Biography

Dr. Yiqing Song is a Professor in the IU Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health and Director of the PhD program in Epidemiology. He received his Medical degree from Beijing Medical University and finished his 5-year residency training in Pediatrics at the Third Teaching Hospital of Beijing Medical University. Dr. Song then received a Master’s degree in Nutrition from the University of Texas at Austin and a Doctor of Science (ScD) degree in Epidemiology and Nutrition from the Harvard School of Public Health. Before joining the faculty at Indiana University, Dr. Song was a faculty member in the Division of Preventive Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Song has a broad background in medicine, nutrition, genetics, and epidemiology and has extensive experience in the evaluation of nutritional, biochemical, and genetic markers as predictors of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease (CVD) in several large prospective cohort studies, such as the Women’s Health Study (WHS), Physicians’ Health Study (PHS), and the Women’s Health Initiative-Observational Study (WHI-OS). He has also been actively involved in testing the role of several dietary supplements in preventing type 2 diabetes in multiple large-scale randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trials, including the Women’s Health Study, the Women’s Antioxidant Cardiovascular Study (WACS), the Physicians’ Health Study (PHS) II randomized trial, and the VITamin D and OmegA-3 TriaL (VITAL). Dr. Song has been the PI and Co-PI on a number of NIH-funded grants. He has authored and co-authored more than 120 peer-reviewed research papers and eight book chapters. Dr. Song was the recipient of the Research Frontiers Trailblazer Award by the IUPUI in 2015 and was awarded the American Heart Association’s Award for Excellence in Research Addressing Cardiovascular Health Equity in 2017.

Dr. Song has served as ad hoc reviewer for over 30 peer-reviewed scientific journals and a number of national and international foundation/society funding agencies. Dr. Song currently serves as a permanent member on the NIH Study Section of Cancer, Heart, and Sleep Epidemiology Panel A (CHSA).

Research Interests

Dr. Song’s primary research area is the primary prevention and epidemiology of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

His major research interests include:

  • Relation of nutritional, biochemical and genetic markers of dietary factors with type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease
  • Racial/ethnic differences in vitamin D-related biomarkers and racial/ethnic disparities in cardiovascular disease risk
  • Design and conduct of randomized controlled trials of dietary supplements for primary prevention of type 2 diabetes
  • Pharmacoepidemiology research on comparative effectiveness and safety of a novel antidiabetic drug, sodium–glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors
  • Design and conduct of systematic review and network and pairwise meta-analysis for synthesizing evidence from observational and randomized trial data

Courses Taught

  • E670 Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis in Health Sciences
  • E650 Readings in Public Health (Obesity and Diabetes Epidemiology)
  • E610 Chronic Disease Epidemiology

Selected Publications

  1. Zhang J, Ding EL, Song Y. Adverse effects of cyclooxygenase 2 inhibitors on renal and arrhythmia events: meta-analysis of randomized trials. JAMA. 2006;296(13):1619-32.
  2. Ding EL, Song Y*, Manson JE, Hunter DJ, Lee CC, Rifai N, Buring JE, Gaziano JM, Liu S. Sex hormone-binding globulin and risk of type 2 diabetes in women and men. N Engl J Med. 2009; 361(12):1152-63 (*co-first author).
  3. Song Y, Cook NR, Albert CM, Van Denburgh M, Manson JE. Effect of homocysteine-lowering treatment with folic acid and B vitamins on risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus in women: a randomized controlled trial. Diabetes. 2009;58:1921-8.
  4. Song Y, Xu Q, Park Y, Hollenbeck A, Schatzkin A, Chen H. Multivitamins, individual vitamin and mineral supplements, and risk of diabetes mellitus among older US adults. Diabetes Care. 2011;34(1):108-14.
  5. Rohwer RD, Liu S, You NC, Buring JE, Manson JE, Song Y. Interrelationship between alcohol intake and endogenous sex-steroid hormones on diabetes risk in postmenopausal women. J Am Coll Nutr. 2015;11:1-8.
  6. Guo J, Lou Y, Zhang X, Song Y. Effect of aerobic exercise training on cardiometabolic risk factors among professional athletes in the heaviest-weight class. Diabetol Metab Syndr. 2015, 7:78.
  7. Zhang X, Li Y, Del Gobbo LC, Rosanoff A, Wang J, Zhang W, Song Y. Effects of magnesium supplementation on blood pressure: a meta-analysis of randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trials. Hypertension. 2016;68(2):324-33.
  8. Dai H, Sun Q, Zhang C, Zhang X, Li WQ, Manson JE, Hu FB, Song Y. Association between benign cutaneous nevi and risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus in men and women: results from two prospective cohort studies. Diabet Med. 2016. Doi: 10.1111/dme.13297.
  9. Tang H, Zhang X, Zhang J, Li Y, Del Gobbo L, Zhai S, Song Y. Elevated serum magnesium associated with SGLT2 inhibitor use in type 2 diabetes patients: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Diabetologia. 2016;59(12):2546-2551.
  10. Tang H, Li D, Zhang J, Li Y, Wang T, Zhai S, Song Y. Sodium-glucose co-transporter-2 inhibitors and risk of adverse renal outcomes among patients with type 2 diabetes: A network and cumulative meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Diabetes Obes Metab. 2017; doi: 10.1111/dom.12917. [Epub ahead of print].