Ms Jennifer Powers

Biography

"Jennifer Powers is a statistician with the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health (ALSWH) at the Research Centre for Gender, Health and Ageing at the University of Newcastle. As a public health researcher, Jennifer has a strong interest in modifiable factors that effect the health and well-being of women. Her research has included drinking patterns across the lifespan, the physical and mental health effects of alcohol, the effect of drought on mental health, and women's drinking and smoking behaviour during pregnancy. Specific statistical interests include methodological issues associated with longitudinal data analysis. For example, she has investigated ways of handling missing data at individual time points and over time. She has assessed the representativeness of the four ALSWH cohorts, including problems arising from permanent or temporary attrition, particularly among the younger two cohorts. As a member of the data management group, she has also validated several scales used in the ALSWH and assessed the effectiveness of linkage with the National Death Index. She has co-authored over 60 publications in peer-reviewed refereed journals as well as a number of reports to government and other agencies, and been invited to present at workshops and conferences. She has reviewed manuscripts for a number of journals including Alcohol and Alcoholism, Alcoholism Clinical and Experimental Research, Medical Journal of Australia, Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth, Drug and Alcohol Review, Addiction, International Journal of Psychology, Environment Research, Evaluation Review, BMC Medical Research Methodology and Plos One. As a public health researcher, she has collaborated with researchers at the University of Newcastle, the University of Queensland, the University of New South Wales, the Australian National University, University of Canberra, Latrobe University, Hunter Medical Research Institute and Menzies School of Health Research."

Research Interest

Clinical Sciences, Public Health and Health Services