Ru Jia

Dr Ru Jia is a researcher working on population-level interventions to improve diet and public health. She is part of the Sustainable Healthy Food Group. Her research interests draw on behavioural science and biopsychosocial approaches to health.

Her current research focuses on developing and evaluating interventions and policies that can support healthier dietary choices at the population level. For example, she tests the effects of interventions such as alcohol calroie labelling and removing price promotions for food high in fat, sugar and salt (HFSS) among the general population. More broadly, she is interested in how features of the food and beverage environment - including labelling, pricing, promotions, and advertising - influence consumer behaviours and population health. Her work is currently funded by the Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centre (Oxford Health BRC) theme Prevent Multiple Morbidities. 

A growing focus of Ru's research is the rapid expansion of alcohol-free and low-alcohol (NoLo) products. She is interested in whether and how these products are perceived and used as alternatives to alcoholic beverages, their potential to reduce population alcohol consumption and related harms, and their possible unintended consequences. In particular, her research examines commercial practices such as the marketing of NoLo products that share branding with established alcoholic products, and whether such practices may also promote or reinforce parent alcohol brands. 

This work forms part of Ru's broader interest in understanding how innovations in consumer products and commercial environments can affect health-related behaviours, including both their intended benefits and unintended consequences. Her long-term research aims to generate evidence that can help policymakers anticipate the health and equity implications of emerging innovations and determine how they might be harnessed, designed, or regulated to support healthier and more equitable choices. 

Ru completed an undergraduate degree in Psychology in China, and an MSc in Health Psychology at the University of Southampton. During her PhD in Primary Care, Ru investigated the relationship between pre-treatment mood, lifestyle, the hormone cortisol (i.e., the stress hormone), and outcomes of assisted reproductive treatment. She also led and conducted several research projects investigating the physical and mental health impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the role of biopsychosocial factors in these associations.