Andrea Kozai

Contributions to Public Health

• Health behaviors in pregnancy: My research examines the relationship between health behaviors during pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes, and maternal cardiovascular disease. I evaluate how activity patterns shift across pregnancy, determinants of these behaviors, and the long-term health implications following delivery. Adverse pregnancy outcomes such as preeclampsia and gestational diabetes are linked to higher maternal risk for later-life cardiovascular disease or Type II diabetes, and understanding how healthy behaviors during pregnancy are related to these outcomes is important for prevention and intervention research.
  • Kozai AC; Jones MA; Borrowman JD; Hauspurg A; Catov JM; Kline CE; Whitaker KM; Barone Gibbs B. Patterns of physical activity, sedentary behavior, and sleep across pregnancy before and during two COVID pandemic years. Midwifery. 141: 2025.
  • McClean M; Kozai AC; Lane AD. Activity behaviors: Influencers of cardiometabolic risk and adverse pregnancy outcomes. Exercise and Sports Science Reviews. 53(4): 2025.
  • Kozai AC; Wilhite KL; Kline CE; Davis KK; Hauspurg A; Catov JM; Barone Gibbs B. Influence of a sedentary behavior intervention on mood, sleep, and quality of life outcomes during pregnancy: the SPRING Study. Women’s Health Reports. 6(1): 2025.
• Placental contributions to maternal health and disease: My research in placental biology focuses on investigating vascular development and examining how biomarkers of placental health and function are related to maternal health during and in the decades following pregnancy. Traditional placental histopathology is reliant on subjective classification of lesion presence or absence, which limits reliability and statistical power. I developed a novel quantitative immunohistochemistry technique to evaluate placental fetal vascularization in post-delivery tissue, and my current research is evaluating this metric in relation to disease diagnoses such as preeclampsia and congenital heart disease. In addition, I research the associations of maternal health with circulating concentrations of biomarkers of placental growth and function across pregnancy.
  • Kozai AC, Skvarca LB, Parks WT, Lane A, Barone Gibbs B, Catov JM. A novel technique to estimate intravillous fetal vasculature on routine placenta histologic sections. Placenta. 145; 2024; pp 60-64.
  • Kozai AC, Barone Gibbs B, Parry S, Khan SS, Grobman W, Levine LD, McNeil R, Haas D, Pippen JL, Silver RM, Catov JM. Cardiovascular health in early pregnancy and circulating biomarkers of placental health and function. Placenta. 171; 2025; 71-81.
• Health and performance factors in dance: Dancers are aesthetic athletes with unique physical demands and a high incidence of injuries. I am a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist, and my research in dancers has focused on interventions to improve strength, occupational workload exposures in professional ballet dancers, health literacy amongst collegiate dancers, and factors affecting dancers who are pregnant or returning to dance postpartum.
  • Kozai, A.; Twitchett, E.; Morgan, S.; Wyon, M. Workload intensity and rest periods in professional ballet: Connotations for injury. International Journal of Sports Medicine. 41(6); 2020, pp 373-9.
  • Kozai, A.; Ambegaonkar, J. Health literacy for collegiate dancers: provision and perceptions of health-related education in university dance programs. Journal of Dance Medicine and Science. 24(3); 2020, pp 118-25.
  • Brown, A; Wells, TJ; Schade, ML; Smith DL; Fehling, PC. Effects of plyometric training versus traditional weight training on strength, power, and aesthetic jumping ability in female collegiate dancers. Journal of Dance Medicine and Science. 11(2); 2007, pp 38-44.