Mary Chong

Assistant Dean (Education); Programme Director of Master of Public Health (MPH); Associate Professor

Tel (65) 6516 4969

CHONG Foong-Fong Mary

Dr Chong’s research centers on Maternal and Child Health, with a particular focus on diet and lifestyle behaviours. Trained as a clinical dietitian, she attained her PhD at the University of Oxford, U.K. and is currently Associate Professor at the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, National University of Singapore.

She is the Nutrition Lead for the Growing Up in Singapore Towards Healthy Outcomes (GUSTO) study, a mother-offspring cohort study in Singapore and contributes to two pre-conception studies, SPRESTO and NiPPeR.

Her current work investigates the behavioural determinants of health in children and adolescents, including the development of MEDAL, a web-based, time-use application designed to assess diet and lifestyle among school children. Her team recently completed the development, implementation and evaluation of a pilot intervention study (PEDAL) to promote healthy lifestyle behaviours in local primary schools. Building on this, they are now employing a mixed-methods, Youth Participatory Action Research approach, to co-develop strategies that address health risk behaviours among adolescents.

Regionally, Dr Chong is engaged in collaborative research and teaching initiatives. Her projects include evaluating multi-sectoral approaches to reduce malnutrition and developing nutrition guidelines for young children in Lao PDR, and implementing a community-based nutrition intervention for tuberculosis patients in Cambodia.

She has been invited to speak at national and international conferences and has published over 230 peer-reviewed papers. She currently serves on the Advisory Panel on Parenting for the Ministry of Social and Family development

Affiliation

  • NUS Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health (Primary)
  • Principal Investigator at the Institute for Human Development and Potential (IHDP), A*STAR (Adjunct)

Research Areas

  • Maternal and Child Nutrition and Eating behaviours
  • Lifestyle behaviours and Non-Communicable Diseases
  • Youth Participatory Action Research on adolescent well-being and health risk behaviours
  • Interventions in lifestyle behaviours

Teaching Areas

  • Health Behaviour and Communications
  • Diet and Non-Communicable Diseases
  • Maternal and Child Nutrition
  • Preconception Health

Academic/Professional Qualifications

  • PhD, University of Oxford, U.K.
  • BSc (Hons) Dietetics, Leeds Metropolitan University, U.K.

Awards/Honours

  • The Nutrition Society Silver Medal Award for scientific excellence in the field of nutrition (International award), 2019
  • NUS Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health Teaching Excellence Award 2018/2019
  • NUS Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health Faculty Young Researcher Award 2018/2019
  • New Investigator Award by the International Conference on Developmental Origins of Adiposity and Long-term Health, 2016

Career History

  • Assistant Professor, NUS Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, 2016 – 2022
  • Principal Investigator, Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences, A*STAR, 2015- 2022
  • Research Scientist, Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences, A*STAR, 2012-2015
  • Senior Research Fellow, Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences, A*STAR, 2010-2012
  • Postdoctoral Fellow, Hugh Sinclair Nutrition Unit, Food Biosciences Department, University of Reading, U.K., 2007-2010
  • Research Dietitian, University of Oxford, U.K., in conjunction with PhD studies, 2003-2007
  • Clinical Dietitian, Alexandra Hospital, Singapore, 2001-2003

Administrative Leadership

  • Assistant Dean (Education), NUS Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, Jan 2025 – present
  • Programme Director for the Graduate Diploma of Public Health (GDPH), Sept 2024 – present
  • Programme Director for the Master of Public Health (MPH), Jan 2024 – present
  • Deputy Director for the Master of Public Health Programme, NUS Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, May 2022 – Dec 2023

Professional/Consulting Activities

  • Section Editor for European Journal of Nutrition, Jan 2024 – present
  • Editorial board member of the International Journal for Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity – Dec 2021 – present
  • Singapore Representative for SEAMEO-RECFON (Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organisation (SEAMEO) Regional Centres for Food and Nutrition (RECFON), Sept 2020 – present
  • Advisor to Advisory Panel for Parenting, Ministry of Social and Family Development, Singapore, Apr 2018 – present

Selected Publications

  • Chia, A., Toh, J. Y., Natarajan, P., Cai, S., Ong, Y. Y., Descarpentrie, A., . . . Chong, M. F. F. (2024). Trajectories of lifestyle patterns from 2 to 8 years of age and cardiometabolic risk in children: the GUSTO study. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 21(1). doi:10.1186/s12966-024-01564-z
  • Chan, C. M. J., Müller-Riemenschneider, F., Chia, M. Y. H., Hildon, Z. J. L., & Chong, M. F. F. (2024). Promoting hEalthy Diet and Active Lifestyle (PEDAL): a protocol for the development and feasibility study of a multicomponent intervention among primary school children in Singapore. Pilot and Feasibility Studies, 10(1). doi:10.1186/s40814-024-01479-3
  • Chia, A., Shou, Y., Wong, N. M. Y., Cameron-Smith, D., Sim, X., Van Dam, R. M., & Chong, M. F. F. (2024). Complexity of consumer acceptance to alternative protein foods in a multiethnic Asian population: A comparison of plant-based meat alternatives, cultured meat, and insect-based products. Food Quality and Preference, 114. doi:10.1016/j.foodqual.2024.105102
  • Lim, S. X., Lim, C. G. Y., Müller-Riemenschneider, F., van Dam, R. M., Sim, X., Chong, M. F. F., & Chia, A. (2024). Development and validation of a lifestyle risk index to screen for metabolic syndrome and its components in two multi-ethnic cohorts. Preventive Medicine, 179. doi:10.1016/j.ypmed.2023.107821
  • Lee, Y. Q., Whitton, C., Neelakantan, N., van Dam, R. M., & Chong, M. F. -F. (2022). Dietary patterns and predicted 10-year cardiovascular disease risk in a multiethnic Asian population. Nutrition Metabolism and Cardiovascular Diseases, 32(9), 2093-2104. doi:10.1016/j.numecd.2022.06.014
  • Chong, M. F. -F. (2022). Dietary trajectories through the life course: opportunities and challenges. British Journal of Nutrition, 128(1), 154-159. doi:10.1017/S0007114522001295
  • Chia, A., Descarpentrie, A., Cheong, R. N., Toh, J. Y., Natarajan, P., Sugianto, R., . . Chong, M.FF and Bernard, J. Y. (2022). Family-focused contextual factors associated with lifestyle patterns in young children from two mother-offspring cohorts: GUSTO and EDEN. International Journal of Behavioural Nutrition and Physical Activity, 19(1), 13 pages. doi:10.1186/s12966-022-01266-4
  • Chan, M. J., Tay, G. W. N., Kembhavi, G., Lim, J., Rebello, S. A., Ng, H., . . . Chong, M. F. -F. (2022). Understanding children’s perspectives of the influences on their dietary behaviours. Public Health Nutrition, 25(8), 2156-2166. doi:10.1017/S1368980022000404
  • Lim, S. X., Loy, S. L., Colega, M. T., Lai, J. S., Godfrey, K. M., Lee, Y. S., . . . Chong, M. F. -F. (2021). Prepregnancy adherence to plant-based diet indices and exploratory dietary patterns in relation to fecundability. American Journal of Clinical Journal, 115(2), 559-569. doi:10.1093/ajcn/nqab344
  • Chia, A., Chew, M. N. J. S., Tan, S. Y. X., Chan, M. J., Colega, M. T., Toh, J. Y., . . . Chong, M. F. -F. (2021). A Web-Based Time-Use Application to Assess Diet and Movement Behavior in Asian Schoolchildren: Development and Usability Study of My E-Diary for Activities and Lifestyle (MEDAL). Journal of Medical Internet Research, 23(6), 13 pages. doi:10.2196/25794

For list of publications, refer to Mary Foong-Fong Chong Profile | National University of Singapore (nus.edu.sg)

Media Coverage

Back to Faculty Directory
Scroll to Top