Karen Peres is a Principal Investigator in Oral Epidemiology at the National Dental Centre and an Associate Professor at Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore. She is an internationally recognized researcher in the field of Child Oral Health. Karen spent seven years as an Australian Dental Research Foundation research advisor and the South Pacific Child Oral Health task force. Her research areas of interest include inequalities in oral health, life course epidemiology, oral health surveillance, and the relationship between oral and general health. Karen has been involved in international collaborative work on breastfeeding effects on the outcomes of various children's health conditions. She has supervised several master's and PhD students and authored numerous book chapters and peer-reviewed papers. She is considered one of the top 2% of scientists worldwide and the recipient of the 2022 IADR E.W. Memorial Borrow award. Currently, she coordinates the Global Consortium of Oral Health Birth Cohort Studies.
Session:
Celebration of Collaboration, 7 October 2022, 1000 - 1200hrsOral Health Over the Life-course: Disseminating and Implementing Evidence Through a Global Consortium of Birth Cohort Studies
The most common oral diseases are part of the spectrum of non-communicable diseases. Untreated early childhood caries and periodontal disease, for instance, have devastating consequences on the quality of life of children and adults, respectively. Birth cohort studies are necessary to better understand the natural history of oral conditions and expand knowledge of events such as socioeconomic inequalities and nutritional aspects, among others, that occur early in life and may influence later health outcomes. This presentation provides empirical examples of applying life course theories to core areas of research, such as the role of socioeconomic position during the life course and oral health later, the relationship between oral and general health and predictive models of oral health outcomes, using data from the Pelotas birth cohort studies, Brazil. Next, this presentation describes the strategy to leverage existing longitudinal data and generate more impactful oral health outcomes by building a long-lasting international collaborative research group of oral health-related birth cohort studies (OHRBCS). The launch of the OHRBCS Consortium - GLOBICS project is an outstanding opportunity to respond to the Lancet Commission's call for action and the workshop of OHRBCS leaders held in Bangkok in 2019. The GLOBICS initiative will be detailed, emphasising its objectives, goals, and current achievements.
Return to Speakers >
