
SANDRA IULIANO, PhD
Dr. Sandra Iuliano is a nutritionist and internationally renowned researcher from the Department of Medicine at the University of Melbourne, Australia. Her research focuses on nutrition and exercise across the lifespan; specifically, to improve musculoskeletal health including studying the effects of exercise and calcium in bone growth in children, vitamin D supplementation to prevent bone loss in adults and food-based approaches to prevent falls, fractures and malnutrition in older adults in aged-care. She led a 2-year food-based study that involved over 7000 older adults in 60 aged care homes that demonstrated correcting low intakes of calcium and protein in older adults resulted in a 33% reduction in fractures, a 46% reduction in hip fractures and an 11% reduction in falls with the intervention being cost-saving for fracture reduction alone. This work has been pivotal in prompting policy changes in aged care to improve food provision. She is a member of the National Aged Care Advisory Council of the Australian Government and is a strong advocate for better nutritional care for older adults.