Pioneering studies on role of biomarkers in research at the European Health Economics Association, EuHEA 2018

New ISER studies on the role of biomarkers in social science research will be presented at the prestigious European Health Economics Association’s biennial conference to be held in Maastricht, 11-14 July.

ISER will play a key role with three presentations of studies featuring new research on biomarkers using data from Understanding Society, the UK Household Longitudinal Study.

Dr. Apostolos Davillas will present a paper highlighting the predictive value of biomarker information for future disability. Disability, which results from biological processes, is defined in terms of its implications for social functioning and wellbeing. The study uses data from Understanding Society, following a cohort of non-disabled individuals over time, found a quantitatively large role for objective nurse-collected and blood-based biomarkers on predicting future disability risks.

Biomarkers as precursors of disability by Apostolos Davillas, University of Essex with Professor Stephen Pudney, University of Sheffield.

Dr. Apostolos Davillas will also present a study that proposes new statistical techniques for modelling biomarker data for socio-economic inequalities in health research. The study uses Understanding Society data and a set of blood-based biomarkers, such as inflammatory, diabetes and cholesterol biomarkers.

Parametric models for biomarkers based on flexible size distributions by Apostolos Davillas, University of Essex with Professor Andrew Jones, University of York.

Another study, co-authored by Dr Apostolos Davillas, will be also presented at the conference by Dr. Kompal Sinha of the Macquarie University, Australia. The paper uses Understanding Society data to develop and employ a new measure of multidimensional deprivation that accounts for the severity, duration and relative deprivation to provide new insights on the link between socio-economic status and health. The paper capitalises on the unique opportunity of absorption of the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) into the Understanding Society study, allowing the combination of long-running longitudinal deprivation data with a large set of nurse-collected and blood-based biomarkers.

Analysing the socioeconomic gradient in health across the distribution of biomarkers: Role of dynamic multidimensional deprivation by Kompal Sinha, Macquarie University; Dr. Apostolos Davillas, ISER, Essex; Professor Andrew Jones, University of York; Dr Anurag Sharma, University of New South Wales.

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