Research Summary:Donna Leonetti is Associate Professor of Anthropology (Biocultural Program) at the University of Washington. Leonetti has two current interests in relation to demography. One is the study of household ecology in relation to reproduction represented by her recent work in N. E. India. The other is the study of the sociological and cultural context of disease in populations. In this area she has contributed research on the epidemiology of type 2 diabetes in Japanese Americans.
Household ecology and reproduction in N.E. India. Leonetti has been building a research base in N. E. India with Indian collaborators since 1997. The CSDE supported a pilot project of 222 households conducted in 1999. In village India where female domestic and paid labor is usually done by hand, heavy workloads among women may bear on their reproductive health with respect to bodily energy reserves. A woman’s capacity, and the frequency with which she can conceive, gestate, nurse and nurture (as measured by growth) surviving children are likely to be dependent on having help from familial sources, particularly from the senior women of the household, i.e., the grandmothers. Husband absence also represents a critical loss of resources. Fertility, survivorship of the children and their growth is contrasted according to household composition. Data are from two of the lowest status groups (with equally low economic resources) in N. E. India: scheduled caste patrilineal Bengalis in Assam and scheduled tribe matrilineal Khasis in Meghalaya. The Bengali restrict female mobility and access to the markets. Marriages are arranged and the woman joins her husband’s household to be supervised by her mother-in-law. Among Khasi, women own property and run the markets. When a daughter marries she remains in her mother’s home and the husband may or may not join her household. Household composition thus differs between these two societies, such that in the Bengali case it includes mother-in-law/daughter-in-law and in the Khasi case mother/daughter (with and without husband present) domestic teams in extended households compared to nuclear households (husband/wife) in both groups. Access to resources by women IS clearly constrained by household composition. Comparing Khasi with Bengali, Leonetti found fertility to be higher and survivorship and growth better in Khasi than Bengali households, controlling for income, age and nutritional status of mother. Bengali households also discriminate against female children although presence of grandmothers increases survivorship of female children but does not improve their growth.
Diabetes and social context. Leonetti’s work on type 2 diabetes (non-insulin dependent) in Japanese Americans has placed the disease process within a developmental pathway that includes responses to early-life social context of American born subjects (urban birth, parents’ education, father’s occupation, mother’s employment, sibling number and birth order) showing long-range impacts on metabolic health in later life. Her research has also pointed to the importance of educational attainment as a protective factor for type 2 diabetes. Other research has focused on diet, physical activity, and adiposity. Her most recent work has been on the menopause transition in relation to diabetes risk.
Recent Publications:- Leonetti, D. L.; Nath, D. C., (Forthcoming), Age of first reproduction and economic change in the context of differing kinship ecologies, American Journal of Human Biology.
- Utzschneider, K. M.; Prigeon, R. L.; Faulenbach, M. V.; Tong, J.; Carr, D. B.; Boyko, E. J.; Leonetti, D. L.; McNeely, M. J.; Fujimoto, W. Y.; Kahn, S. E., (2009), Oral disposition index predicts the development of future diabetes above and beyond fasting and 2-h glucose levels.(ORIGINAL ARTICLE: Cardiovascular and Metabolic Risk), Diabetes Care, 32: 2, 335(7).
- Hayashi, T.; Boyko, E. J.; McNeely, M. J.; Leonetti, D. L.; Kahn, S. E.; Fujimoto, W. Y., (2008), Visceral adiposity, not abdominal subcutaneous fat area, predicts increased future insulin resistance in Japanese Americans, Diabetes, 57: 5, 1269-1276.
- Leonetti, D. L., (2008), Cultural Dimensions of Kin Investment, HUMAN NATURE -NEW YORK- ALDINE DE GRUYTER-, 19: 3, 227-230.
- Leonetti, D. L. (ed), (2008), Special issue on Cultural Dimensions of Kin Investment, Human Nature, 19.
- Gerchman, F.; Leonetti, D. L.; Tong, J.; Utzschneider, K. M.; Hull, R. L.; Zraika, S.; Udayasankar, J.; McNeely, M. J.; Andress, D. L.; Boyko, E. J.; Fujimoto, W. Y.; Kahn, S. E., (2007), Superiority of the Modification of Diet in Renal Disease equation over the Cockcroft-Gault equation in screening for impaired kidney function in Japanese Americans, Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice, 77: 2, 320.
- Hayashi, T.; Leonetti, D. L.; Boyko, E. J.; McNeely, M. J.; Kahn, S. E.; Fujimoto, W. Y., (2007), Minimum Waist and Visceral Fat Values for Identifying Japanese Americans at Risk for the Metabolic Syndrome: Response to Oda, Diabetes Care, 30: 5, e41.
- Leonetti, D. L.; Nath, D. C.; Hemam, N. S., (2007), The behavioral ecology of family planning in two ethnic groups in N.E. India, Human Nature, 18, 225-241.
- Leonetti, D. L.; Nath, D. C.; Hemam, N. S., (2007), "In-law conflict." Women's reproductive lives and the roles of their mothers and husbands among the matrilineal Khasi, Current Anthropology, 48, 861-890.
- McNeely, M. J.; Leonetti, D. L.; Fujimoto, W. Y.; Tsai, E. C.; Boyko, E. J., (2007), The Association Between Birth Weight and Visceral Fat in Middle-age Adults, Obesity, 15: 4, 816.
- Pierce, B. L.; Leonetti, D. L.; Austin, M. A.; Crane, P. K.; Retzlaff, B. M.; Fish, B.; Hutter, C. M.; Fujimoto, W. Y., (2007), Measuring dietary acculturation in Japanese Americans with the use of confirmatory factor analysis of food-frequency data, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition , 86: 2, 496.
- Tong, J.; Boyko, E. J.; Utzschneider, K. M.; McNeely, M. J.; Hayashi, T.; Carr, T.; Wallace, T.; Zraika, S.; Gerchman, F.; Leonetti, D. L.; Fujimoto, W. Y.; Kahn, S. E., (2007), Intra-abdominal fat accumulation predicts the future of the metabolic syndrome in Japanese Americans, Diabetologia, 50, 1156-1160.
- Hutter, C. M.; Leonetti, D. L.; Austin, M. A.; Farin, F. M.; Viernes, H.-M.; Edwards, K. L.; McNeely, M. J.; Fujimoto, W. Y., (2006), Association of endothelial lipase gene (LIPG) haplotypes with high-density lipoprotein cholesterol subfractions and apolipoprotein AI plasma levels in Japanese Americans, Atherosclerosis, 185: 1, 78.
- Watson, G. S.; Leonetti, D. L.; Reger, M. A.; Baker, L. D.; McNeely, M. J.; Fujimoto, W. Y.; Kahn, S. E.; Boyko, E. J.; Craft, S., (2006), Effects of Exercise and Nutrition on Memory in Japanese Americans With Impaired Glucose Tolerance, Diabetes Care, 29: 1, 135.
- Leonetti, D.; Nath, D. C.; Hemam, N. S.; Neill, D. B., (2005), Kinship organization and grandmother's impact on reproductive success among the matrilineal Khasi and patrilineal Bengali of N.E. India, Grandmotherhood-The Evolutionary Significance of the Second Half of Female Life, Voland, E.; Chasiotis, A.; Schiefenhoevel, W., 194-214, Rutgers University Press, Picsataway, NJ.
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Ph.D. 1976, University of Washington. Demographic change among Japanese Americans, biocultural and ecological aspects of fertility in India, epidemiology of diabetes and heart disease.
