Olga Basso
Associate Professor, Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology
Associate Professor, Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Occupational Health
- Perinatal epidemiology
- Reproductive epidemiology
- Women’s health
Events occurring before conception and during pregnancy can have a long-term influence on health, making reproductive health a key area of epidemiologic research – one that is fraught with challenges, as individual choices, social influences, and biology are so tightly intertwined that it is often impossible to resolve their respective contributions. Dealing with incomplete denominators (e.g., conceptions) and numerators (e.g., early losses) is the norm and, in a setting where many of the relevant events cannot be observed, the problems associated with defining outcomes and accounting for competing events are magnified. Addressing aspects of this complexity has been the underlying theme of my research.
Recent and current research areas:
- Influence of prenatal and early-life factors, particularly mother’s age at the birth of a daughter, on reproductive health.
- Methodological challenges in reproductive and perinatal epidemiology
- Contribution of infertility and infertility treatment to perinatal and child health
- Ovarian cancer: early diagnosis, prevalence, symptoms, participation in clinical studies.
Specialization in Health Statistics, U. of Pavia (1989-1991); Doctorate in Biomedical Statistics, University of Milan and Pavia (I): (1991-96). Dr. Basso has worked at the Danish Epidemiology Science Centre at the University of Aarhus (DK, 1996-2004) and at the National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences, NIH (USA, 2004-2010). Since 2010, I am Associate Professor at McGill University (Canada), jointly appointed at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and the Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Occupational Health.