Dr H Walton, Prof K Katsouyanni
No more applications being accepted
Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)
About the Project
Applications are invited for a three year PhD studentship, funded by King’s College London Graduate School Funding Scheme. It will be based within the National Institute for Health Research Health Protection Research Unit (NIHR HPRU) in Health Impact of Environmental Hazards at King’s College London http://hieh.hpru.nihr.ac.uk . The Unit provides research to support Public Health England in their activities to improve public health, in this case by improving the health impact assessment of actions to reduce air pollution.
The topic
Actions to reduce air pollution are subject to cost-benefit analysis so there is a need to quantify the health impacts of air pollution. For the policies aimed at specific pollutants, there is a need for concentration-response coefficients for a particular pollutant that are independent of other variables, including other pollutants. As pollutants often come from the same sources, and often also affect the same health outcome, this can be challenging. Some studies include multi-pollutant models, in which the statistical association between one pollutant and a health outcome is adjusted for one or more other pollutants. If pollutants are too closely correlated, their independent effects still cannot be distinguished. Another problem is that the adjusted association can be subject to bias if the pollutants are correlated with each other and subject to differential measurement error. This may mean that rather than the multi-pollutant model showing the pollutant most strongly related to the health outcome, it actually shows the pollutant with the least measurement error. Currently, reviews of studies of associations between pollutants and health outcomes either pay particular attention to multi-pollutant models or dismiss them as misleading. What is generally not discussed is the different degree of measurement error likely for the different pollutants and therefore an informed interpretation of how misleading the multi-pollutant models may or may not be.
The project
The PhD project aims to improve this situation by use of simulations. These would use hypothetical values for the true size of associations and the measurement errors that exist, although these would be chosen to be roughly compatible with the evidence. The Environmental Research Group at King’s has experience in emissions inventories, analyzing air pollutant monitoring data, modeling of air pollutant exposures for use in epidemiological studies and examining the correlations between pollutants. The learning resulting from the simulations would be used to inform interpretation of multi-pollutant model results in the literature and to recommend future approaches to analyzing and reporting multi-pollutant model results. For example, it may be possible to infer that certain potential interpretations are a lot more unlikely than others and guidance could be provided to encourage future researchers to describe likely differences in measurement error in their discussion of multi-pollutant model results.
Supervisory team
The project will be jointly supervised by Dr Heather Walton and Professor Klea Katsouyanni from the Environmental Research Group at King’s College, London based at the Waterloo campus. Guidance will also be available from others in the MRC-PHE Centre for Environment and Health, including the Biostatistics unit at Imperial College; the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and King’s College London, others in the NIHR-HPRU and other colleagues interested in simulations. Inter-disciplinary work is very important in air pollution epidemiology – the student would be embedded in a group including people working on air pollution monitoring and modelling and on air pollution and health.
Entry Requirements
Students must have a first degree (2:1), ideally in epidemiology or statistics, or other degrees requiring mathematical ability. A 2:2 degree may be considered if the applicant also has a Master’s degree with a merit or distinction. The selected candidate will have an interest in public health and the environment. Past study of biology, chemistry or physics would be an advantage.
Funding Notes
Home/EU tuition fees will be met and a stipend paid of £15,863 per year. The studentship is open to Home/EU and International students. Note: International students are eligible for the full stipend payment but will be required to fund the difference between Home/EU and International tuition fees.