Alessandra GrottaResearcher
About me
I am a social epidemiologist with a background in statistics. My research aims to shed light on disability-related health inequalities, a field that has been under-researched for many decades, and ultimately inform policymakers, as well as social and healthcare professionals, to improve the health, well-being, and living conditions of people with disabilities.
In addition to my work on disability, I collaborate on projects investigating the health of family members of adults with chronic illnesses (PI: Ayako Hiyoshi, School of Medical Sciences, Örebro University) and the long-term consequences of bereavement across the life course (PI: Mikael Rostila, Department of Public Health Sciences, Stockholm University).
My research primarily uses quantitative methods, leveraging data from Swedish national social and healthcare registers. I collaborate with researchers from diverse backgrounds, including medicine, public health, sociology, demography, and history.
Teaching
Between 2012 and 2023, I gave one seminar on propensity score methods as part of the doctoral-level course Biostatistics II at Karolinska Institutet. In 2023-2024, I have been teaching causal inference and logistic regression in the doctoral-level course Data Analysis and Causal Inference in Observational Studies for Social and Medical Research at Stockholm University. Additionally, I have introduced multilevel models in the Master's program Epidemiological Methodology and Biostatistics for Clinical Research, offered by the Department of Statistics and Quantitative Methods at the University of Milan-Bicocca, in collaboration with the Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research in Milan.
Research
I began my research career at the Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Karolinska Institutet, working with the Swedish National March Cohort research group in the field of lifestyle epidemiology, investigating the associations between physical activity, diet, and sleep with various diseases, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, and neurodegenerative disorders. As a statistician, I was also involved in other projects, including multicenter randomized controlled trials and pharmacoepidemiology research.
In 2017, I had the opportunity to join the Center for Health Equity Studies at the Department of Public Health Sciences at Stockholm University, where I worked in the research programme RELINK in the field of life-course epidemiology. This experience allowed me to explore the social determinants of health, moving beyond individual factors. I proceeded by working with Professor Hiyoshi on projects examining the health of family members of adults with chronic illnesses using the CARE database. Additionally, I have been working with Professor Rostila to investigate the long-term consequences of bereavement across the life course and I am a collaborator within the project "Mental health consequences following the loss of a family member during the Corona pandemic".
My experience in social epidemiology, together with my extensive knowledge of the Swedish national registers, led me to the development of projects in the field of disability and health inequalities. I am the Principal Investigator (PI) for the project "Cancer screening, stage at diagnosis and survival among people with disabilities (CANDIS)" and contribute to two other disability-related projects led by Can Liu, "Overlooked Children in Need (ORCHID)" and "Mistreatment and Discrimination in Maternity Care for Women of Minority Status (MISMATCH)". Our group collaborates with the multidisciplinary research team on disability led by Professor Vikström at Umeå University, where I have been guest researcher in the project "Ageing with disability in past, present and future societies (DISTIME)’".
