My story: Marianne Lønnebotn

My PhD project “Parental metabolic health and offspring asthma: preparing for parenthood already in childhood” will explore the influence of parental overweight and metabolic status for respiratory health in their future offspring. It is part of RHINESSA (Respiratory Health In Northern Europe Spain and Australia, www.rhinessa.net) an international research project dedicated to studying lung health throughout the lifespan and across generations.

We are doing the main statistics in my project together with co-workers in Verona, Professor Simone Accordini and Lucia Calciano. They have specialized in advanced statistical modelling especially suitable for multilevel data, across generations. In the planned analysis, we will explore associations of fathers weight gain in different pre-conception time-windows with offspring asthma and lung function. Our data have a hierarchical structure because multiple adult offspring (level 1 unit) might be siblings and originate from the same parent (level 2 units). Furthermore, the parents are sampled from different study centres.

During my stay I have learned about 2-level linear regression model and 2-level multinomial linear regression model for the explorative analyses. Further, counterfactual-based mediation analyses will be performed in Verona and this approach allows them to decompose the total effect of the exposure on the outcome into the natural direct effects and natural indirect effects, and it will be possible to say something about causal effects. I will learn about causal inference.

During my four weeks stay, we discussed and worked together to develop the biological and statistical model for the analyses and this has been of great value for my work. Especially since we discovered some challenges with the amount of data we have for the planned analyses. I guess this is part of the game. We had to think again and make a new model that was a bit different and this work is still ongoing. Four weeks is a short time- and I have only barely started to understand the complex statistical methods.

Verona- I am in love! It is really such a beautiful city, known to be the city of Romeo and Juliet and known for the Arena di Verona, an Roman amphitheatre hosting Opera-performances. Unfortunately, the Arena season ended in September. I am hoping to go back to Verona sometime next year for further collaboration.

I would really recommend to others to have a stay abroad- and ideally stay longer than four weeks. I would like to thank everyone at the unit of Epidemiology and Medical statistics for having me there and making me feel welcome. I also want to thank EPINOR for making it possible.

Marianne Lønnebotn