EPoCH in Oslo

Posted on October 5, 2021 by Kayleigh Easey

Conference season is here, and this time EPoCH attended their first in person meeting in 2 years (due to Covid-19 restrictions). I attended a wonderful symposium arranged by the Centre for Fertility and Health (CeFH) in Oslo, Norway, and was also invited to visit CeFH afterwards to give a presentation about all of EPoCH’s work so far.

The symposium focused on the underlying causes and consequences of changing fertility and family patterns using national data. Day 1 started with quick-fire presentations from current PhD students and postdocs for ongoing and planned research. It was great to hear the range of work happening and was obviously exciting for us to hear that research being undertaken also included paternal data! Presentations were given on the influence of unemployment from paternal plant closures on children’s health care usage, as well as how grandfathers involvement in a child’s upbringing could impact offspring health. The seminar’s final day discussed amongst other things current research being undertaken for intergenerational effects as well as future plans to research Covid-19 and pregnancy within the CeFH.

This trip was exciting for many reasons. Not only as it was the first physical trip out of Bristol for EPoCH in a long time, it also gave me the opportunity to meet with collaborators from the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study (MoBA) whom we’ve been working with virtually since the start of the project. Not to mention the beautiful landscape of Oslo, which the CeFH chose to showcase with an organised dinner venue of Ekebergrestauranten overlooking the harbour.

The view from dinner at Ekebergrestauranten

EPoCH had lots of travel plans at different research institutions for this project which unfortunately we have so far been unable to conduct. But with travel restrictions lessening we should hopefully have some more trips lined up to tell you about!

We attended SER and SPER in Boston (virtually)

Posted on January 11, 2021 by Kayleigh Easey

Back in June 2020, Kayleigh had planned to attend two exciting back-to-back conferences in Boston, USA (Society for Epidemiologic Research/ Society for Pediatric and Perinatal Epidemiologic Research). However, as the Covid-19 pandemic progressed, it became clear that an in-person conference would no longer be on the cards and instead both conferences were moved to be held online in December.

Going to a virtual conference was admittedly a different experience to in-person, and the -7 hour time difference of live talks being broadcast at first felt challenging. But luckily all sessions were recorded so we could catch up on any we missed! Kayleigh presented an online poster (shown below) which details our EPoCH study.

This year we were excited to see more talks that focused on paternal exposures around conception and their influence on offspring health. In particular paternal exposure to plastics seemed to feature heavily…this isn’t an exposure that we were including in EPoCH ourselves, but it was definitely thought provoking. We were also glad to hear many talks focusing on selection bias within pediatric epidemiology, and the effects this can have on the data we use. This is a topic that we are currently writing a paper on, and hope to share with you later this year!

The next SER/SPER conference is planned to take place (optimistically) in-person during the summer of 2021 in San Diego, and we hope that we can still take part even if from the comfort of our homes again whilst watching online…

Our first Research Advisory Panel meeting

Posted on April 6, 2020April 6, 2020 by Kayleigh Easey

This week we are happy to say EPoCH hosted its first Research Advisory Panel meeting. As we were no longer able to host this event in person due to Covid-19, we embraced the online video apps to help us make sure this event could still take place. And we are pleased to say that the meeting was a great success, with members from varying geographical locations able to attend…and all from the comfort of their own homes.

So why have we created the advisory panel? We wanted to make sure that any findings we may have from the EPoCH study are able to reach people in the right way, and that we don’t end up accidentally adding to the confusion around health advice during pregnancy. This is why the Research Advisory Panel was assembled! Within this panel we currently have members from varying backgrounds who have all expressed an interest in taking part. Each panel member is sent an update on our progress from the project every 3 months and invited to a ‘face to face’ or more likely atm a “computer screen to screen’ meeting every six months, to discuss what we’ve been doing.

This week’s first meeting gave us all a chance to meet each other, as well as provide the panel with updates on our progress in the project so far. Gemma and I were joined by Lindsey Pike who brilliantly chaired the meeting, as we ventured into the online world of group video calls.

Alongside Gemma, Lindsey and myself, attendees at our first meeting were:

Kirsty Budds (Leeds Beckett)
Rebecca Goldman (Fatherhood Institute)
Jon Symonds (University of Bristol)
Line Hjort (Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen)
Carina Venter (University of Colorado Denver)
Sangeetha Shyam (International Medical University Malaysia)
Rebecca Blaylock (BPAS)

We are very thankful to all current members for such an enjoyable meeting and look forward to our next catch up in six months’ time!

DOHaD 2019 in Melbourne

Posted on February 3, 2020February 4, 2020 by gemma.sharp

Back in October 2019, Kayleigh and Gemma attended the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) conference in Melbourne, Australia.

Kayleigh presenting her maternal alcohol pheWAS paper

Kayleigh gave a talk on a project she completed as part of her PhD. Conference attendees were very interested in her pheWAS (phenome-wise association study) of maternal alcohol consumption during pregnancy. Kayleigh is preparing a paper describing the results at the moment, and we will no doubt write a blog summarising what she found when it is published.

Gemma presenting her talk entitled “You are (not really) what your mother ate”

Gemma was very busy at the conference: presenting at two pre-conference workshops, giving one invited talk, giving an interview to a South African podcast and presenting not one but three posters! All her posters are shown below, and she hopes to upload a video of her talk soon.

Beyond question: a collaboration between EPoCH and artist Olga Trevisan

Posted on December 21, 2019January 9, 2020 by gemma.sharp

Back in May, Gemma took part in Creative Reactions, an initiative that pairs scientists with artists to create artwork based on their academic research.

Gemma was paired with Olga Trevisan, an artist based in Venice, Italy. They had conversations over Skype where they spoke about their work and formed some initial ideas about how they could combine their interests in a new way while remaining coherent to their own practices. Reflecting on the collaboration, Olga said, “I love how curious you can be of a subject you haven’t considered before. I believe collaboration helps to open your own mind.”

Based on some of the work around EPoCH, Olga created a piece called Beyond Question, which comments on the complexities of scientific data collection, bias and interpretation.

It poses questions around the pervasive assumption that pregnant women are more responsible for the (ill) health of their unborn children than their male partners are. Gemma and colleagues have argued that such assumptions drive the research agenda and the public perception of parental roles, by shaping which research questions get asked, which data are collected, and the quality of the scientific ‘answer’.

Beyond Question was presented in two phases at two separate exhibitions: during the first phase, people were invited to answer questions with a simple Yes or No using a stylus; leaving no marks but only invisible, anonymous traces on the surface below. Answers will reflect the real assumptions, beliefs and attitudes of the respondent, but perhaps also, despite anonymity, their eagerness to ‘please’ the questioners, to give the ‘right’ answer, and to mask their true responses to paint themselves in the ‘best’ light.

In the second phase, the questions were removed and the answer traces were left alone to carry their own meaning; free to be combined with the attitudes, beliefs and assumptions of the viewer and to be interpreted and judged in perhaps an entirely different way.

The questions posed were: “Do you think a mother’s lifestyle around the time of pregnancy could be bad for her baby’s health?”; “Do you think a father’s lifestyle around the time of pregnancy could be bad for his baby’s health?”; “Before her baby is born, a pregnant mother shouldn’t be allowed to do unhealthy things, like smoke or drink alcohol. Do you agree or disagree?”; “Before his baby is born, a father shouldn’t be allowed to do unhealthy things, like smoke or drink alcohol. Do you agree or disagree?”

EPoCH needs you!

Posted on October 3, 2019December 21, 2019 by gemma.sharp

Why do we need a research advisory panel?

We want to make sure that EPoCH research findings reach the right people in the right way and we don’t accidentally end up adding to the confusion around health advice during pregnancy.

Therefore, we are setting up a Research Advisory Panel of researchers, policy makers and people with real life experience of giving and receiving pregnancy advice.

What will panel members do?

Panel members will give us feedback on our plans, and tell us how they think we can best communicate our findings in the most appropriate, effective way. In return, we will keep panel members up to date on our findings, and they will be invited to the academic and/or public events that we organise. It’s a great opportunity to get involved with some exciting research from the University of Bristol.

When people sign up to the panel, they will answer a few short questions to get their opinions about EPoCH. We’ll then create a summary of everyone’s responses, which we’ll share with the other panel members. We’ll also explain how we’ve taken their responses on board and how this has affected our future plans.

After this initial survey, we’ll be in touch every time we have some exciting news to share (but we promise not to spam people!). We’ll also send mini reports every six months or so and ask for panel members’ comments and ideas. Occasionally, if panel members agree it would be useful, we might set up teleconferences or face-to-face meetings to discuss further.

How can people join the panel?

If you’re interested in joining the panel, please fill out this short survey.

An animated introduction to EPoCH

Posted on May 4, 2019May 4, 2019 by gemma.sharp

I’ve put together an animated introduction to the EPoCH study, which I hope explains what we’re planning to do, and why, in a quick and easy-to-understand way.

Here it is!