Double Epidemiological Seminar with Janet Rich-Edwards & George Davey Smith
Join us for a Double Epidemiological Seminar on Thursday, May 22nd from 1:00 to 3:30 pm at the Center for Health and Society (CSS). Janet Rich-Edwards from Harvard and George Davey Smith from Bristol will be our distinguished speakers. The seminar will be followed by coffee and cake.
Participation is free and open to everyone, so bring you colleague along.
Agenda
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1-2 pm |
Janet Rich-Edwards, Associate Professor of Epidemiology at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health will talk about:
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2 – 2.30 pm |
Break with coffee and cake.
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2.30 – 3.30 pm |
George Davey Smith, Director of the MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit and Professor of Clinical Epidemiology at Bristol Medical School will talk about:
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Abstracts
The Predictive Pregnancy: What pregnancy history can and can’t tell us about risk of maternal chronic disease
For most of their history, cardiovascular medicine and women’s reproductive health existed in separate silos, thought to be independent systems. But linkage of birth and mortality records - largely from Nordic registries – revealed the degree to which common pregnancy complications were associated with later maternal cardiovascular morbidity and mortality.
Associations between the hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, gestational diabetes, and preterm delivery with future coronary heart disease, stroke and heart failure are now well-established. But are these associations causal, or is pregnancy ‘merely’ a physiological stress test that unmasks preclinical cardiometabolic health trajectories of young women before pregnancy? We will discuss both the data and practical challenges of maximizing the utility of adverse pregnancy outcomes to improve women’s health.
Everywhere and Nowhere: Why Massive cohort Studies Have Failed to Identify More Modifiable Causes of Disease
A high proportion of disease globally is preventable in principle – i.e. we know that environmental factors which could theoretically be modified underlie them - but they are not preventable in practice, because the factors involved have not been identified. This is despite the establishment internationally and over many years of large-scale cohort studies, considered to be the most robust epidemiological study design. This talk will demonstrate the extent of the mismatch between what could and what is being prevented and discuss why current approaches are unlikely to close the gap. Potentially more fruitful epidemiological approaches which will require a rethinking of basic principles will be presented.