Program Zurich Population Research Conference 2025

09:00-09:30

Arrival of participants, registration, coffee

Room: Lichthof

09:30-10:30

Welcome Session

Room: Aula KOL-G-201

• Welcome address by Prof Elisabeth Stark, Vice-President Research UZH
• Welcome speech by PRC Directors
• Keynote speeches
  • Melinda Mills
  • Emilio Zagheni

10:30-11:00

Coffee break

Room: Lichthof

11:00-12:30

Session 1a: Population Insights from National Level Datasets

Room: KOL-F-123

Chair: Karsten Donnay

• Nazihah Noor (University of Fribourg): Differential effects of adolescent health behaviors on adult cardiometabolic conditions by parental financial situation: a population-based cohort study
• Anja Lehmann (University of Zurich): Long-term development in job crafting in employees with and without mental health issues during COVID-19: The role of job resources
• Ágnes Szabó-Morvai (KRTK KTI): Precautionary Fertility: Conceptions, Births, and Abortions around Employment Shocks
• Yun Zhang (Sun Yat-sen University): Polygenic risk for number of births is moderated by education achievement
• Martin Tušl (University of Zurich): Longitudinal Dynamics of Occupational Well-being: Exploring Associations with Socio-economic Factors in Swiss and German Employees

Session 1b: Vulnerable Groups and Diverse Populations

Room: KOL-G-212

Chair: Jan Fehr

• Sandra Gilgen (Universität Zürich): Which norms determine acceptance for use of assisted reproduction technologies for heterosexual couples?
• Carlos Gómez González (University of Zurich): Can celebrities reduce ethnic discrimination? A field experiment in a social setting
• Cecilia Potente (Erasmus University Rotterdam): Partner’s Education and Smoking: The Role of Selection
• Babette L. Winter (University of Zurich): Population research in vulnerable populations: how can we reach those at high-risk of stigmatized health outcomes?
• Dawid Gondek (FORS): The crisis in youth wellbeing – is it due to the COVID-19 pandemic?
• Denis Ribeaud (University of Zurich): Trends in Sexual Assault in Switzerland: Findings from the Zurich and Vaud Youth Surveys 1999-2022

12:30-14:00

Lunch

Room: Lichthof

14:00-15:30

Session 2a: Advanced Modelling Methods

Room: KOL-F-123

Chair: Laura Bechtiger

• Phung Lang (University of Zurich): A Nationwide Cross-Sectional Study on HPV Vaccination in Adults in Switzerland: An Analysis of Age, Sex and Regional Differences in Vaccine Coverage and Factors Affecting Vaccine Uptake
• Gert Stulp (University of Groningen): How predictable is having a child in the next three years? Results of the first data challenge in population research
• Nathalie Schweyckart (University of Zurich and Balgrist University Hospital): Predicting patient outcomes and risk for revision surgery after hip and knee replacement surgery: comparison of modelling approaches using the Swiss National Joint Registry (SIRIS)
• Aurélien Sallin (SWICA): Expanding Interrupted Time-Series methodologies for evaluation of population-level interventions
• Valentin Jaki Waibl (Swiss TPH): Monitoring objective and self-reported sleep in 150 Swiss adolescents for one week: HERMES cohort study
• David Bürgin (University of Zurich): Longitudinal natural language processing analysis of major life events from adolescence to young adulthood in a large urban cohort study

Session 2b: Innovative Research Methodologies

Room: KOL-G-212

Chair: Lucas Leemann

• Natalie von Goetz (Federal Office of Public Health): Human Biomonitoring in SHeS-pilot: study design and findings
• Fynn Bachmann (University of Zurich): Adaptive Questionnaires in Political Surveys
• Saurabh Singh (International Institute for Population Sciences):    Addressing Sensitive Questions Response in Large- Scale Survey of India: Impact of Fieldworker and Social Desirability Bias
• Miloš Milovanović (Linköping University): Application of Machine Learning Techniques to Predict Turnout Rates in Sweden from Demographic Data
• Michael Ochsner (FORS): Estimating Population Parameters in Changing Societies. Offering a Tool to the Interdisciplinary Research Community by Keeping Representation Bias Low in General Population Surveys
• Anja Frei (University of Zurich): The validation of real-world digital mobility outcomes

15:30-16:00

Coffee break

Room: Lichthof

16:00-17:30

Plenary Session: The Power of Interdisciplinary Population Data

Room: Aula KOL-G-201

Chair: Lilly Shanahan

• Marieke Voorpostel (FORS): The Swiss Household Panel: the potential of a long running household panel for population research
• Maria Carlander and Aurélien Sallin (SWICA): The potential of using health insurance claims data for population research
• Tabea Hässler and Léïla Eisner (University of Zurich): Swiss LGBTIQ+ Panel - Assessing the Impact of Legal and Social Changes on LGBTIQ+ Individuals
• Michael von Rhein (University Children`s Hospital Zürich): Let`s answer this question together: interdisciplinary approaches in pediatric health care research.

18:30

Dinner for all attendees (Registration required)

08:30-09:00

Coffee

Room: Lichthof

09:00-10:30

Session 3a: Migration and Population Mobility

Room: KOL-G-212

Chair: Seraina Rüegger

• Dorothee Beckendorff (EPFL): Human development, basic needs and city out-migration: Subnational perspectives on the mobility transition 
• Dina Maskileyson (University of Luxembourg): A Systematic Examination of the Morbidity Profiles of Immigrants and Natives in Norway
• Andreas Genoni (Federal Institute for Population Research Germany): Should I stay or should I go? Unmet migration expectations and outmigration of skilled recent immigrants to Switzerland
• Daniela Foresta (Sapienza, University of Rome): Pre- and post-arrival effects on state and development of Refugees' mental health status in Germany.
• Ronny Westerman (Federal Institute for Population Research): How to capture chronic conditions and multimorbidity within migrant subgroups in the German National Cohort (NAKO): Potentials and challenges.

Session 3b: Participatory and Qualitative Research

Room: KOL-G-209

Chair: Markus Wolf

• Michael von Rhein  (University Children’s Hospital Zurich): Swiss Outpatient Pediatric Research Network
• Martin Röösli (swisstph): 5G Scientist Monitor App: A tool for data collection and risk communication using a citizen science approach
• Christina Haag (University of Zurich): Utilizing text data as indicators of mental health in large cohort studies: Insights from the Swiss z-proso Study
• Maria Rosa Mondardini (Citizen Science Zurich): The Role of Citizen Science in Population Health Research
• Nathalie Schweyckart   (University of Zurich): Development of an expert-informed Bayesian network model for predicting pain outcome after total knee replacement and addressing information needs of patients, surgeons and policymakers
• Andreas Baumer (University of Zürich): Talk2UZH (“Talk to us”): Collecting and Analyzing Spoken Answers at Scale in Population Research

10:30-11:00

Coffee break

Room: Lichthof

11:00-12:30

Session 4a: Lifecourse Research

Room: KOL-F-123

Chair: Viktor von Wyl

• Lukas Eggenberger (University Hospital of Psychiatry & Jacobs Center for Productive Youth Development): Something is not nothing: Recreational substance use and cognitive functions in a large community sample of young adults with hair testing
• Caroline Bähler (SWICA): Temporal trends in routine developmental assessments and urgent care consultations in Swiss children and adolescents
• Mathilde Le Vu (University of Zurich): Neonatal health during the influenza pandemic of 1918-20
• Shubhankar Sharma (University of Helsinki): Gender and educational trends in lifetime risk, age at onset, expectancy, and survival with cardiovascular disease in Finland, 1996-2020
• Ines Engler (University of Zurich): Data Driven Classifications of Psychopathology: An Investigation of Internalizing Disorders in Childhood
• Fabian Kratz (University of Munich (LMU)): Explaining Social Disparities by Emulating Interventions at Different Life Course Stages

Session 4b: Research on Population Disparities

Room: KOL-G-212

Chair: Milo Puhan

• Katarina Matthes (University of Zurich): Long-term Mortality Effects of the 1918/19 Pandemic Birth Cohort in Switzerland
• Ruth Overmann (University of the Bundeswehr Munich): Crisis concerns and childbearing intentions in Europe
• Abhishek Anand (International Institute for Population Sciences): Differential trends in the nucleation of households in India, 1998-2019
• Jael Auf der Maur (University of Bern): Borderline Personality Pathology in Young Men from the General Population: Prevalence, Longitudinal Course, and Behavioral Profiles
• Tim Riswick (Radboud University): First results of GREATLEAP: A COST-Action network for studying historical health inequalities in European populations

• Sebastian Klüsener (Federal Institute for Population Research (BiB)): Assessing regional mortality disparities across intra- and international borders in Europe: An application of the Earth Mover’s Distance

Session 4c: Environmental Impact

Room: KOL-G-209

Chair: Andrea Farnham

• Marloes Eeftens (Swiss TPH): Allergies unmasked: pollen’s systemic impact on health
• Risto Conte Keivabu (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research): Environmental Disasters and Health at Birth: Evidence from Wildfires in Spain
• Julien Riou (Unisanté): Biomonitoring in the Swiss Health Study pilot: sources of PFAS exposure
• Subhojit Shaw (International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai): Ecosystem resilience mitigates temperature impacts on neonatal and infant mortality in India

12:30-13:30

Lunch

Room: Lichthof

13:30-15:00

Session 5a: Insights from Cohort and Longitudinal Research

Room: KOL-G-212

Chair: Michael von Rhein

• Laura Bechtiger (University of Zurich): Physical youth-to-parent aggression in adolescence and young adulthood: a population-based cohort study
• Carmen Borrat-Besson (FORS): SHARE, the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe
• Paola Daniore (University of Zurich): Real-world patterns in remote longitudinal study participation: a study of the Swiss Multiple Sclerosis Registry
• Fabian Winiger (University of Zurich): Empirical foundations for the development of spiritual care. Results of a representative population survey in the Canton of Zurich
• Saskia Maria De Gani (Careum Center for Health Literacy, Zurich and Careum School of Health, Kalaidos University of Applied Sciences, Zurich): Latest data on vaccine literacy and vaccination behavior of the Swiss adult population
• Nicole Bender (University of Zurich): Impact of diet and physical activity on body composition in the general population of the greater Zurich area: cohort study

Session 5b: Mental Health

Room: KOL-G-209

Chair: Anja Frei

• Clarissa Janousch (University Hospital of Psychiatry Zurich & Jacobs Center for Productive Youth Development, UZH): A Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Cannabis Use on Cognitive Performance in Young Adulthood: Associations and Trajectories
• Odile Sauzet (Bielefeld University): Interaction effects on health between perceived neighbourhood social cohesion and demographic changes: a longitudinal linked panel and regional data study
• Jurgita Slekiene (University of Zurich): A pilot study on the effects of resilience, physical activity, and gender on mental health among Malawian adolescents: Foundations for population-level public health interventions
• Susanne Fischer (University of Zurich): Cold Season Effects of Ambient Temperature and Psycholgocial Well-being and Health
• Kateryna Golovina (University of Helsinki): Mental disorders and becoming a parent: a nationwide register study of young people in Finland
• Viktoriia Yasenok (University of Zurich): Mental Health Assessment of the Population (MAP) research program in Ukraine (MAP-U) and in Zurich (MAP-Z): the prevalence estimates from the baseline assessment.

15:00-16:30

Closing Session

Room: Aula KOL-G-201

• Announcement of PRC best presentation prize
• Farewell speech by PRC Directors
• Followed by an aperitif and networking event in Lichthof