51³Ô¹ÏÍø

 Interview with Dr Chiara Di Gravio – Data Analyst on REACT 

What is your research background? 

I received a PhD in Biostatistics from Vanderbilt University (USA). During my PhD, I worked on different projects ranging from developing studies that make the best use of the available resources to looking at how vulnerability might affect the risk of re-hospitalization in people with heart disease. Before my PhD, I worked as statistician at the former MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit in Southampton, where I investigated how maternal nutrition during pregnancy is related to risk of future diseases in children. 

What is your role on the REACT study and what has been your research focus? 

Since joining the team in July 2023, I have been working on analysing the data collected during the 2022 follow-up survey, as well as the current survey. Particularly, I am looking at how we can correctly define Long COVID based on the data we have, and how Long COVID relates to any change in employment. 

 When you’re working on REACT data, what might a typical day look like? 

  Most of my day is spent writing computer code to summarise data and generate results for different analyses. We also have an analyst meeting every other week where we share our results, discuss ideas, and help each other to constantly improve our analyses so that we can get the most out of the information we have. 

 What have been some exciting results or insights you have gained from the data? 

Most of my job is spent looking at the survey data. I found it really striking to see the difference in Long COVID prevalence when comparing self-reported LONG COVID, self-reported duration of symptoms and doctor-diagnosed disease. This shows that we should continue working to consider all aspects of the condition when conduction research. 

 What is the  biggest challenge about working with the REACT data? 

The REACT data is huge! We have survey data, test data, clinic data. We also have linked data from the National Health Service (NHS). Since data were collected across time, and because the COVID-19 situation was continually evolving, the questions asked had to evolve as well. Harmonising all these data source so that they can be used by researchers has been the biggest challenge. 

  What are your future plans for working with the data? 

I am hoping to continue looking at the relationship between Long COVID and employment using the data coming in from the new survey. I am also interested in using the health data we have from the NHS to look at long term relationship between COVID-19 and health. There are many unknowns on how COVID-19 might be related to long term health outcomes, and I believe the REACT data provide a unique resource for investigating these relationships.