Vibha Bhargava

Dr. Vibha Bhargava is a Research Professor in the College of Family and Consumer Sciences at the University of Georgia, housed within the Department of Financial Planning, Housing and Consumer Economics. She also holds an appointment in Nutritional Sciences and serves as an Evaluation Specialist, bridging research and policy impact.

Education

• Ph.D. in Family Resource Management, Ohio State University (2007)
• M.S. in Consumer and Family Economics, University of Missouri-Columbia (2002)
• M.S. in Home Science, Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, India (1997)
• B.S. in Home Science, Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, India (1995)

Research Interests

Dr. Bhargava’s scholarship centers on how social, economic, and public policy factors shape the health and health-care decisions of individuals and families across the lifespan. Her work disentangles the pathways linking food insecurity to physical and mental health outcomes, evaluates the protective role of public assistance programs (e.g., SNAP, Medicare), and examines the influence of health literacy on older adults’ health-care utilization.

Publication Themes & Trends

Spanning 2012–2019, her 12 selected articles reveal a consistent focus on vulnerable populations—low-income households, older adults, and adolescents—within the intersecting domains of nutrition, health economics, and consumer finance. Studies repeatedly leverage large survey datasets to quantify how food insecurity exacerbates chronic disease, increases out-of-pocket medical spending, and undermines medication adherence. Parallel threads explore financial resilience after bankruptcy and the integration of complementary medicine into conventional care.

Awards & Honors

No specific scientific awards or fellowships were mentioned in the provided text.

Advising & Grants

Dr. Bhargava mentors a robust cohort of graduate researchers, including Ph.D. and M.S. students whose names appear as co-authors across her publications. While explicit grant numbers are absent, the breadth and continuity of funded projects (e.g., SNAP evaluation, produce prescription pilots) indicate sustained external funding from agencies such as USDA, NIH, or private foundations.

Labs & Teams

She conducts interdisciplinary research that straddles the Institute on Human Development and Disability and collaborates closely with faculty in Nutritional Sciences and Human Development and Family Science, forming synergistic teams to address complex socio-health challenges.