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Bloomsbury and East London Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP) – Quantitative Social Science pathway

Contacts

For a full list of Team Members and details of the Quantitative Social Science pathway, please see the ESRC UBEL DTP web pages.

Quantitative Social Science pathway

LSHTM is a leading global centre for quantitative research. The Quantitative Social Science pathway at LSHTM has a focus on Longitudinal Analysis and Design. We welcome any project topic falling under this broad remit, including projects in medical statistics, epidemiology, clinical trials and beyond. Projects can involve development of statistical methodology for analysis of longitudinal studies, can focus on a substantive application involving longitudinal data, or may focus on the design and conduct of longitudinal studies. 

PhD students on the Quantitative Science Pathway can be based in any faculty, but have tended to be based in the Faculty of Epidemiology and Population Health or the Faculty of Public Health and Policy.  The Faculty of Epidemiology & Population Health is home to the largest grouping of epidemiologists in Europe with research expertise ranging from clinical trials, statistical analysis genetic epidemiology, large-scale observational studies and field trials through to the design and evaluation of clinical and public health interventions in low, middle and high-income countries. The Faculty of Public Health and Policy is the largest multi-disciplinary public health group in Europe and encompasses the disciplines of epidemiology, public health medicine, economics, political science, international relations, anthropology, sociology, history, psychology, statistics and mathematics. 

Application procedure

Funding is available for 3 years of doctoral study, and applicants will typically already have completed a Master’s degree, such as MSc in Medical Statistics, Health Data Science, Epidemiology or a related field with a strong quantitative component. Please see the Preliminary Application Guidance on the ESRC UBEL DTP website for further information.

This is an open competition for ESRC studentships on any topic that falls within the remit of the pathway. In order to progress through the preliminary and final selection process you will need to have contacted a relevant staff member at LSHTM who would be willing to be your supervisor and support your application.

Interested students should contact the DTP representative, Ruth Keogh for an initial discussion.  

Students with specific project ideas may also approach potential supervisors at the School for discussion. To make direct contact with prospective supervisors you can search for staff members and their interests via the Department of Medical Statistics on the School’s website.

Applications are invited for a three-year PhD studentship from the ESRC UBEL DTP

(UCL, Bloomsbury and East London Doctoral Training Partnership)

We are seeking applicants who would like to pursue PhD research on the project described below. This project is offered as part of the Longitudinal Analysis and Design topic under the Quantitative Social Science Pathway of the ESRC UBEL DTP. Successful applicants will be based in the Department of Medical Statistics at LSHTM. Further information can be found on the ESRC studentships.

PhD title: Causal inference for competing risks data

Supervisors

Background

In medical studies investigating the effects of treatments or exposures, the outcome of interest is often time to a particular event, such as occurrence of Alzheimer’s disease. In such studies, some individuals may never experience the event of interest, because a so-called competing event occurs first which precludes the event of interest from occurring. In the Alzheimer’s example, dying from a non-Alzheimer’s related cause without having a prior Alzhiemer’s disease diagnosis constitutes the competing event.

In recent years it has become apparent that the standard statistical methods for analysing such competing risks data rest on either implausible assumptions or are difficult to interpret. One approach, which involves fitting a so called ‘Cox’ regression model for the event of interest, censors individuals who fail from competing causes. For this analysis, the so-called independent censoring assumption that it makes is likely violated when there exist individual level characteristics which affect both the risk of the event of interest and the competing events. In the case of Alzheimer’s disease, it is likely that cardiovascular risk factors exist which affect both the likelihood of developing Alzheimer’s disease and cardiovascular disease, such that the effect estimates are biased. An alternative approach, based on analysing effects on the so-called cumulative incidence of the event of interest, does not make such assumptions, but is harder to interpret and arguably is not isolating the effect only on the cause of interest.

Project objectives

This PhD will investigate both existing and recently proposed statistical approaches for analysing competing risks data, including methods based on so called separable effects. The overarching objective is to better understand when the standard analysis approaches are likely to be misleading and whether newly developed approaches, such as that based on separable effects, can overcome the problems with existing standard approaches.

Techniques to be used

The project will involve a combination of statistical analysis of real-world observational data, simulated data, and mathematical analytical work. The student will analyse data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, to investigate the potential role of different variables in causing dementia. Death prior to dementia is the competing event.

Location

The student will be based in the Department of Medical Statistics at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

Project requirements

The project involves advanced quantitative methods: it is statistical and computational in nature, and applicants will need (or be expecting to get) an MSc in Medical Statistics or a related subject. Please also see the ESRC UBEL DTP’s general academic qualification requirements.

Application process

Interested applicants are asked to express their interest by sending a CV and cover letter to Jonathan Bartlett (jonathan.bartlett1@lshtm.ac.uk) by 12 noon UK time on 21 November 2022. Applicants will be contacted shortly afterwards and may be invited for an interview. One applicant will be selected to go forward to the second stage of the application process.