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The Faculty of Medicine at the University of Bern is one of five medical faculties in Switzerland. The Faculty’s Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine (ISPM) employs some 100 staff and provides under-graduate and post-graduate education and carries out research in a range of disciplines relevant to Public Health. ISPM offers a lively, interdisciplinary environment with excellent computing and library facilities. With its mediaeval architecture, the Swiss capital city of Bern is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which offers excellent quality of life in the proximity of the Alps. An opening for a PhD position in biostatistics / epidemiology (childhood asthma) is available, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation. Childhood wheezing disorders (including childhood asthma) are the most common chronic health problem in childhood. Yet, the factors that determine if a child gets asthma, and if it grows out of it or develops chronic disease, are poorly known. This PhD project will focus on the prediction of onset and persistence of childhood wheezing disorders, using data from large population-based cohort studies (N=10,000; Int J Epidemiol 2007;36:977-85). Specifically the applicant will: • Perform a systematic review and meta-analysis of the existing literature on predictors of onset and persistence of wheeze and asthma. • Explore, apply and compare the performance of the methods (e.g. logistic regression, classification and regression trees, and artificial neural networks) in predicting onset and persistence of asthma in children. 我要提问
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