SSM ECRs featuring… Anna Head!

Anna Head is a PhD student at the Department of Public Health, Policy and Systems, University of Liverpool.

Anna Head

University of Liverpool

PhD student

SSM member since: 2019

SSM participation: 2020 ASM, ECR workshop 2020, 2021 ASM, ECR workshop 2021, ECR Subcommittee member 2021 (Networking Officer)

Topics of interest: primary prevention, inequalities, multiple long-term conditions

What inspired you to pursue a career in public health?
I studied languages as an undergraduate and spent several years living abroad, which opened my eyes to a variety of health and social policy contexts. Our health is such a fundamental part of our lives, it seemed like an area in which I will always be curious to understand more. Also, on a practical level, a lot of the day-to-day aspects of working as a quantitative researcher appealed to me.

What excites you about working in research now?
There is so much scope to learn about interesting topics and methods, and it is exciting to see how research fields constantly develop over time.

What area of social medicine/public health are you interested in?
My particular interests are in primary, population-level prevention strategies and how these can be used to reduce inequalities in health. I am also interested in the use of methods such as microsimulation modelling for informing public health policy.

Can you tell us a bit about a project you’re working on now?
Currently, I am looking at inequalities in how chronic conditions accumulate across adulthood. I’m using survival analysis and multi-state model methods to analyse GP records of 1m adults in England from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD). One of the key things we are looking for is whether inequalities gradually accrue throughout life, or if they are greater at a particular stage.

What do you hope this will lead to?
Our next step is to use the results of this study to simulate hypothetical prevention strategies for preventing/postponing the onset of chronic conditions. For example, we will be able to compare the potential of strategies focused on primary prevention (delaying the onset of an initial long-term condition) vs secondary or tertiary prevention strategies.

To keep up to date with Anna, follow her on Twitter @annalhtky or get in touch via email.

SSM ECR features is a new blog series that celebrates early career researchers. Each month we meet a member we admire, learn more about their work and find out what and who inspires them. To find out more visit socsocmed.org.uk/blog or email ecr.ssm@gmail.com.