SIMSAM EARLY LIFE
Interdisciplinary research on early life exposure and health
Coordinator: Anna Rignell-Hydbom Co-coordinator Jonas Björk
Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Faculty of Medicine
Centre for Economic Demography, Lund University School of Economics
and Management
Department of Landscape Architecture, Planning and Management,
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
SIMSAM Lund
• More than 100 publications based on registry, survey and biobank
data co-authored by SIMSAM Lund participants.
• In association to the programme 13 PhD students have defended
their thesis.
• Fourteen new PhD students have started their education within
SIMSAM Lund
• Post-docs have been recruited
• Several courses, seminars and workshops
• National and international collaborations
SIMSAM Lund – example of articles
Associations between gestational complications; gestational
diabetes and preeclampsia and air pollution.
Malmqvist E, Jakobsson K, Tinnerberg H, Rignell-Hydbom A, Rylander
L. Environ Health Perspect. 2013;121:488-493
Background
A number of studies have shown associations between maternal air
pollution exposure and adverse birth outcomes.
However; limited information exist for exposure to air pollution and
pregnancy complications
81,110 women (singleton births) 1999-2005 were linked to individually
assessed nitrogen oxides and traffic intensity.
1 599 cases of gestational diabetes, 2 370 cases of preeclampsia
Emission and meteorological
data
National Road database
Results
NOx (µg/m3)
OR
Gestational
diabetes
OR
Preeclampsia
Quartile 1
(2.5-9)
1.00
1.00
Quartile 2
(9-14)
1.19 (0.99-1.44)
1.28 (1.13-1.46)
Quartile 3
(14-23)
1.52 (1.28-1.82)
1.33 (1.17-1.52)
Quartile 4
(over 23)
1.69 (1.41-2.03)
1.51 (1.32-1.73)
Maternal smoking during pregnancy and daughters’risk
of gestational diabetes and obesity
Mattsson K, Källén K, Longnecker MP, Rignell-Hydbom A, Rylander L.
Diabetologia 2013;56:1689-95.
Background
A study from Norway (the MoBa cohort) showed
significant associations
However:
- Relatively high fraction of non-participants
- Smoking data collected retrospectively
Study design
Inclusion criteria:
- Women born 1982 or later who have had at least one child of their
own.
- Complete data on relevant variables (smoking, BMI, birth weight
etc)
- Total of 54 012 women for the final analyses.
Gestational diabetes
Crude OR (95% CI)
Non-smokers
(ref)
1
Adj OR (95% CI)
1
1-9 cig/dag
1.73 (1.33, 2.26)
1.62 (1.24, 2.13)
>9 cig/dag
1.68 (1.25, 2.27)
1.52 (1.12, 2.06)
Obesitas (BMI>30 kg/m2)
Non-smokers (ref)
1-9 cig/dag
>9 cig/dag
1
1
1.40 (1.32, 1.48)
1.65 (1.54, 1.75)
1.36 (1.28, 1.44)
1.58 (1.48, 1.68)
Cognitive reserve and dementia – Dekhtyar, S., Wang, H-X., Scott,
K., Goodman, A., Koupil, I., Herlitz, A.
• Dementia is a debilitating process
characterized by the loss of memory
and cognitive function in old age
• Variations exist in the extent of
neuropathology required for dementia
diagnoses
• To explain the disjunction between the
extent of brain damage and its clinical
manifestation – RESERVE was
suggested
• Brain reserve: anatomical features of
brain structure help tolerate more
dementia
• Cognitive reserve: innate intelligence
and stimulating life experiences make
brain networks more efficient
• Cognitive reserve is measured by
education or occupational complexity
• Educational and occupational
attainment have social and cognitive
prerequisites
• Early cognitive ability could be a
better instrument for cognitive
reserve
• A life-course model of cognitive
reserve in dementia is yet to be
tested
SIMSAM Lund – Courses and seminars
• New courses on advanced topics
– Family-based designs
(Paul Lichtenstein, Johan Hallqvist, Brian d’Onofrio)
– Developmental psychology in a life course perspective
(Elia Psuoni, Ilona Kuopil)
– Bias in observational studies – what can go wrong in
Epidemiology? (Jonas Björk)
– Collaboration with research schools at the FAS-centre
MetaLund and CED at Lund University
• Open seminars on methodological issues regularly
– In collaboration with EpiHealth and
FoU-centrum Skåne
SIMSAM Lund – Open seminars
• Registry-based randomized trials
• Propensity scores
• Introduction to DAGs
• Analysis of cross-sectional data
• Rasch analysis
• Bayesian methods
• Qualitative methods
• Individual vs. population risk
• Multiple imputation
• Validation of the Cox model
• Age-Period-Cohort modeling
• ...
Extensive and highly
accessed collection of
presentations available
on-line
Centre for
Economic
Demography
EpiHealth
Lund
Uppsala
Lund
Network for
PhD-students at
SIMSAM Lund
SIMSAM
network
• Phd student conferences
MetaLund
LU & LTH
• Courses
• Interdisciplinary projects
SIMSAM Lund – Cohort inventory
• Joint initiative with EpiHealth and FoU-centrum Skåne
• Close cooperation with SND
SIMSAM Lund – Cohort inventory (cont.)
SIMSAM Lund – additional
infrastructure initiatives warranted
• Still too hard for researchers outside the “register-based
research clusters” to use registry data
– Ethics and legislation
– Study design
– Data access
– Data management
– Security issues
– ...
Consulting
and
data management
facilities
Knowledge
transfer
Courses
Seminars
Workshops
Virtual
and physical
meeting place
SIMSAM
Lund
Arena for
new
collaborations
Common tools,
routines and
technical
platforms
Centre for
interdisciplinary
research based on
registries and
biobanks
Tack Anna !!
för det fantastiska arbete du gjort för oss dessa år