Seminar – Real life investigations of Sustainability Conundrums: Drawing together Human Behaviour and Living Lab approaches
2019-01-30 12:30 - 13:30 UTC | MRC Epidemiology meeting rooms 1&2, Level 3 IMS, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge, CB2 0SL, United Kingdom
All are invited to the CEDAR/MRC Epidemiology Seminar by:

Dr Amy Munro-Faure, Living Laboratory for Sustainability, University of Cambridge.
Real life investigations of Sustainability Conundrums: Drawing together Human Behaviour and Living Lab approaches
MRC Epidemiology Unit meeting rooms 1 and 2, Institute of Metabolic Science, Cambridge Biomedical Campus

Abstract

Understanding how to study theoretical empirical questions in real life scenarios with the messy data associated with it is a complex problem.
In this talk I will address this challenge from two perspectives. Firstly, my PhD research focussed on understanding how human cooperative behaviour changes when it is studied in a laboratory in comparison to large scale naturalistic observational studies.
Secondly I will talk about it from a far more applied point of view using examples of past and present Living Laboratory projects where research has been used to inform operations.

About Dr Munro-Faure

I’ve recently come to Cambridge to work in the University’s Environment and Energy Section running the Living Laboratory for Sustainability.
Prior to this I did a PhD in Evolutionary Biology at the University of Edinburgh looking at Variation in Human Cooperative Behaviour. During this time I did a policy placement at the Royal Society on climate change policy. In Edinburgh I also set up an art-science collaborative and ran workshops to encourage creative and lateral thinking around hypothesis generation and communicating science.
I have a masters in Biodiversity, Evolution and Conservation from UCL and have worked on a number of research projects varying from conservation metrics at ZSL to bowerbird behaviour with the University of Exeter.

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Seminar - Longitudinal growth modeling: a tool for genetic discovery
2019-02-15 13:30 - 14:30 | Seminar room 2, University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine, CB2 0SP, University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine, Cambridge, CB2 0SP, United Kingdom
All are invited to the CEDAR/MRC Epidemiology Seminar by:

Dr Diana Cousminer, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, University of Philadelphia.
Longitudinal growth modeling: a tool for genetic discovery
Seminar room 2, University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine, CB2 0SP

Abstract

Distinct growth patterns during adolescence correlate with adverse health outcomes such as poor cardiometabolic health and risk for osteoporosis, but the genetic mechanisms mediating differences in growth trajectories remain largely unknown. Longitudinal modeling using SuperImposition by Translation and Rotation (SITAR) breaks down complex growth trajectories into three components, “size”, “timing”, and “velocity.” We utilize these parameters as phenotypes for input into genome-wide association studies (GWAS), to better understand the genetic determinants of increase in bone mineral density at distinct skeletal sites and height growth.

About Dr Cousminer

Dr Diana Cousminer is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania. She received her PhD in Medical Genetics from the University of Helsinki and the Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland. Dr Cousminer’s work focuses on the genetics of early life traits, in particular the timing of puberty and pubertal growth, and how these traits are linked to later life health outcomes such as diabetes, cardiometabolic health, and osteoporosis.

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Bradford Hill Seminar: Making evidence credible for public health policy
2019-03-01 13:00 - 14:00 | Large Seminar Room, Cambridge Institute of Public Health, Forvie Site, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge, CB2 0SR, United Kingdom
Bradford Hill Seminar
Making evidence credible for public health policy
Dr Kathryn Oliver, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Large Seminar Room, 1st Floor, Institute of Public Health, University Forvie Site, Robinson Way, Cambridge CB2 0SR
Abstract
Debates about the role of evidence in policymaking have tended to focus primarily on how to increase the influence of academic research evidence on policy. This approach to the role of knowledge in policy sidesteps the question of what types of knowledge are used and valued in policymaking, and how different forms of knowledge may interact with policy. Drawing on 55 interviews with policymakers and academics, I explore how personal/institutional characteristics and processes are judged to confer credibility to knowledge for policy in informal and formal contexts. Using the generation of credibility as a lens to understand the effects of these values on scientific and policy processes allows us to understand the broader strengths and limitations of different forms of knowledge within the policy arena. I explore the implications of these strengths and limitations of credible knowledge in policy practices, and place our conclusions within a discussion of current approaches to understanding the role of knowledge in policymaking. I close with some reflections on the importance of transparent and reflexive policymaking and knowledge-generation practices, and the implications of this for public health.
This talk is part of the Bradford Hill seminar series hosted by Cambridge Institute of Public Health.

Seminar - The Economics of Infectious Disease - Flavio Toxvaerd, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge
2019-03-21 11:00 - 12:00 | Meeting rooms, Level 4 Institute of Metabolic Science, Addenbrooke’s Treatment Centre (ATC), Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge, CB2 0SL, United Kingdom
All are invited to the CEDAR/MRC Epidemiology Seminar:

The Economics of Infectious Disease
Dr Flavio Toxvaerd, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
Meeting Rooms 1&2, Level 4, Institute of Metabolic Science, Cambridge Biomedical Campus.
Watch Dr Toxvaerd’s presentation on our YouTube channel.
Abstract
This talk will give a self-contained introduction to the economics of infectious diseases. This is a growing field of interdisciplinary study which applies ideas from economics, mathematical optimisation and game theory to the study and management of infectious diseases. The talk will first introduce the classical epidemiological models studied in public health and biology and then show how ideas from economics can be used in conjunction with the classical models to inform public health policies.
About Dr Toxvaerd
Dr Flavio Toxvaerd is a University Lecturer at the Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge and a fellow of Clare College. His main research interests include microeconomic theory, game theory and economic epidemiology. His research has been published in the Journal of Economic Theory, the RAND Journal of Economics, the Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control and the Journal of Theoretical Biology. Outside of academia, he has acted as a consultant for both the private and public sectors. He has also served as the Senior Economic Advisor to the Review on Antimicrobial Resistance (set up by HM Treasury and the Wellcome Trust).
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Seminar – Responding to Revolution; Utilising new methods to explore the relationship between transport, health and urban design
2019-06-27 12:30 - 13:30 | MRC Epidemiology meeting rooms 1&2, Level 3 IMS, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge, CB2 0SL, United Kingdom
All are invited to the CEDAR/MRC Epidemiology Seminar by:

Dr Jason Thompson, University of Melbourne, Transport, Health and Urban Design Research Hub.
Responding to Revolution; Utilising new methods to explore the relationship between transport, health and urban design
MRC Epidemiology Unit meeting rooms 1 and 2, Institute of Metabolic Science, Cambridge Biomedical Campus

Abstract

The last decade years has seen increasing encroachment of computer science into domains that were once solely the preserve of health, transport, and/or social scientists. Keeping up with these advancements and understanding how researchers from more traditional scientific domains can integrate new methods into their work plans is challenging.
This presentation will detail multiple innovations Melbourne University’s Transport, Health and Urban Design Research Hub is making that integrate expertise from across computer science, mathematics, engineering, epidemiology, design, and psychology to create truly novel and interdisciplinary research outputs with significant real-world application.

About Dr Thompson

Dr Jason Thompson holds a PhD in Medicine, Masters in Clinical Psychology, and a Bachelor of Science with Honours.
Dr Thompson’s work is focused on the translation of research into practice across the areas of transportation safety, public health, post-injury rehabilitation, and health system design.
Dr Thompson is a current Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Research Fellow. His DECRA project is focused on challenges associated with the introduction of Autonomous vehicles on the operation and sustainability of Australia’s $5b personal injury insurance market. In particular, how this transition will change injury rates and types, the operation of compensation and rehabilitation systems, and how these systems’ responses will shape the autonomous vehicle market, itself.

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Talk - Challenges and opportunities in developing technology based approaches to assessing dietary intake
2019-06-28 13:00 - 14:00 | MRC Epidemiology meeting rooms 1&2, Level 3 IMS, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge, CB2 0SL, United Kingdom
All are invited to a talk by:

Clare Collins, Professor of Nutrition and Dietetics at the University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia.
Challenges and opportunities in developing technology based approaches to assessing dietary intake
MRC Epidemiology Unit meeting rooms 1 and 2, Institute of Metabolic Science, Cambridge Biomedical Campus

About Professor Collins

Clare Collins is a Professor of Nutrition and Dietetics in the School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Health and Medicine at the University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia. Professor Collins hold a prestigious NHMRC Senior Research Fellowship. She is currently Director of Research for the School of Health Sciences and is Deputy Director of the Priority Research Centre for Physical Activity and Nutrition.
Her research is conducted in collaboration with the Hunter Medical Research Institute’s (HMRI) Cardiovascular Program. HMRI is a partnership between the University, the Hunter New England Local Health District and the community.
Her innovative and world leading research creates new technologies to evaluate nutrition and dietary intake, and how improving nutrition, diet quality, food patterns can facilitate improved weight and health across all ages and stages of life and for those with chronic health conditions.
Professor Collins has developed technology based tools for dietary assessment, including the Healthy Eating Quiz and the Australian Eating Survey.

Seminar – Overview of Road Safety Globally - Dr Kavi Bhalla
2019-09-18 12:30 - 13:30 | Meeting rooms, Level 4 Institute of Metabolic Science, Addenbrooke’s Treatment Centre (ATC), Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge, CB2 0SL, United Kingdom
All are invited to the CEDAR/MRC Epidemiology Seminar:

Overview of Road Safety Globally
Dr Kavi Bhalla, Assistant Professor, Department of Public Health Sciences of the Biological Sciences Division & Faculty at the Harris School of Public Policy, University of Chicago.

Meeting Rooms 1&2, Level 4, Institute of Metabolic Science, Cambridge Biomedical Campus.
Abstract
As the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety (2011-2020) draws to a close, it is clear that the Sustainable Development Goal of reducing global road traffic deaths by half by 2020 will not be met. In most low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), traffic injuries are rising or stable at a high level. In contrast, traffic deaths in high-income countries (HICs) have been steadily declining for five decades. The talk will present econometric analysis of historic data to argue that the success of HICs resulted from establishing regulatory agencies that conducted large-scale safety interventions. We will explore the implications for LMICs, providing case studies of the development of similar institutions and their activities.
About Dr Bhalla
Kavi Bhalla, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences of the Biological Sciences Division at the University of Chicago, and Affiliated Faculty at the Harris School of Public Policy. His research aims to develop transport systems that are safe, sustainable and equitable, with a central focus on road safety in low- and middle-income countries. His recent work has focused on the development of analytical tools for improving estimates of the incidence of injuries in information-poor settings using available data sources. Kavi co-led the injury expert group of the 2010 Global Burden of Disease Project. He is formally trained as a mechanical engineer and his PhD (Cornell, 2001) thesis research focused on the mechanics of material failure, which he later applied to the study of injury biomechanics and vehicle crashworthiness.
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Seminar – Nutritional Psychiatry: recent advances in evidence for diet and nutrition for mental and brain health - Professor Felice N Jacka
2019-10-16 12:30 - 13:30 | Meeting rooms, Level 4 Institute of Metabolic Science, Addenbrooke’s Treatment Centre (ATC), Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge, CB2 0SL, United Kingdom
All are invited to the CEDAR/MRC Epidemiology Seminar:

Nutritional Psychiatry: recent advances in evidence for diet and nutrition for mental and brain health
Professor Felice N Jacka, Food & Mood Centre, Deakin University, Australia.

Meeting Rooms 1&2, Level 4, Institute of Metabolic Science, Cambridge Biomedical Campus.
Download slides of Professor Jacka’s presentation.
Abstract
Unhealthy diet is now the leading cause of early death in men, and number two globally. Professor Jacka has pioneered and led the development of a large and robust body of evidence showing that unhealthy diet is also a key risk factor for psychiatric illnesses such as depression and anxiety and is recognised as a research leader in this new field.
In this presentation, she will provide an up-to-date overview of the evidence regarding the impact of diet on mental and brain health across age groups, countries and cultures. She will then focus on the new research addressing the microbiome-gut-brain axis in mood and behaviour. Finally, she will discuss new evidence for diet as a clinical strategy for improving mental and brain health and discuss the research activities being undertaken at the Food & Mood Centre.
About Professor Jacka
Professor Felice Jacka is director of the Food & Mood Centre at Deakin University. She is founder and president of the International Society for Nutritional Psychiatry Research (ISNPR) and immediate past president of the Australian Alliance for the Prevention of Mental Disorders (APMD). Professor Jacka has pioneered and led a highly innovative program of research that examines how individuals’ diets interact with the risk for mental health problems. Her current work focuses closely on the links between diet, gut health and mental and brain health. This research is being carried out with the ultimate goal of developing new, evidence-based prevention and treatment strategies for mental disorders. She is listed in the top ten most highly-cited researchers in mood disorders in Australia (Scopus). She has recently published a book for the general public called ‘Brain Changer’ through Pan Macmillan Press and Yellow Kite in the UK.
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Seminar - Politics, policy and the absence of evidence: decision making about speed restrictions in Edinburgh and Belfast.
2019-11-06 12:30 - 13:30 | Meeting rooms, Level 4 Institute of Metabolic Science, Addenbrooke’s Treatment Centre (ATC), Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge, CB2 0SL, United Kingdom
All are invited to the CEDAR/MRC Epidemiology Seminar:
Politics, policy and the absence of evidence: decision making about speed restrictions in Edinburgh and Belfast.
Professor Mike Kelly, Primary Care Unit, Institute of Public Health, Cambridge.

Meeting Rooms 1&2, Level 4, Institute of Metabolic Science, Cambridge Biomedical Campus.
Abstract
The cities of Edinburgh and Belfast have both introduced 20mph speed restrictions on certain of their roads in recent years. This has been advanced in both places as offering a mixture of transport and public health benefits. NIHR have funded an evaluation of the consequences of the decisions. One part of that broader investigation has been a study of the way evidence was (and was not) part of the decision making process. This paper reports some findings about the processes involved and the ways that that decision makers worked to get the schemes introduced.
About Professor Kelly
Mike Kelly is Senior Visiting Fellow in the Department of Public Health and Primary Care at the Institute of Public Health in Cambridge. Between 2005 and 2014, when he retired, he was the Director of the Centre for Public Health at NICE. From 2005 to 2007 he directed the methodology work stream for the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) Commission on the Social Determinants of Health. His research interests include the prevention of non-communicable disease, living with chronic illness, health inequalities, health related behaviour change, end of life care, dental public health, the relationship between evidence and policy and the methods and philosophy of evidence based medicine.
Twitter: @Mk744P
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Seminar - Community engagement to prevent and control diabetes in Bangladesh
2019-11-20 12:30 - 13:30 | Meeting rooms, Level 4 Institute of Metabolic Science, Addenbrooke’s Treatment Centre (ATC), Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge, CB2 0SL, United Kingdom
All are invited to the CEDAR/MRC Epidemiology Seminar:
Community engagement to prevent and control diabetes in Bangladesh.
Dr Ed Fottrell, Director, UCL Centre for Global Non-Communicable Diseases.

Meeting Rooms 1&2, Level 4, Institute of Metabolic Science, Cambridge Biomedical Campus.
Abstract
Learning from experience of community mobilisation to improve maternal and child health, we developed two distinct population based interventions to prevent and control diabetes within rural communities in Bangladesh. The first intervention was an mHealth health promotion strategy delivered to individual’s mobile phones. The second was a participatory community mobilisation intervention whereby community groups identified and addressed key threats to their health in their own communities. The interventions were evaluated using a three arm cluster-randomised controlled trial across 96 villages covering a population of approximately 125,000 individuals. This presentation will describe the development of these interventions, their implementation and impact.
About Dr Fottrell
Dr Fottrell is an Associate Professor in Epidemiology & Global Health at University College London. He is experienced in community health measurement, intervention development and evaluation in Africa and Asia. He has a history of research into maternal, neonatal and child health, verbal autopsy, non-communicable diseases, community interventions and mHealth. Dr Fottrell is Director of the UCL Centre for Global Non-communicable Diseases and is PI of the GACD/MRC-funded DMagic and D:Clare projects – implementation science and cluster trials to address diabetes in Bangladesh.
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Seminar - Assessing the impacts of the introduction of South Africa’s tax on sugar-sweetened beverages
2020-01-23 13:00 - 14:00 | MRC Epidemiology meeting rooms 1&2, Level 3 IMS, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge, CB2 0SL, United Kingdom
All are invited to the CEDAR/MRC Epidemiology Seminar:
Assessing the impacts of the introduction of South Africa’s tax on sugar-sweetened beverages.
Nicholas Stacey, Department of Health Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science & SAMRC Centre for Health Economics and Decision Science, School of Public Health, University of the Witwatersrand.

MRC Epidemiology Unit meeting rooms 1 and 2, Institute of Metabolic Science, Cambridge Biomedical Campus.
Abstract
In response to an increasingly severe obesity and diet-related disease burden, on April 1 2018 South Africa implemented a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages titled the Health Promotion Levy (HPL). Like the UK’s Soft Drinks Industry Levy (SDIL), this tax is levied according to the sugar content of beverages. Unlike the UK’s SDIL, the HPL does not use discrete rate tiers and is rather levied at a constant rate per gram of sugar (over an initial threshold). This presentation will highlight findings from an ongoing evaluation of the HPL emphasizing heterogeneity in effects by products’ sugar content and heterogeneity in household responses by socio-economic status.
About Nicholas Stacey
Nicholas Stacey is a health economist and researcher at the SAMRC Centre for Health Economics and Decision Science at the School of Public Health of the University of the Witwatersrand and is a PhD student at the Department of Health Policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science. His research interests and published work are on excise taxes and the use of public policy to influence behavioural determinants of health and health inequalities in South Africa and other low- and middle-income countries.
Twitter: @nick__stacey
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Transforming Healthcare: Prevention of type 2 Diabetes - Professor Nick Wareham
2020-01-29 18:00 - 19:00 | Lee Hall, Wolfson College, University of Cambridge, Barton Road, Cambridge, CB3 9BB, Wolfson College, Cambridge, CB3 9BB
Type 2 diabetes affects almost 500 million people around the world. MRC Epidemiology Unit Director Professor Nick Wareham talks about how efforts to prevent it need to reflect this.

About this Event

Type 2 diabetes is a major cause of ill health and mortality. The latest estimate for 2019 is that 463 million people have diabetes and that by 2045 this number will have risen to 700 million. As 80% of people with diabetes live in low and middle income countries and the disorder principally affects people in their economically active years, this global epidemic needs to be seen not only as a clinical and public health problem, but rather as a societal challenge that impacts on sustainable development. The solutions to this growing public health crisis need to reflect this broader societal perspective.
FREE registration at: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/transforming-health-care-through-prevention-prevention-of-type-2-diabetes-tickets-88484538637

Transforming Health Care Through Prevention - Primary Care at the Forefront
2020-02-19 18:00 - 19:15 | Lee Hall, Wolfson College, University of Cambridge, Barton Road, Cambridge, CB3 9BB, Wolfson College, Cambridge, CB3 9BB
There is a long tradition of disease prevention in primary care” but “over-stretched primary care teams are struggling to meet the needs of patients with existing disease.
In this lecture Professor Simon Griffin, the Unit’s Programme Leader for Prevention of Diabetes and Related Metabolic Disorders in High Risk Groups, will share some thoughts on how we might square the circle and efficiently deliver effective prevention in primary care.
FREE registration at: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/transforming-health-care-through-prevention-primary-care-at-the-forefront-tickets-90622756103
This event is part of the Wolfson Explores Transformation lecture series.

Seminar – Applications of geospatial data and methods in environmental epidemiology
2020-02-20 12:00 - 13:00 | MRC Epidemiology meeting rooms 1&2, Level 3 IMS, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge, CB2 0SL, United Kingdom
All are invited to the CEDAR/MRC Epidemiology Seminar:
Applications of geospatial data and methods in environmental epidemiology.
S.M. Labib, Department of Geography, School of Environment, Education and Development (SEED), University of Manchester.

MRC Epidemiology Unit meeting rooms 1 and 2, Institute of Metabolic Science, Cambridge Biomedical Campus.
Download slides of S.M. Labib‘s presentation.
Abstract
Geospatial data and methods are widely integrated with environmental epidemiology and public health research. This talk explores the applications of spatial data and methods in research on environmental epidemiology in urban areas. It provides case studies on the availability and applications of spatial data (e.g., satellite and drone images) and modelling approaches (e.g., coupling systems, machine learning) used to identify and understand environmental patterns and processes. Then, it explores how spatial dimensions (e.g., data-resolution, scale) influence the relationships between environment and health outcomes and discusses emerging approaches used to apply spatial data and methods when focusing on urban greenspace and health.
About S.M. Labib
S.M. Labib is a final year PhD student at the University of Manchester (UoM). Labib’s multidisciplinary academic background encompasses quantitative geography, urban planning, and environmental sciences. He completed MSc in Geographical Information Science from the UoM. Before that, he obtained a BSc in Urban and Regional Planning from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, with a specialisation in sustainable urban transportation and emission modelling. His PhD research focused on environmental health issues, Labib is developing new approaches to model green space exposure using innovative geospatial methods and big-spatial data.
Website: www.smlabib.com
Twitter: @smlabib
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The NCD emergency, intergenerational inequality, and the urgent need for systems change
2020-03-06 18:00 - 19:15 | Lee Hall, Wolfson College, University of Cambridge, Barton Road, Cambridge, CB3 9BB, Wolfson College, Cambridge, CB3 9BB
The only way is upstream: the NCD emergency, intergenerational inequality and the urgent need for system change.
A free public lecture by Professor Martin White, Programme Leader for Population Health Interventions at the MRC Epidemiology Unit.
FREE registration at: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/transforming-health-care-through-prevention-the-ncd-emergency-tickets-90624019883
This event is part of the Wolfson Explores Transformation lecture series.

Let food be thy medicine - Talk by Professor Nita Forouhi
2020-03-09 19:30 - 21:00 | Wolfson Hall, Churchill College, Storey's Way, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB3 0DS, United Kingdom
Type 2 diabetes is one of the biggest global public health challenges, also placing a massive burden in the U.K. on people with diabetes, their families and the wider society. Urgent solutions are needed to help individuals with this condition as well as to prevent those at risk from developing it in the future. Dietary factors can play a pivotal role in the prevention, management and even the possible reversal of type 2 diabetes, but there is also a lot of confusion and noise out there, with conflicting dietary advice.
In this Cambridge Society for the Application of Research (CSAR) lecture Professor Nita Forouhi, Programme Leader for Nutritional Epidemiology programme at the MRC Epidemiology Unit, aims to cut through this confusion to provide clarity.
CSAR lectures are open to members only, but CSAR welcome new members and would encourage you join CSAR online in advance of the event you wish to attend.
More information about this talk.

Seminar - Healthy Cities from the Bottom Up: A Human-centred Approach to Urban and Transport Planning
2020-03-18 12:30 - 13:30 | Online, United Kingdom
All are invited to the CEDAR/MRC Epidemiology Seminar:
Healthy Cities from the Bottom Up: A Human-centred Approach to Urban and Transport Planning
Dr Andy Hong, Nuffield Department of Women’s & Reproductive Health, University of Oxford.
Watch a recording of this online seminar on Zoom.
Download the slides from this seminar as a PDF.
Abstract
The rise of chronic diseases coupled with rapid urbanisation presents both challenges and opportunities for cities around the world. However, much of the contemporary urban planning paradigm still rely on top-down approaches to urban development focused on automobility. A more integrated approach to urban and transport planning that supports human-scale urban development is needed. This requires collecting and analysing vast amounts of big data while integrating more nuanced and contextualised information about human behaviours and risk factors.
In this talk, I will discuss some of the key health challenges linked to urban and transport planning, and share lessons and experiences from my research to support and guide local decisions and investments to make healthy cities from the bottom up.
About Dr Hong
Andy Hong is a Lead Urban Health Scientist at The George Institute for Global Health (UK), University of Oxford. Andy is also Co-founder of the Healthy Cities Network, a global nexus of innovators dedicated to sharing cutting-edge information on urban health. He completed his Ph.D. at the University of Southern California and his graduate and undergraduate studies at the University of Washington. His research interests lie at the nexus of urban planning, transport, and public health. He has collaborated actively with international experts, particularly for the development of evidence-based policy solutions to a wide range of global health challenges, from promoting physical activity to reducing the environmental burden of disease in marginalised communities. Andy previously held positions at the University of British Columbia, the Korea Transport Institute, and Nelson/Nygaard Consulting Associates.
Website
Twitter: @DrAndyHong
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Seminar - Introducing the Propensity to Cycle Tool and explaining the new health impact calculation methods
2020-04-01 11:00 - 12:00 | Online, United Kingdom
All are invited to the CEDAR/MRC Epidemiology Seminar:
Introducing the Propensity to Cycle Tool and explaining the new health impact calculation methods.
Dr Anna Goodman, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and Dr Rachel Aldred, University of Westminster, London.

Watch the seminar by Dr Aldred and Dr Goodman on our Youtube channel.
About the Propensity to Cycle Tool
The Propensity to Cycle Tool (PCT) is an open source transport planning system that was designed to assist transport planners and policy makers to prioritise investments and interventions to promote cycling. The PCT answers the question: ‘where is cycling currently common and where does cycling have the greatest potential to grow?’.
The PCT can be used at different scales, either as a strategic planning tool or on a smaller scale, for example to use the level of commuter cycling along a particular road to estimate future mode share for cycling on that corridor under different scenarios.

Download the PCT Essentials document

About Dr Goodman
Anna has an epidemiology background and specialises in the field of sustainable transport, with a particular focus on promoting walking and cycling. One of her key research interests is the potential to use primary, secondary or register-based data to evaluate population-level transport interventions, including through natural experimental designs. She also collaborates with CEDAR on various projects in modelling the health and environmental impacts of different transport scenarios.
Profile on the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine website.
About Dr Aldred
Rachel is Director of the Active Travel Academy and Reader in Transport at the University of Westminster. Rachel has ten years’ experience of researching active travel, and has made contributions to the field in areas including conceptualising and calculating active travel potential, developing methods for evaluation research, near miss studies, applying epidemiological methods to active travel injury risk, and exploring cultures of active travel, including processes of stigmatisation and marginalisation. She has published more than 25 peer-reviewed papers in these areas, and was in 2016 awarded the ESRC Prize for Outstanding Impact in Public Policy.

Rachel Aldred personal website

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Seminar - How does it work? Using process tracing methods to study policy processes
2020-04-08 13:00 - 14:00 | Online, United Kingdom
All are invited to the CEDAR/MRC Epidemiology Seminar:
How does it work? Using process tracing methods to study policy processes.
Professor Derek Beach, Department of Political Science, Aarhus University, Denmark.

Watch a recording of this seminar.
Download the slides from Professor Beach`s presentation ad a PDF.
Abstract
In recent years the process tracing method has become increasingly popular in case studies as well as in political science and political economy methodological debates. It is a method for studying causal mechanisms linking causes with outcomes. This enables the researcher to make strong inferences about how a cause (or set of causes) contributes to producing an outcome. Professor Beach will provide an introduction to using this method and explain why it is fast becoming a popular tool to study complex phenomenon such as policy processes.
About Professor Beach
Derek Beach is a professor of Political Science at Aarhus University in Denmark, where he teaches international relations, European integration and case study methodology.
He has authored articles, chapters, and books on research methodology, international negotiations and European integration, and co-authored the books Process-tracing Methods: Foundations and Guidelines (2013) and Causal Case Study Methods (2016).
He has taught qualitative case study methods at ECPR and IPSA summer and winter schools, held numerous workshops and seminars on qualitative methods throughout the world, and is the academic co-convenor of the ECPR Methods Schools.
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Seminar - Movement behaviours and parenting in the first two years of life
2020-04-16 12:30 - 13:30 | Online, United Kingdom
All are invited to a CEDAR/MRC Epidemiology Seminar:
Movement behaviours and parenting in the first two years of life.
Dr Alessandra Prioreschi, Associate Director of the SAMRC Developmental Pathways for Health Research Unit, University of the Witwatersrand.
Watch a recording of this seminar.
Download the slides from Dr Prioreschi`s seminar as a PDF.
Abstract
Many children lack the stimulation needed to support healthy growth and development. Recent international movement guidelines for physical activity, sedentary behaviour and sleep for the early years (0-5 years) prescribe that in the first two years of life, infants should be provided with as much stimulation and opportunity to be active as possible, in order to improve motor and cognitive development and growth.
Interactive play (cognitively stimulating play with a caregiver, resulting in increased infant movement, attachment, relationship building, and learning) can improve childhood growth and developmental through biological pathways linked to infant movement, and through nurturing care.
From my formative work, I have explored and developed methodology for objectively measuring infant movement using 24-hour accelerometry. Assessment of caregiver-infant interactions using headcams (small cameras which are worn on headbands on both infants and caregivers for a period of time while interacting, which provide a first person view of the interaction from both infant and caregiver perspective) provide naturalistic and detailed measures of parenting styles.
I aim to ultimately combine these two novel measures of infant activity and caregiver-infant interaction to define optimal levels of interactive play. However, the feasibility of the headcam tool in Soweto, South Africa has not yet been explored.
About Dr Prioreschi
Allessandra is an Associate Director of the SAMRC/Wits Developmental Pathways for Health Research Unit (DPHRU).
She obtained her PhD in Exercise Physiology in 2014, in the School of Physiology at the University of the Witwatersrand. She then completed a postdoctoral fellowship at DPHRU, during which time she developed an interest in maternal and child health, specifically the effect of movement behaviours (physical activity, sedentary behavior and sleep) on infant growth, development and well being.
Alessandra has developed methodology for measuring infant movement; and was instrumental in the design, development and feasibility testing of an infant wearable band for the objective measurement of infant movement using accelerometry. Alessandra is particularly interested in how the care giving environment can influence infant movement and thus early childhood development.
Twitter: @A_Prioreschi
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Seminar - The Challenges of Meta-analysing Metabolomics Data; Experiences from the Consortium Of METabolomics Studies (COMETS)
2020-04-23 11:00 - 12:00 | Online, United Kingdom
All are invited to the CEDAR/MRC Epidemiology Seminar:
The Challenges of Meta-analysing Metabolomics Data; Experiences from the Consortium Of METabolomics Studies (COMETS).
Dr Rachel Kelly, Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital & Harvard Medical School, USA.

Watch a recording of this seminar.
Download the slides from Dr Kelly`s seminar as a PDF.
Abstract
Genetics teaches us that for highly-dimensional omic technologies sample size is key, and that necessary sample sizes can best be archived via meta-analyses. This poses a challenge for metabolomics due to its relative nature of measurement, the lack of a standardized metabolite nomenclature and differences in metabolome coverage between platforms. The Consortium Of METabolomics Studies (COMETS); has developed a novel workflow to deal with these issues for the first time. I will discuss our experiences with COMETS and how we have leveraged these developments to conduct largest and most comprehensive metabolomics of BMI study to date, including >100,000 adults from 43 cohorts worldwide.
About Dr Kelly
Rachel Kelly is an Instructor of Medicine and Associate Epidemiologist in the Channing Division of Network Medicine (CDNM) at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She has been working in the field of metabolomic epidemiology for nearly ten years, and her research focuses on chronic complex diseases, particularly respiratory and neurodevelopmental disorders, and on novel methods for the integration of metabolomics data with other omic data types. She completed her PhD at Imperial College London, and undertook postdoctoral fellowships at the Harvard School of Public Health and at the CDNM before transitioning to faculty at the CDNM in 2017.
ResearchGate profile
Twitter: @RachelSKelly4
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Seminar - Systems approaches to obesity: The lived experience of young people
2020-05-06 11:00 - 12:00 | Online, United Kingdom
All are invited to the CEDAR/MRC Epidemiology Seminar:
Systems approaches to obesity: The lived experience of young people.
Dr Wendy Wills, Professor of Food and Public Health, Director of the Centre for Research in Public Health and Community Care.
Watch a recording of this seminar.
Download the slides from Dr Wills seminar as a PDF.
Abstract
Doing nothing about obesity is not a realistic option but given the multiple and interlinked causes of excess weight, simplistic solutions are not effective at population level. Local authorities are adopting systems approaches to address obesity and one important element of such an approach is to understand public perceptions about ‘systems’ within a locality, i.e. the factors experienced as influencing weight.
In this seminar I will discuss the rationale for a consultation that enabled young people to talk about growing up in Stevenage, Hertfordshire. The consultation, part of the local authority agenda to plan healthy weight initiatives, considered the local factors linked with excess weight, from young people’s perspectives. Affordability, crime and anti-social behaviour, transport and places to go and eat were identified by young people as issues that influence obesity in their local area. These findings will inform the direction of preventative weight services.
About Professor Wills
Wendy is a sociologist and a registered nutritionist specialising in public health. Her research focuses on the social and socio-economic determinants of obesity, food practices and malnutrition and she has a particular interest in inequalities and how they are produced and experienced by different population groups. She leads the Prevention and Early Detection in Health and Social Care research theme for the NIHR ARC East of England and is Director of CRIPACC, a multi-disciplinary research centre at the University of Hertfordshire.
University of Hertfordshire profile
Twitter: @Wendy_J_Wills
LinkedIn profile
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Seminar - Movement behaviours and cognitive development in early childhood: Evidence, insights and interventions from South Africa
2020-05-13 11:30 - 12:30 | Online, United Kingdom
All are invited to the CEDAR/MRC Epidemiology Seminar:
Movement behaviours and cognitive development in early childhood: Evidence, insights and interventions from South Africa.
Dr Catherine Draper, MRC/Wits Developmental Pathways for Health Research Unit, University of the Witwatersrand.

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Download the slides from Dr Draper’s seminar as a PDF.
Abstract
This presentation will cover research on movement behaviours in young children from South Africa – a country with a double burden of over- and under-nutrition. While a focus of this research has been the development of strategies to prevent early childhood obesity, a purely obesity focus is not appropriate in the South African context. There has therefore been a need to position this work within a broader early childhood developmental framework that takes into account other constraints and priorities within low-income South African settings. This has led to an increased focus on understanding how movement behaviours relate to cognitive development in early childhood, including how to develop intervention strategies that take this into account.
About Dr Draper
Catherine has a background in Psychology and Public Health. Her research interests include the development and evaluation of community-based physical activity interventions for young children. Catherine is particularly interested in the preschool age group, and her current research is movement behaviours and cognitive development in early childhood.
Catherine led the development of the South African 24-hour movement guidelines for the birth to 5 years, and was a member of the WHO Guideline Development Group for guidelines on physical activity, sedentary behaviour and sleep in children under 5. She is currently the President of the International Society of Physical Activity and Health, and is a Fellow of the International Society of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity.
Twitter: @DrCathD
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Severo Ochoa Webinars - The Impacts of Active Transport: a Multi-Disciplinary Research and Practice Field - Session 1
2020-06-03 08:00 - 11:30 | Online, United Kingdom
Aims of the seminars

Bring together the international research and practitioner community in transport impact assessment
Learn about readily available tools to assess transport impacts or components of it (e.g. transport demand models for active travel)
Learn about state-of-the-art methods for the evaluation of transport impacts
Learn from practitioners and decision-makers what evidence and tools are useful to support investment in active travel
Establish an international transport impact assessment community

First Session
3 June 2020, 08.00-11.30h BST;
(Other time zones: 09.00 – 12.30h CEST (Central European Summer time), 17.00 – 20.30h AEST; 19:00 – 20.30h NZST)
First session agenda

Alex Macmillan, University of Otago | Mixed methods for achieving change in the community and in policy: Te Ara Mua Future Streets
Dhirendra Singh, RMIT University | Panacea or pain: Should my next transport system model be agent-based?
Joe Stordy, Transport for London | Measuring London’s progress towards Vision Zero
Emily Coldbeck, Infrastructure Victoria | Actively deciding and prioritizing: the challenges of planning and delivering active transport in Victoria
Bert van Wee, Delft University of Technology | How to assess the health impacts of active transport?
Audrey de Nazelle, Imperial College | Reducing air pollution: making the case for a systems approach
María José Rojo, Polis Network | Post-lockdown mobility planning. Reallocating space to promote active travel
Alexandre Santacreu, ITF/RPA | Preventing road deaths through mode shift: lessons from the ITF Safer City Streets network and micro mobility safety research
James Woodcock, University of Cambridge | Transport and health modelling next steps?

First session chairs

Mark Nieuwenhuijsen, ISGlobal
Belen Zapata-Diomedi, RMIT University

Register for the first session
The webinar session will take place via Zoom. Prior registration is required.
Please register at https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_0vwo1r1pSu21i1rhgzeVPg
Do you want to ask the speakers a question? Submit it here!

Severo Ochoa Webinars - The Impacts of Active Transport: a Multi-Disciplinary Research and Practice Field - Session 2
2020-06-03 16:00 - 19:30 | Online, United Kingdom
Aims of the seminars

Bring together the international research and practitioner community in transport impact assessment
Learn about readily available tools to assess transport impacts or components of it (e.g. transport demand models for active travel)
Learn about state-of-the-art methods for the evaluation of transport impacts
Learn from practitioners and decision-makers what evidence and tools are useful to support investment in active travel
Establish an international transport impact assessment community

Second Session
3 June 2020, 16.00-19.30h BST;
(Other time zones: 17.00 – 20.30h CEST (Central European Summer time), 17.00 – 20.30h AEST; 19:00 – 20.30h NZST)
Second session agenda

Rolf Moeckel, Technical University of Munich | Modeling Travel Behavior and Health Impacts
Susan Handy, University of California, Davis | Evaluating the benefits of bicycle and pedestrian projects in California.
Kelly Clifton, Portland State University | Representing Pedestrians in Travel Demand Models: Opportunities & Challenges
Neil Maizlish, Centre for Climate Change and Health | Advances in ITHIM Practice and Research, United States
Thomas Götschi, University of Oregon | HEAT Global: Adapting WHO’s Health Economic Assessment Tool for walking and cycling (HEAT) for a global audience
Rachel Aldred, University of Westminster | The Propensity to Cycle Tool: methods for modelling cycling potential for research and policy
Stefan Gössling, Lund University | Why cost-benefit analyses could (and should) inspire transport policies
Verónica Sánchez, Barcelona City Council | A new model of sustainable mobility: can public space change the way we move?

Second session chairs

Haneen Khreis, Texas A&M University
James Woodcock, University of Cambridge

Register for the second session
The webinar session will take place via Zoom. Prior registration is required.
Please register at https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_TAq_mi8jTP2S5GCpkEcYUQ
Do you want to ask the speakers a question? Submit it here!

Seminar - The Greek National Survey on Health and Nutrition (the HYDRIA Project)
2020-06-09 14:00 - 15:00 | Online, United Kingdom
All are invited to the CEDAR/MRC Epidemiology Seminar:
The Greek National Survey on Health and Nutrition (the HYDRIA Project)
Dr Elissavet Valanou, FSA – European Food Risk Assessment (EU-FORA) Fellow, Hellenic Health Foundation (HHF), Greece

Watch a recording of this seminar.
Download the slides from Dr Valanou’s seminar as a PDF.
Abstract
The presentation will be focused upon presenting the methodology followed in the Greek National Health and Nutrition Survey (HYDRIA) aiming to collect highly standardized data which is comparable to other European countries’ data on health status, dietary intakes, prevalence of overweight and obesity, and health-related lifestyle choices in a representative sample of the Greek resident population. Special emphasis will be given on the development of the automated 24-hour dietary recall instrument and the harmonization of the collected consumption data to the Foodex 2 classification and description system.
About Dr Valanou
Elissavet a Nutritionist with a Ph.D in Epidemiology with more than 12 years working experience in the field of epidemiology, nutrition and physical activity at the Medical University of Athens, Department of Epidemiology and, at the Hellenic Health Foundation. My main interest involves the assessment of the population health status by adopting international standards (protocols). While working on various EU and EFSA projects, as well as on the Greek National Dietary Survey, I gained expertise in the methodology of collecting, analysing, and evaluating consumption data, as well as an in-depth knowledge on the development and evaluation of a web-based 24-hour dietary recall tool.
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Seminar - Gestational Diabetes: a nutritional disorder?
2020-06-22 13:00 - 14:00 | Online, United Kingdom
All are invited to the CEDAR/MRC Epidemiology Seminar:
Gestational Diabetes: a nutritional disorder?
Dr Claire Meek, Wellcome-MRC Institute of Metabolic Science, University of Cambridge, UK.
Download the slides from Dr Meek’s seminar as a PDF.
Abstract
Gestational diabetes is the most common medical complication of pregnancy and is increasing in incidence worldwide. In this seminar we will cover the following topics:

aetiology and risk factors for gestational diabetes
diagnosis and clinical management
dietary aspects to gestational diabetes
interventions focusing on diet and physical activity.

About Dr Meek
Claire Meek is a consultant metabolic physician and a new group leader at the Institute of Metabolic Science. Her research interests include gestational diabetes and obesity in pregnancy. She has recently been awarded an intermediate clinical fellowship by Diabetes UK and a future leaders’ award from the European Foundation for the Study of Diabetes in association with the Novo Nordisk Foundation.
During her fellowship, she will run the DiGest study, a randomised, controlled, blinded clinical trial of a dietary intervention during late pregnancy in women with gestational diabetes. The aim of the study is to identify if a reduced calorie diet can reduce gestational weight gain and improve both pregnancy outcomes and maternal postpartum glucose homeostasis. Claire Meek works in the Institute of Metabolic Science and Metabolic Research Laboratories at the University of Cambridge.
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Seminar - INDDEX24: A Digital Solution for Streamlining Dietary Assessment in Low- and Middle-Income Countries - Dr Jennifer Coates
2020-07-28 14:00 - 15:00 | Online, United Kingdom
All are invited to the CEDAR/MRC Epidemiology Seminar:
INDDEX24: A Digital Solution for Streamlining Dietary Assessment in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
Dr Jennifer Coates, Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy.
Watch a recording of this seminar and download the slides as a PDF.
Abstract
Individual-level quantitative dietary data are often viewed as prohibitively expensive and time-consuming to generate, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The length and cost of this process is due, in large part, to the lack of available and accessible dietary data research infrastructure (i.e. food composition data, recipes, food descriptors, portion conversions, digital data collection tools). INDDEX24 is a novel solution to many of the challenges of scaling up dietary data collection in LMICs. It is comprised of a mobile application (app) for dietary data collection that is linked to a web app for managing and sharing dietary data inputs. To maximize the time and cost saving benefits of the platform, a concerted effort will be needed to populate the web app with dietary data inputs from LMICs.
About Dr Coates
Jennifer Coates, PhD is an Associate Professor of Food Policy and Applied Nutrition at the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. Dr. Coates’s research focuses on the development of methods for improving the design, implementation, and evaluation of international nutrition and food security programs. She also works to develop novel metrics and tools, including those related to food security and dietary assessment, for use in low and middle income countries. Dr. Coates has served on several advisory committees, including as Co-Chair of the WHO-UNICEF Technical Expert Advisory Group for Global Nutrition Monitoring (TEAM), and teaches graduate-level courses in food policy and program monitoring and evaluation at the Friedman School.
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Seminar - Need for standardization in the global surveillance of physical activity of children and youth
2020-08-25 13:00 - 14:00 | Online, United Kingdom
All are invited to the CEDAR/MRC Epidemiology Seminar:
Need for standardization in the global surveillance of physical activity of children and youth
Dr Salomé Aubert, Healthy Active Living and Obesity Research Center; Active Healthy Kids Global Alliance
Watch a recording of this seminar and download the slides as a PDF.
Abstract
Objective
To present findings from the available global surveillance systems of physical activity (PA) for children and youth (0-17 year-old), and to highlight research gaps and needs for their improvement.
Methods
Narrative review of the international surveillance systems, studies, and global initiatives collecting or compiling evidence on the PA among children and youth.
Results
PA surveillance systems lack standardization and are not conducted regularly. Surveillance data are mostly focused on older children and adolescents and are especially scarce for PA trends over time, vulnerable populations, and in resource-limited low-middle-income countries. Variation in the geographic patterns of PA levels are observed between studies, which could be attributed to the diversity of approaches used to measure PA.
Conclusions
There is a need for globally accepted and standardized measurement, reporting, and accountability protocols that countries can universally follow in order to have meaningful progress in the global surveillance and promotion of PA among children and youth.
About Dr Aubert
Salomé Aubert grew up in New-Caledonia but moved to France to complete three bachelor’s degrees at the Université de Rennes 2 between 2009 and 2012 in health and physical activity sciences.
She followed that with the completion of a MSc in which she worked on the quantitative and qualitative evaluation of the student’s lifestyle behaviour and conditions of living way of life in the city of Rennes. She has just completed her PhD in Population Health at the University of Ottawa under the supervision of Dr Mark Tremblay. Her work is focused on the international promotion of an active heathy lifestyle among children and youth.
Dr Aubert is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Active Healthy Kids Global Alliance. In her free time, she is also an artist and an outdoor enthusiast.
Twitter: @SalomeAubert
Instagram: @Salome.Aubert
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Seminar – Health as an asset: estimating the causal effects of health conditions and health behaviours on social and economic outcomes using Mendelian randomization
2020-09-15 11:00 - 12:00 | Online, United Kingdom
All are invited to the CEDAR/MRC Epidemiology Seminar:
Health as an asset: estimating the causal effects of health conditions and health behaviours on social and economic outcomes using Mendelian randomization
Dr Laura Howe, MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit at the University of Bristol
Watch a recording of this seminar and download the slides as a PDF.
Abstract
A vast body of literature describes the social determinants of health, identifying stark inequalities in many health conditions and health related behaviours. But relationships between health and social factors (such as socioeconomic position, social contact, and wellbeing) are potentially bidirectional; poor health may limit a person’s ability to achieve their full potential in education, employment or in their social life. Studying the social and socioeconomic consequences of health is fraught with difficulties due to the strong potential for confounding and reverse causation. In this talk, I will describe the use of Mendelian randomization to enhance causal inference in this topic, describing findings from UK Biobank and ALSPAC.
About Dr Howe
Laura Howe is a Reader in Epidemiology and Medical Statistics at the University of Bristol. Her two main interests are: i) the life course epidemiology of obesity and cardiovascular disease, and ii) the complex and bidirectional relationships between social factors (socioeconomic disadvantage, adverse childhood experiences) and health. Laura’s research uses statistical techniques for repeated measures data, and methods for the integration of genetic data into epidemiological studies.
Twitter:
@laurahowe_epi
@mrc_ieu
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