MPIDR@EPC2026 Have a chat with Marcus Ebeling 📅 Friday, June 5 🕑 14:00-15:00 📍MPIDR booth Marcus Ebeling will be promoting his new Research Group Medical Demography. If you want to learn about his research and the future possibilities to join the group, visit us at our booth. #EPC2026

👩‍🎓 Maria Ponkilainen successfully defended her PhD thesis "Childbearing and Divorce among Same-Sex and Different-Sex Couples in the Nordic Context : A Register-Based Analysis" at the University of Helsinki in March 2026. Her thesis can be read here: hdl.handle.net/10138/627822 🥳🌈

Intersectionality and MAIHDA conference - BOOKING NOW OPEN! (and it's free) Friday 10th July, University of Sheffield With a pre-conference MAIHDA course on Thursday 9th July All details: intersectionalhealth.org/upcoming-eve... Please share widely in your networks!

Do you ever claim to be interested in the "association" between variables? This talk may be for you! @jeremylabrecque.bsky.social will explain when and why such associational language is not appropriate and why causal language should be used instead. Register here: ucl.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

Los Pollos Hermanos! 🐓 Our new cohort study published in JECH: Parental death is linked to increased psychotropic medication use in adults (ages 35–55), especially among those with fewer siblings, highlighting the role of family as a support network. jech.bmj.com/content/earl...

On the space between descriptive and causal estimands with Annie Herbert, Anna Pearce and @vkatikireddi.bsky.social Descriptive estimands, causal estimands, and avoiding the jungle of adjusted associations in between doi.org/10.1136/jech... Don't get lost in the jungle of adjusted associations.

New decomposition method to quantify how specific subpopulations drive demographic gaps. E.g., estimating how foreign-born populations by race and ethnicity contribute to the gap between total and native-born life expectancy. @eugeniopaglino.bsky.social 👉 www.demographic-research.org/articles/vol...

🚨New paper out in Demographic Research🚨 and my first foray into demographic methods. It develops a new method to quantify how specific subpopulations drive demographic gaps. www.demographic-research.org/articles/vol... @demresjournal.bsky.social @pophel.bsky.social #demography #methods

"Temporary shock or lasting scar?" By 2024 nearly all high-income countries remained below their pre-pandemic life expectancy trends. We identify four distinct mortality shock patterns since 2020. Full analysis in our preprint: www.medrxiv.org/content/10.6...

1 week left to submit your abstract for SSMPH EuroEpi 2026!! ➡️ hg3.co.uk/ssm/ Submission deadline: 23:59 (GMT), Monday 2nd March 📆 9-11 Sep 2026 Venue: Mile End Campus, QMUL, London

Is there a good reason to still put so much emphasis on hypothesis testing in quant methods courses for social science (esp. undergrad) students? What would we lose if we mentioned it but instead emphasised the estimand framework?

Excited to be delivering a session on better incorporating geography in intersectional inequalities research at the ISGlobal Spring School in March. It is free to attend and today is the final day to sign up. Further information here: www.isglobal.org/en/-/interna...

📢 How can systematic reviews better address health equity—even when equity isn’t the main focus? A paper by Dr Mhairi Campbell, with @vkatikireddi.bsky.social (Causal Estimations package) sets out practical ways to build equity into evidence reviews that shape health decisions. Read: bit.ly/3ZfkCIE

Passionate about health equity? 📣 Join the #Equalise team and help make a difference with a fully funded PhD opportunity at the University of Glasgow @glasgow.ac.uk. ✍ Further information & how to apply: shorturl.at/yn3Sh #PhD #PhDFunding @celsenbroich.bsky.social @pmeierprof.bsky.social

📢 New paper! We examine intersectional inequalities in neighbourhood air pollution concentration by area deprivation, ethnicity, education, rurality and age. We find evidence of patterns of inequality which depart from an additive framework link.springer.com/article/10.1...

🏠 Homeownership is often framed as protective for #wellbeing. But less is known about what happens when #homeownership becomes a burden… Our new paper out in Social Science & Medicine shows that #mortgage affordability matters for #MentalHealth. doi.org/10.1016/j.so...

If you are interested in the past, present, and future of Mendelian Randomisation, join us later this month for a Causal Inference Interest Group seminar on MR with none other than @mendelrandom.bsky.social Zoom registration link: ucl.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

Happy New Year! 2026 already offers lots of opportunities to join or visit the MPIDR – last call! These four MPIDR calls end in January. Jobs: www.demogr.mpg.de/en/career_61... www.demogr.mpg.de/en/career_61... Visit: incubator.demogr.mpg.de Conference: www.demogr.mpg.de/en/news_even...

Again an open position at the MaxHel Center. This time at the Max (Rostock) part of MaxHel. deadline is the 11th of January! www.demogr.mpg.de/en/career_61...

And for all the 1918 flu cohort studies that compare 1919 to all surrounding cohorts, including 1920, the water is doubly muddied: fertility patterns make it look like any compositional changes persisted into 1920, causing bias in the opposite direction too (2/2) doi.org/10.1080/0032...

New paper finally published! Using data on 78 million births from 15 countries, we found that babies conceived during the COVID-19 pandemic have a different parental socioeconomic composition than expected had the pandemic not occurred. doi.org/10.1038/s414... @natcomms.nature.com @helsinki.fi

New study on divorce by @elinaeinio.bsky.social & Ponkilainen shows that women divorcing men face larger losses in homeownership & in retaining the marital home than both their former husbands and women divorcing women. @pophel.bsky.social 🔗 link.springer.com/article/10.1... PS. Happy New Year! 🥂

„... there are no iron laws of economics keeping us from building a more humane world, …“ Banerjee & Duflo 2019, p. 255

News from the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health: doi.org/10.1136/jech... Annie Herbert and I will co-chair the new Scientific Review Panel at JECH (read more about it in the editorial). There are new methodological recommendations for authors of quant studies at jech.bmj.com/pages/authors

When kids are ready to learn, Stephen Raudenbush thinks we should be ready to teach. On the latest Inequality Podcast, Raudenbush joins @gtwodtke.bsky.social to discuss how teaching and school structure shape outcomes, and why organizational change might be needed. Listen → bit.ly/4rwytHh

Today, @lintuslotta.bsky.social defended her doctoral thesis on educational inequalities at the @eui-eu.bsky.social Great defense, thanks to Lotta and the commiittee with @kbkarlson.bsky.social Bess Bukodi and @hermwerf.bsky.social

New book: 𝗛𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘁𝗵 𝗦𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺𝘀, 𝗛𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘁𝗵 𝗦𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗰𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗜𝗻𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗶𝗻 𝗣𝗼𝗽𝘂𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗛𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘁𝗵 (free to download from link.springer.com/book/10.1007...) 1/7

We are in the process of creating a new journal for our community, the Population Health Journal, and we are now inviting applications for editors: journals.gla.ac.uk/phj/announce....

Do register-based research? 🔎 #FIRE Fellowships offer 1–2 month visits to Finland for postdocs & senior researchers. Apply now 👉 fire-infra.com/en/fire-visi... @utu.fi @stat.fi @aalto.fi #TampereUniversity @helsinki.fi @uniuef.bsky.social @uniofjyvaskyla.bsky.social @vatt-tutkimus.bsky.social

Family-based designs like family fixed effects models are becoming more popular and feasible through family linkages in individual-level population wide data. Can they achieve less confounded effect estimates than other designs? Don't miss this talk by one of our experts on the topic.

Great research and great fun in our international team awaits you! If you have any informal questions about the team, feel free shoot me a message.

Looks like a great opportunity for pop health researchers... #demography #episky jobs.helsinki.fi/job/Helsinki...

Excited to see @sammalmaetaes.bsky.social defend his masterpiece of a phd thesis today @helsinki.fi ! Go Juha!

Nuorempana alkoholia laillisesti ostaneet henkilöt ovat sairastuneet ja kuolleet kroonisiin alkoholiperäisiin sairauksiin useammin kuin henkilöt, jotka saivat laillisesti ostaa alkoholia 21–vuotiaana.

New study in European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry by Lotta Volotinen, Hanna Remes, Pekka Martikainen and Niina Metsä-Simola found that low parental education is more strongly associated with increased ADHD diagnosis only in families without identified history of ADHD. Read more: rdcu.be/eG9eY

Our symposium from #SLLS2025 @sllshome.bsky.social consisted of research from Shubh Sharma @eugeniopaglino.bsky.social @olivia-mcevoy.bsky.social mcevoy.bsky.social @moberndorfer.bsky.social orfer.bsky.social Lauren Bishop and registry data expertise from Hanna Remes. Thanks to all who attended!

"help reshape" never gets old

New paper (£0): Socio-economic inequalities in uptake and timing of childhood vaccination: Taking a life course approach in an administrative cohort in Scotland www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Great to be at #REVES2025 in Tampere 🤓 This morning, I presented on the demography of widowhood in Finland, and we also had an overview of some @pophel.bsky.social works! @reves-network.bsky.social

“Was 55 Mio. Euro Zuschuss bringen? Man weiß es nicht” @diepressecom.bsky.social. Wieder ein prägnantes Beispiel warum es in 🇦🇹 dringend mehr #Registerforschung braucht. @registerforschung.bsky.social @mhalla.bsky.social

“Declining Fertility, Human Capital & Economic Sustainability”: M Myrskyla @angelorenti.bsky.social @htikkanen.bsky.social et al show how fertility & investment in education affect pension burden. @flux-consortium.bsky.social @mpidr.bsky.social @pophel.bsky.social read.dukeupress.edu/demography/a...

"Dear Moritz Oberndorfer, It’s been some time since you last submitted work for publication with us." YES I KNOW!

This afternoon ⬇️⬇️⬇️

Check out what we have been up to lately and what’s on the horizon. Especially interesting to demography, epidemiology, and register-based data folks.

The I-SES is excited to announce our 2025 Call for Awards to recognize the exceptional work of doctoral students, postdoctoral fellows, & early career researchers in social epidemiology! Please see the flyer below & go to www.social-epi.org/ises-awards for more details. And please share widely!

We opened two new postdoc positions! Deadline 14th March. If you want to work with amazing Finnish register data on social inequalities in population health, this is the place to be. Get in touch with us if you have questions. jobs.helsinki.fi/job/Helsinki...

Science is a noble but fragile endeavour that must be protected from political control and censorship. Scientific communities, around the world, should show solidarity with our colleagues in the US and denounce this chilling attack on science and scientists. Share this if you agree! #ScienceSky

We are starting our online public seminar series PopHel Talks next Monday. (@pophel.bsky.social) Our colleague Alvaro is kicking us off with his talk next Monday. Anyone can register and attend online. Stay tuned for more PopHel Talks in the future.

George Leckie and I have created a new short MAIHDA tutorial, with videos and practical exercises: www.ncrm.ac.uk/resources/on... It's based on our tutorial paper in SSM Pop Health, but shorter and more interactive. Hope it's helpful! @ncrm.ac.uk

I am hiring a PhD student to work with me in my group Migration and Health Inequalities at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research! Come work with me! ⬇️