Bianca De Stavola
Biographic Data
| ID | 1750812 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Bianca De Stavola |
| GIVEN NAMES | Bianca |
| FAMILY NAME | De Stavola |
| SIGNATURE | DE STAVOLA B |
| AFFILIATIONS | London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7853-0528 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 22 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 37 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 22 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2010 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Causal mediation approaches for understanding pathways to inequalities and policy entry points
The reduction of health inequalities has been a priority of researchers, decision-makers and practitioners for many years. Advances in causal mediation analysis offer great promise for identifying intervention targets and inferring how policy actions might alter health inequalities. However, these methods are sometimes presented in a manner that is not accessible to the wider community of health researchers. Causal mediation methods also have a r…
The effect of multi-level HIV prevention interventions on common mental disorders among adolescents and young adults in rural South Africa
This study evaluated the effect of multi-level HIV prevention interventions delivered through DREAMS (Determined, Resilient, Empowered, AIDS-free, Motivated, and Safe) program on common mental disorders (CMD) among adolescents and young adults (AYA) in rural South Africa. We used longitudinal data from two cohorts of AYA aged 13–35 years (N = 2184 for cohort 1 and N = 3067 for cohort 2), recruited between May 2017 and December 2018, with data col…
Positive and negative parenting practices and offspring disruptive behavior
Disruptive behavior disorders (DBDs) are common in childhood and adolescence, with global estimates of 5.7%. While parenting practices are associated with DBDs, it is not clear whether these associations reflect causal effects or confounding. To strengthen causal inference, we meta-analyzed quasi-experimental evidence on the relationship between parenting practices and DBD symptoms. We conducted multilevel random-effects meta-analyses to pool res…
Comprehensive analysis of the association of seasonal variability with maternal and neonatal nutrition in lowland Nepal
Objective: To provide a comprehensive seasonal analysis of pregnant mothers’ eating behaviour and maternal/newborn nutritional status in an undernourished population from lowland rural Nepal, where weather patterns, agricultural labour, food availability and disease prevalence vary seasonally. Design: Secondary analysis of cluster-randomised Low Birth Weight South Asia Trial data, applying cosinor analysis to predict seasonal patterns. Outcomes: …
A syndemic of psychiatric morbidity, substance misuse, violence, and poor physical health among young Scottish men with reduced life expectancy
Syndemic effects from synergistic interactions were confirmed between psychiatric morbidity, substance misuse, violence, and biological/behavioural risk for physical health. A hypothetical model was developed to explain how the syndemic leads to potentially life-threatening risks to young men, both currently and as precursors of physical health conditions which may shorten their lives in the future
Is socioeconomic position associated with bronchiolitis seasonality? A cohort study
Background Understanding differences in the seasonality of bronchiolitis can help to plan the timing of interventions. We quantified the extent to which seasonality in hospital admissions for bronchiolitis is modified by socioeconomic position. Methods Using Hospital Episode Statistics, we followed 3 717 329 infants born in English National Health Service hospitals between 2011 and 2016 for 1 year. We calculated the proportion of all infant admis…
Author Correction
The genomics of childhood eating behaviours
Sobrerrastreio mamográfico
No Brasil, o Ministério da Saúde recomenda o rastreamento mamográfico bienal para mulheres entre 50-69 anos. Como o rastreamento é oportunístico no país, a periodicidade efetiva varia. Esse estudo visou a testar metodologia para a estimação do sobrerrastreio por periodicidade excessiva, definido como intervalo entre exames menores que o preconizado e sua associação com variáveis sociodemográficas. Trata-se de uma coorte de mulheres com mamografia…
Inequities in access to mammographic screening in Brazil
Our objectives with this study were to describe the spatial distribution of mammographic screening coverage across small geographical areas (micro-regions) in Brazil, and to analyze whether the observed differences were associated with spatial inequities in socioeconomic conditions, provision of health care, and healthcare services utilization. We performed an area-based ecological study on mammographic screening coverage in the period of 2010-20…
An Assessment and Extension of the Mechanism-Based Approach to the Identification of Age-Period-Cohort Models
Many methods have been proposed to solve the age-period-cohort (APC) linear identification problem, but most are not theoretically informed and may lead to biased estimators of APC effects. One exception is the mechanism-based approach recently proposed and based on Pearl’s front-door criterion; this approach ensures consistent APC effect estimators in the presence of a complete set of intermediate variables between one of age, period, cohort, an…
Ploubidis et al. Respond
Thank you for the opportunity to respond to Strohschein’s letter regarding our published article in AJPH. The main issue raised by Strohschein is that our study lacks a test of interaction for one of our findings, namely that men derive more health benefits from marriage than women. Strohschein cites a newspaper article, which appears to reference our article. Unfortunately, the newspaper article misrepresents our findings. We simply did not find…
Inequalities in non-small cell lung cancer treatment and mortality
BACKGROUND: Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) comprises approximately 85% of all lung cancer cases, and surgery is the preferred treatment for patients. The National Health Service established Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) in 2002 to manage local health needs. We investigate whether PCTs with a lower uptake of surgical treatment are those with above-average mortality 1 year after diagnosis. The applied methods can be used to monitor the performance…
The Impact of a National Clinician-led Audit Initiative on Care and Mortality after Hip Fracture in England
BACKGROUND: Hip fracture is the most common serious injury of older people. The UK National Hip Fracture Database (NHFD) was launched in 2007 as a national collaborative, clinician-led audit initiative to improve the quality of hip fracture care, but has not yet been externally evaluated. METHODS: We used routinely collected data on 471,590 older people (aged 60 years and older) admitted with a hip fracture to National Health Service (NHS) hospit…
Life course structural equation model of the effects of prenatal and postnatal growth on adult blood pressure
BACKGROUND: Fetal and postnatal growth have been associated with adult blood pressure (BP), but findings about the relative importance of growth at different stages of life on BP are inconsistent. METHODS: The study population comprised 5198 participants from the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966 with data on birth weight, height and weight measurements until adolescence, systolic and diastolic BP at 31 years and several covariates. Structural e…
Selection bias and patterns of confounding in cohort studies
BACKGROUND: Several studies have examined the effects of sample selection on the exposure-outcome association estimates in cohort studies, but the reasons why this selection may induce bias have not been fully explored. AIMS: To investigate how sample selection of the web-based NINFEA birth cohort may change the confounding patterns present in the source population. METHODS: The characteristics of the NINFEA participants (n=1105) were compared wi…
Subjective measures of socio-economic position and the wealth index
INTRODUCTION: The wealth index is a commonly-used measure of socio-economic position (SEP) in low- and middle-income settings, but there is concern that it is strongly influenced by community-level as well as household-level factors. Subjective SEP indicators are infrequently used in health research. METHODS: We use data from 11 280 households included in the Malawi Integrated Household Survey 2004/5. We compare the wealth index with four subject…
Socio-economic position over the life course and all-cause, circulatory diseases, and neoplasms mortality in adulthood and old age
Objective To compare alternative lifecourse models in predicting the effects of child and adult socio-economic position (SEP) upon adult mortality. Design Life-long follow-up of a representative, population-based birth cohort (Uppsala Birth Cohort Study), with linkage to routinely collected data. Participants still alive in 1980 were followed up for mortality from 1980 to 2002. Setting Sweden. Participants 5138 males and 5069 females born 1915–19…
Sample selection and validity of exposure–disease association estimates in cohort studies
BACKGROUND: Participants in cohort studies are frequently selected from restricted source populations. It has been recognised that such restriction may affect the study validity. OBJECTIVES: To assess the bias that may arise when analyses involve data from cohorts based on restricted source populations, an area little studied in quantitative terms. METHODS: Monte Carlo simulations were used, based on a setting where the exposure and one risk fact…
The combined influence of parental education and preterm birth on school performance
BACKGROUND: Social background and birth characteristics are generally found to be independently associated with school achievements but the underlying mechanisms are not fully understood. This study aimed to explore how parental education and shorter gestational age jointly influence school performance in a cohort of Swedish children. METHODS: 10,835 children born between 1973 and 1981 were studied, the third generation of the register-based Upps…
Alcohol use among Russian men
Objectives Alcohol use in Russia has a number of relatively distinct features which have been shown to be strongly associated with mortality. The aim of this paper is to investigate how specific aspects of Russian drinking behaviour and its consequences are related to scores obtained from the internationally recognised AUDIT instrument for detecting alcohol problems. Design Population-based age-stratified cross sectional survey. Setting Izhevsk, …
Toward a Healthy High Schools Movement
Although research shows that education and health are closely intertwined, health professionals have difficulty using this evidence to improve health and educational outcomes and reduce inequities. We call for a social movement for healthy high schools in the United States that would improve school achievement and graduation rates; create school environments that promote lifelong individual, family, and community health and prevent chronic illnes…
Subjective measures of socio-economic position and the wealth index
INTRODUCTION: The wealth index is a commonly-used measure of socio-economic position (SEP) in low- and middle-income settings, but there is concern that it is strongly influenced by community-level as well as household-level factors. Subjective SEP indicators are infrequently used in health research. METHODS: We use data from 11 280 households included in the Malawi Integrated Household Survey 2004/5. We compare the wealth index with four subject…
Sobrerrastreio mamográfico
No Brasil, o Ministério da Saúde recomenda o rastreamento mamográfico bienal para mulheres entre 50-69 anos. Como o rastreamento é oportunístico no país, a periodicidade efetiva varia. Esse estudo visou a testar metodologia para a estimação do sobrerrastreio por periodicidade excessiva, definido como intervalo entre exames menores que o preconizado e sua associação com variáveis sociodemográficas. Trata-se de uma coorte de mulheres com mamografia…
Inequities in access to mammographic screening in Brazil
Our objectives with this study were to describe the spatial distribution of mammographic screening coverage across small geographical areas (micro-regions) in Brazil, and to analyze whether the observed differences were associated with spatial inequities in socioeconomic conditions, provision of health care, and healthcare services utilization. We performed an area-based ecological study on mammographic screening coverage in the period of 2010-20…
Sample selection and validity of exposure–disease association estimates in cohort studies
BACKGROUND: Participants in cohort studies are frequently selected from restricted source populations. It has been recognised that such restriction may affect the study validity. OBJECTIVES: To assess the bias that may arise when analyses involve data from cohorts based on restricted source populations, an area little studied in quantitative terms. METHODS: Monte Carlo simulations were used, based on a setting where the exposure and one risk fact…
Toward a Healthy High Schools Movement
Although research shows that education and health are closely intertwined, health professionals have difficulty using this evidence to improve health and educational outcomes and reduce inequities. We call for a social movement for healthy high schools in the United States that would improve school achievement and graduation rates; create school environments that promote lifelong individual, family, and community health and prevent chronic illnes…
Causal mediation approaches for understanding pathways to inequalities and policy entry points
The reduction of health inequalities has been a priority of researchers, decision-makers and practitioners for many years. Advances in causal mediation analysis offer great promise for identifying intervention targets and inferring how policy actions might alter health inequalities. However, these methods are sometimes presented in a manner that is not accessible to the wider community of health researchers. Causal mediation methods also have a r…
Inequalities in non-small cell lung cancer treatment and mortality
BACKGROUND: Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) comprises approximately 85% of all lung cancer cases, and surgery is the preferred treatment for patients. The National Health Service established Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) in 2002 to manage local health needs. We investigate whether PCTs with a lower uptake of surgical treatment are those with above-average mortality 1 year after diagnosis. The applied methods can be used to monitor the performance…
Selection bias and patterns of confounding in cohort studies
BACKGROUND: Several studies have examined the effects of sample selection on the exposure-outcome association estimates in cohort studies, but the reasons why this selection may induce bias have not been fully explored. AIMS: To investigate how sample selection of the web-based NINFEA birth cohort may change the confounding patterns present in the source population. METHODS: The characteristics of the NINFEA participants (n=1105) were compared wi…
The combined influence of parental education and preterm birth on school performance
BACKGROUND: Social background and birth characteristics are generally found to be independently associated with school achievements but the underlying mechanisms are not fully understood. This study aimed to explore how parental education and shorter gestational age jointly influence school performance in a cohort of Swedish children. METHODS: 10,835 children born between 1973 and 1981 were studied, the third generation of the register-based Upps…
The genomics of childhood eating behaviours
An Assessment and Extension of the Mechanism-Based Approach to the Identification of Age-Period-Cohort Models
Many methods have been proposed to solve the age-period-cohort (APC) linear identification problem, but most are not theoretically informed and may lead to biased estimators of APC effects. One exception is the mechanism-based approach recently proposed and based on Pearl’s front-door criterion; this approach ensures consistent APC effect estimators in the presence of a complete set of intermediate variables between one of age, period, cohort, an…
Alcohol use among Russian men
Objectives Alcohol use in Russia has a number of relatively distinct features which have been shown to be strongly associated with mortality. The aim of this paper is to investigate how specific aspects of Russian drinking behaviour and its consequences are related to scores obtained from the internationally recognised AUDIT instrument for detecting alcohol problems. Design Population-based age-stratified cross sectional survey. Setting Izhevsk, …
Toward a Healthy High Schools Movement
Although research shows that education and health are closely intertwined, health professionals have difficulty using this evidence to improve health and educational outcomes and reduce inequities. We call for a social movement for healthy high schools in the United States that would improve school achievement and graduation rates; create school environments that promote lifelong individual, family, and community health and prevent chronic illnes…
Subjective measures of socio-economic position and the wealth index
INTRODUCTION: The wealth index is a commonly-used measure of socio-economic position (SEP) in low- and middle-income settings, but there is concern that it is strongly influenced by community-level as well as household-level factors. Subjective SEP indicators are infrequently used in health research. METHODS: We use data from 11 280 households included in the Malawi Integrated Household Survey 2004/5. We compare the wealth index with four subject…
Socio-economic position over the life course and all-cause, circulatory diseases, and neoplasms mortality in adulthood and old age
Objective To compare alternative lifecourse models in predicting the effects of child and adult socio-economic position (SEP) upon adult mortality. Design Life-long follow-up of a representative, population-based birth cohort (Uppsala Birth Cohort Study), with linkage to routinely collected data. Participants still alive in 1980 were followed up for mortality from 1980 to 2002. Setting Sweden. Participants 5138 males and 5069 females born 1915–19…
Sample selection and validity of exposure–disease association estimates in cohort studies
BACKGROUND: Participants in cohort studies are frequently selected from restricted source populations. It has been recognised that such restriction may affect the study validity. OBJECTIVES: To assess the bias that may arise when analyses involve data from cohorts based on restricted source populations, an area little studied in quantitative terms. METHODS: Monte Carlo simulations were used, based on a setting where the exposure and one risk fact…
The combined influence of parental education and preterm birth on school performance
BACKGROUND: Social background and birth characteristics are generally found to be independently associated with school achievements but the underlying mechanisms are not fully understood. This study aimed to explore how parental education and shorter gestational age jointly influence school performance in a cohort of Swedish children. METHODS: 10,835 children born between 1973 and 1981 were studied, the third generation of the register-based Upps…
Selection bias and patterns of confounding in cohort studies
BACKGROUND: Several studies have examined the effects of sample selection on the exposure-outcome association estimates in cohort studies, but the reasons why this selection may induce bias have not been fully explored. AIMS: To investigate how sample selection of the web-based NINFEA birth cohort may change the confounding patterns present in the source population. METHODS: The characteristics of the NINFEA participants (n=1105) were compared wi…
Life course structural equation model of the effects of prenatal and postnatal growth on adult blood pressure
BACKGROUND: Fetal and postnatal growth have been associated with adult blood pressure (BP), but findings about the relative importance of growth at different stages of life on BP are inconsistent. METHODS: The study population comprised 5198 participants from the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966 with data on birth weight, height and weight measurements until adolescence, systolic and diastolic BP at 31 years and several covariates. Structural e…
Inequalities in non-small cell lung cancer treatment and mortality
BACKGROUND: Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) comprises approximately 85% of all lung cancer cases, and surgery is the preferred treatment for patients. The National Health Service established Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) in 2002 to manage local health needs. We investigate whether PCTs with a lower uptake of surgical treatment are those with above-average mortality 1 year after diagnosis. The applied methods can be used to monitor the performance…
The Impact of a National Clinician-led Audit Initiative on Care and Mortality after Hip Fracture in England
BACKGROUND: Hip fracture is the most common serious injury of older people. The UK National Hip Fracture Database (NHFD) was launched in 2007 as a national collaborative, clinician-led audit initiative to improve the quality of hip fracture care, but has not yet been externally evaluated. METHODS: We used routinely collected data on 471,590 older people (aged 60 years and older) admitted with a hip fracture to National Health Service (NHS) hospit…
Ploubidis et al. Respond
Thank you for the opportunity to respond to Strohschein’s letter regarding our published article in AJPH. The main issue raised by Strohschein is that our study lacks a test of interaction for one of our findings, namely that men derive more health benefits from marriage than women. Strohschein cites a newspaper article, which appears to reference our article. Unfortunately, the newspaper article misrepresents our findings. We simply did not find…
An Assessment and Extension of the Mechanism-Based Approach to the Identification of Age-Period-Cohort Models
Many methods have been proposed to solve the age-period-cohort (APC) linear identification problem, but most are not theoretically informed and may lead to biased estimators of APC effects. One exception is the mechanism-based approach recently proposed and based on Pearl’s front-door criterion; this approach ensures consistent APC effect estimators in the presence of a complete set of intermediate variables between one of age, period, cohort, an…
Sobrerrastreio mamográfico
No Brasil, o Ministério da Saúde recomenda o rastreamento mamográfico bienal para mulheres entre 50-69 anos. Como o rastreamento é oportunístico no país, a periodicidade efetiva varia. Esse estudo visou a testar metodologia para a estimação do sobrerrastreio por periodicidade excessiva, definido como intervalo entre exames menores que o preconizado e sua associação com variáveis sociodemográficas. Trata-se de uma coorte de mulheres com mamografia…
Inequities in access to mammographic screening in Brazil
Our objectives with this study were to describe the spatial distribution of mammographic screening coverage across small geographical areas (micro-regions) in Brazil, and to analyze whether the observed differences were associated with spatial inequities in socioeconomic conditions, provision of health care, and healthcare services utilization. We performed an area-based ecological study on mammographic screening coverage in the period of 2010-20…
A syndemic of psychiatric morbidity, substance misuse, violence, and poor physical health among young Scottish men with reduced life expectancy
Syndemic effects from synergistic interactions were confirmed between psychiatric morbidity, substance misuse, violence, and biological/behavioural risk for physical health. A hypothetical model was developed to explain how the syndemic leads to potentially life-threatening risks to young men, both currently and as precursors of physical health conditions which may shorten their lives in the future
Is socioeconomic position associated with bronchiolitis seasonality? A cohort study
Background Understanding differences in the seasonality of bronchiolitis can help to plan the timing of interventions. We quantified the extent to which seasonality in hospital admissions for bronchiolitis is modified by socioeconomic position. Methods Using Hospital Episode Statistics, we followed 3 717 329 infants born in English National Health Service hospitals between 2011 and 2016 for 1 year. We calculated the proportion of all infant admis…
Author Correction
The genomics of childhood eating behaviours
Comprehensive analysis of the association of seasonal variability with maternal and neonatal nutrition in lowland Nepal
Objective: To provide a comprehensive seasonal analysis of pregnant mothers’ eating behaviour and maternal/newborn nutritional status in an undernourished population from lowland rural Nepal, where weather patterns, agricultural labour, food availability and disease prevalence vary seasonally. Design: Secondary analysis of cluster-randomised Low Birth Weight South Asia Trial data, applying cosinor analysis to predict seasonal patterns. Outcomes: …
The effect of multi-level HIV prevention interventions on common mental disorders among adolescents and young adults in rural South Africa
This study evaluated the effect of multi-level HIV prevention interventions delivered through DREAMS (Determined, Resilient, Empowered, AIDS-free, Motivated, and Safe) program on common mental disorders (CMD) among adolescents and young adults (AYA) in rural South Africa. We used longitudinal data from two cohorts of AYA aged 13–35 years (N = 2184 for cohort 1 and N = 3067 for cohort 2), recruited between May 2017 and December 2018, with data col…
Positive and negative parenting practices and offspring disruptive behavior
Disruptive behavior disorders (DBDs) are common in childhood and adolescence, with global estimates of 5.7%. While parenting practices are associated with DBDs, it is not clear whether these associations reflect causal effects or confounding. To strengthen causal inference, we meta-analyzed quasi-experimental evidence on the relationship between parenting practices and DBD symptoms. We conducted multilevel random-effects meta-analyses to pool res…
Causal mediation approaches for understanding pathways to inequalities and policy entry points
The reduction of health inequalities has been a priority of researchers, decision-makers and practitioners for many years. Advances in causal mediation analysis offer great promise for identifying intervention targets and inferring how policy actions might alter health inequalities. However, these methods are sometimes presented in a manner that is not accessible to the wider community of health researchers. Causal mediation methods also have a r…
Medicine (14 works) · Demography (11 works) · Internal Medicine (10 works) · Population (10 works) · Cohort (8 works) · Environmental health (8 works) · Internal Medicine (8 works) · Cohort study (6 works) · Health disparities and outcomes (6 works) · Advanced Causal Inference Techniques (5 works)