Killie disputerer for ph.d.-graden i helsevitenskap og vil offentlig forsvare avhandlingen:
"Self-rated health in Cancer and Mortality: The Norwegian Women and Health Study."
Avhandlingen er tilgjengelig her! / The doctoral thesis is available here!
Disputasen strømmes og et opptak vil være tilgjengelig i et døgn.
The defense will be streamed, and a recording of the disputation will be available for 24 hours.
Prøveforelesning over oppgitt emne starter kl. 10.15 / The trial lecture starts at 10.15
Tittel/Title: "Understanding data in epidemiology: Distinguishing description, prediction, and causal inference."
Prøveforelesningen strømmes her / The trial lecture will be streamed here.
Disputasen starter kl. 12.15 / The defense starts at 12.15
Disputasen strømmes her / The defense will be streamed here
Populærvitenskapelig sammendrag av avhandlingen/ Summary of the thesis:
How we perceive our own health can reveal a lot about our future health. This project explored how self-rated health (SRH) – a simple question about how individuals perceive their overall health – relates to cancer risk and mortality among Norwegian women. Using data from over 170,000 participants in the Norwegian Women and Health (NOWAC) study, we examined how SRH predicts cancer diagnoses and cancer survival, as well as overall mortality.
The findings show that women who rated their health as poor were more likely to develop cancer and had a higher risk of dying, whether they had cancer or not. Among women with breast and colorectal cancer, as well as cancer overall, poor SRH before diagnosis was linked to worse survival outcomes. Socioeconomic factors also played a role, with differences in how SRH predicted overall mortality across social groups.
This study highlights SRH as a powerful, easy-to-use tool for identifying health risks, while emphasising the importance of addressing social inequalities in health.
Hovedveileder/Main supervisor:
Professor Kristin Benjaminsen Borch, Institutt for samfunnsmedisin, Det helsevitenskapelige fakultet, UiT Norges arktiske universitet
Bedømmelseskomité/Defensecomittee:
Professor Naja Hulvej Rod, Københavns universitet – 1. opponent.
Professor Johan Håkon Bjørngaard, NTNU – 2. opponent.
Professor Tiina Ikäheimo, Institutt for samfunnsmedisin, Det helsevitenskapelige fakultet, UiT Norges arktiske universitet – leder av komité.
Disputasleder/ Leader of defense:
Universitetslektor ph.d. Torill Jensen, Institutt for samfunnsmedisin, Det helsevitenskapelige fakultet, UiT Norges arktiske universitet.
When: 27.11.25 kl 10.15–16.00
Where:
Auditorium Cortex, plan 7, MH Vest
Location / Campus: Digitalt, Tromsø
Target group: Employees, Students, Guests, Invited, Enhet
Contact: Andrea Jennerwein
E-mail: andrea.jennerwein@uit.no