My research focuses on the association between childhood adversity and health in later life. I am interested in whether and how adversity in childhood, such as exposure to poverty, illness or death of a family member and parental divorce, relates to physical health and social outcomes.

Primary outcomes of interest are obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, mental health, educational attainment and labour market attachment. Childhood adversity is hypothesized to be associated with these outcomes through behavioral, biological and mental health mechanisms. In my work, I place special emphasis on examination of exposure to multiple types of childhood adversity over the life course and on modeling longitudinal trajectories of both exposure and outcomes. In addition, I examine mediating pathways to aid knowledge on possible targets for intervention.

Currently, I am involved in the DANLIFE project. DANLIFE is a Danish nationwide register-based cohort study in which objective and prospective information on yearly exposure to adversity over childhood is combined with objective information on hospitalizations, disease outcomes and mortality in young adulthood. Within the project, I specifically focus on modeling exposure to multiple types of adversity over the course of childhood, identifying subgroups with differential exposure to childhood adversity and examining the association between exposure to childhood adversity and disease and social outcomes in young adulthood.

Appointments

2023 – current: Assistant Professor – Department of Public Health, Section of Epidemiology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

2023 – current: Assistant Professor – Department of Public and Occupational Health, Amsterdam University Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands

2019 – 2023: Postdoc – Department of Public Health, Section of Epidemiology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

2018 – 2019: Postdoc – Department of Public Health, Amsterdam UMC, location AMC, Amsterdam, the Netherlands

2014 – 2017: PhD – Department of Epidemiology, University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG), University of Groningen, Groningen & Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI-KNAW), The Hague, the Netherlands

Dissertation title: Adverse life events and overweight in childhood, adolescence and young adulthood

International research stay: Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, United States

Education

2011 – 2013: MSc – Research master Clinical and Psychosocial Epidemiology, University of Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands

Internship: Centre for Diet and Activity Research (CEDAR), MRC Epidemiology Unit, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

2009 – 2012: BSc – Bachelor Natural and Social Sciences, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands