Dalla Lana School of Public Health

Faculty Member

Svetlana (Lana) Popova MPH, MD, PhDs

Research Interests

Dr. Popova has a particular interest in the epidemiology, economic cost, prevention and intervention strategies, and evidence-based policy development related to maternal substance use and child outcomes, including Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD).

Dr. Popova is leading one of the largest studies, guided by the World Health Organization and NIAAA, on determining the global prevalence of FASD among children in low- and middle-income countries of Eastern and Central Europe and Africa, as well as Canada. She is also leading the study on developing and implementing curriculum on FASD prevention in urban, rural and First Nation schools in Ontario, Canada, funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada. Dr. Popova led the study on developing Surveillance of FASD and prenatal alcohol exposure as well as on estimating the burden and economic cost associated with FASD in Canada. Dr. Popova’s research has been published in high-impact journals such as The Lancet, The Lancet Global Health, Nature Reviews Disease Primers, JAMA Pediatrics, and is widely read and cited.

Other Affiliations

Senior Scientist, Institute for Mental Health Policy Research &
Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute,
Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, (CAMH), Canada
World Health Organization/Pan-American Health Organization Collaborating Centre in Addiction and Mental Health
Associate Professor, Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto (status-only)
Graduate Faculty Full Member, Institute of Medical Science, University of Toronto

Primary Teaching Responsibilities

Co-PAS 3700: Collaborative Program in Addiction Studies: Multidisciplinary Aspects of Addiction
Practicum supervisor
Member of the Admissions Committee

Professional Summary & Appointments

Memberships/Committees

2020-present: Expert Advisory Committee for the International Network on Brief Interventions for Alcohol and other Drugs (INEBRIA)
2019-present: Ambassador of NOFASD Australia
2015-present: Member of FASD expert Group of the Ontario Ministry of Children and Youth Services for developing a provincial FASD Strategy
2014-present: Member of the Advisory Council of the International Campaign (with more than 40 involved countries) to Raise Awareness of the Risks of Drinking in Pregnancy (guided by the European FASD Alliance)
2012-present: Member of the WHO Advisory Committee on FASD
2012-present: Alcohol Policy and Research Group, CAMH, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
2011-present: Global Burden of Disease Expert, Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, University of Washington
2011-present: Member of Committee of the International Group for the Study of Alcohol’s Harm to Others (IGSAHO)

Editorial Board Member

• Editor of the first special issue on FASD in the International Journal of Alcohol and Drug Research
• Associate Editor of BMC Public Health (BioMed Central), International Scholarly Research Network Epidemiology, and Journal of Addiction Research & Therapy

Other Professional Accomplishments

Expert in addiction filed (social burden and economic cost) for Supreme Court of Canada

Honours & Awards

Current Research Projects

Principal Investigator
Apr 2019-Aug 2024
Public Health Agency of Canada
FASD prevention school-based program for children and adolescents in urban, rural and First Nation schools of Ontario, Canada

Co-Investigator
Sept 2019- Dec 2023
Contract European Commission
Consumers, Health, Agriculture and Food Executive Agency (Chafea), Health and Food Safety Unit EU dimension of alcohol related harm – piloting brief interventions to reduce the risk of FAS/FASD, following up 1st and 2nd Standardized European Alcohol Survey (data from 33 countries) and providing support to Member States’ to strengthen their capacity to tackle alcohol related harm

Principal Investigator
Sept. 2017- Dec. 2022
World Health Organization (WHO), National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)
The International Collaborative Research Project on Alcohol, Health and Development: Determining the Prevalence and Incidence of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) and Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) in the Selected Countries
Serving as the data centre and providing methodology and technical support for a large-scale WHO-NIAAA study on estimation of prevalence of FASD among children in low- and middle-income countries of Eastern and Central Europe, Africa

Other Current Projects

Conducting several systematic literature reviews on maternal substance use and child outcomes

Representative Publications

Articles in Scholarly Refereed Journals

1. Popova, S., Hoyme, G., Charness, M., Riley, E., Crawford, A., Burd, L., Mukherjee, R., Elliott, E. (Personal invitation; 2023). Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder. Nature Reviews Disease Primers, 9(1), doi: 10.1038/s41572-023-00420-x. Impact Factor 65
2. Popova, S., Dozet, D., Pandya, E., Sanches, M., Brower, K., Segura, L., & Ondersma, S.J. (2023). Effectiveness of brief alcohol interventions for pregnant women: A systematic literature review and meta-analysis. BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth, 23(61), 1-17. doi: 10.1186/s12884-023-05344-8.
3. Popova, S., Dozet, D., Laboni S.A., Brower, K., & Temple, V. (2021). Why do women consume alcohol during pregnancy or while breastfeeding? Drug and Alcohol Review. DOI: 10.1111/dar.13425
4. Popova, S., Dozet, D., Shield, K., Rehm, J., and Burd, L. (2021). Alcohol’s Impact on the Fetus. Nutrients, special issue “The Impact of Alcoholic Beverages on Human Health”, 13, https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13103452
5. Popova, S., Lange, S., Shield, K., Burd, L., & Rehm, J. (2019). Prevalence of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder among special subpopulations: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Addiction, 114, 1150–1172. Available from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/add.14598
6. Popova, S., Lange, S., Probst, C., Gmel, G., & Rehm, J. (2017). Estimation of national, regional, and global prevalence of alcohol use during pregnancy and fetal alcohol syndrome: a systematic review and meta-analysis. The Lancet Global Health, 5(3), e290–e299. Available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S2214-109X(17)30021-9
7. Popova, S., Lange, S., Shield, K., Mihic, A., Chudley, A. E., Mukherjee, R. A. S., Bekmuradov, D., & Rehm, J. (2016). Co-morbidity of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder: A systematic literature review and meta-analysis. The Lancet, 387, 978-8. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(15)01345-8. Available from http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(15)01345-8/abstract

Book Chapters

1. Popova S., & Dozet D. (in press). Epidemiology of Prenatal Alcohol Exposure. In: O.A. Rahman & C.L.M. Petrenko (Eds.). “Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders: A Multidisciplinary Approach”. Springer Nature, Switzerland.
2. Popova, S., Rehm, J., & Shield, K. (in press). Epidemiology of alcohol consumption among pregnant and childbearing age women and Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder. In: Eisenstat, D., Yager, J., Oberlander, T., and Goldowitz, D. (Eds.). Neurodevelopmental Pediatrics: Genetic and Environmental Influences, book chapter. New York, USA: Springer Science plus Business Media, LLC.
3. Burd, L., & Popova, S. (2022). Mothers of children with FASD. Book chapter for “Handbook of Substance Misuse and Addictions: From Biology to Public Health”, B. Patel, V. R. Preedy (Eds.). Springer Nature, Switzerland. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-67928-6_64-1
4. Dozet, D., Burd, L., & Popova, S. (2022). Alcohol use screening in pregnant and childbearing aged women: Practices and implications. In: Chudley, A.E., Hicks, G.G. (Eds.) Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder. Advances in Research and Practice. Neuromethods, vol 188. Humana, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-2613-9_11
5. Popova, S., Rehm, J., & Shield, K. (2020). Global alcohol epidemiology: Focus on women of childbearing age. In A.L. Begun, & M.M. Murray, (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Social Work and Addictive Behaviors, (pp. 39-57). NY: Routledge. ISBN 9780367195540. https://bookshelf.vitalsource.com/#/books/9780429515132/cfi/6/22!/4@0:0
6. Burd, L., Burd, M., Klug, M.G., Kerbeshian, J., Popova, S. (2019). Comorbidity and Intellectual Disability. In: Matson J.L. (Eds.) Handbook of Intellectual Disabilities. Autism and Child Psychopathology Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20843-1_8
7. Popova, S., Lange, S., Foster, K., Rehm, J., & Burd, L. (2019). Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder. In: Damico, J.S. and Ball, M.J. (Eds). SAGE Encyclopedia of Human Communication Sciences and Disorders: SAGE Publications, Inc. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781483380810.n248

More publications are available at PubMed