Schumacher A, Anagnostou E, Monga S, Kelley E

Child psychiatry and human development2025

DOI: 10.1007/s10578-025-01894-4 PMID: 40839294

Social Skills as a Predictor of Mental Health Trajectories among Autistic Youth and Youth with ADHD during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Susko M, Korczak DJ, Cost KT, Charach A, Crosbie J, Anagnostou E, Birken C, Monga S, Nicolson R, Arnold PD

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology20252 citations

DOI: 10.1007/s10802-025-01365-3

Prospective harmonisation of four international randomised controlled trials in Canada, China, India and South Africa: the Healthy Life Trajectories Initiative

Bergeron J, Nechba A, Tiali SEB, Atkinson S, Birken C, Draper C, Krishnaveni GV, Fraser W, Dennis CL, Abdelouahab N

BMJ Open20251 citations

DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2024-086233

Parents' attitudes towards research involving genome sequencing of their healthy children: a qualitative study.

Di Carlo C, Mighton C, Clausen M, Joshi E, Casalino S, Kim THM, Kowal C, Birken C, Maguire J, Bombard Y

European journal of human genetics : EJHG2024

DOI: 10.1038/s41431-023-01476-9 PMID: 37864046

Centre-based childcare in early childhood and child obesity: systematic review and meta-analysis protocol.

Kucab M, Keown-Stoneman CDG, Birken C, Perlman M, Parsons J, Maguire JL

BMJ open2024

DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2023-078116 PMID: 39122383

Uptake and cardiac events of COVID-19 vaccinations among Canadian youth and young adults.

Zhang K, Terebessy E, Zhu J, Birken C, Borkhoff CM, Gershon A, Moraes TJ, Kendzerska T, Pakhale S, To T

PLOS global public health2024

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgph.0003363 PMID: 39083505

Write to this professor

A short, specific email works best. This draft uses one of their recent papers; replace the parts in brackets with your own details before sending.

Applying for

Paper to mentionMention their CIHR grant from 2024

Subject: Prospective PhD student: Epidemiology Dear Professor Birken, My name is [your name], and I am a [your current degree or role] at [your institution]. I am applying for a PhD position starting in [term and year]. I read your paper "eMental Health Resources for Youth: Parent Perceptions of AI Matched eMental Health Resources for Their Child." (2026), and it connects closely to my own work on [your research topic]. [One or two sentences on what you did and what you learned.] I also saw your CIHR-funded project "A pragmatic, individualized, e-health lifestyle intervention to optimize cardiometabolic health in pregnancy planning women and their partners: setting the stage for improved intergenerational health across diverse Canadian communities." (2024), and I would be glad to contribute to work in that direction. Are you accepting new PhD students for [term and year]? I have attached my CV and transcripts, and I would be glad to talk at a time that suits you. Thank you for your time. Kind regards, [your name]

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Catherine Birken

Research

Latest papers

Latest funding

eMental Health Resources for Youth: Parent Perceptions of AI Matched eMental Health Resources for Their Child.

Caregiver Hospital-Based Food Insecurity in a Canadian Tertiary Care Pediatric Hospital.

Influence of Paternal Preconception Health on Miscarriage and Time to Pregnancy: A Scoping Review.

Reliability of Anthropometric Measurement of Young Children with Parent Involvement.

Influential Factors on Participation in Mental Health Research:Directing Future Research Methods.

Social Skills as a Predictor of Mental Health Trajectories among Autistic Youth and Youth with ADHD during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Prospective harmonisation of four international randomised controlled trials in Canada, China, India and South Africa: the Healthy Life Trajectories Initiative

Parents' attitudes towards research involving genome sequencing of their healthy children: a qualitative study.

Centre-based childcare in early childhood and child obesity: systematic review and meta-analysis protocol.

Uptake and cardiac events of COVID-19 vaccinations among Canadian youth and young adults.

Frequent collaborators

Jill Hamilton

Cindy-Lee Dennis

Jonathon Maguire

Magdalena Janus

Flavia Marini

Mary Aglipay

Alice Charach

Peter Szatmari

Laura Anderson

Evdokia Anagnostou

Daphne Korczak

Jennifer Crosbie

Elizabeth Kelley

Eric Duku

Stelios Georgiades

Kevin Thorpe

Stephanie Atkinson

Stephen Lye

Jean-Patrice Baillargeon

Evelyn Constantin

Justine Dol

Marni Brownell

Erika Tavares

Yvonne Bombard

Eleanor Pullenayegum

Sheri Madigan

Jess Haines

Alene Toulany

Suneeta Monga

Sarah Carsley

Evelyn Constantin

Katherine Morrison

Diana Sherifali

Teresa Bennett

Anne Fuller

Jan Willem Gorter

Ravi Retnakaran

Andreas Laupacis

Eyal Cohen

Jennifer Stinson