Dr. Denis Talbot, Ph.D., is a regular investigator at the CHU de Québec – Laval University Research Center and professor in biostatistics at the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine of Laval University’s School of Medicine. His research interests focus on the development of statistical methods to perform causal inference and the application of such methods in health research, particularly in cardiovascular health research. Causal inference seeks to predict the effect that a potential intervention would have, for instance the effect of a public health policy or a medical treatment.
Model selection for causal inference
When observational data are utilized to investigate the relationship between an exposure and a disease, there can be variables that are both associated with the exposure and the disease. Such variables, called confounders, may distort the observed relationship between the exposure and the disease, unless adequate control is performed. Unfortunately, identifying confounders solely based on substantive knowledge can be difficult. Moreover, once confounders are identified, an appropriate statistical modeling approach must be employed to eliminate the bias that confounders produce.
One strategy to circumvent these problems would be to use statistical methods to supplement scientific knowledge with the information available in the data. Such methods would facilitate the identification and the control for confounders, and thus facilitate the identification of the causal relationship between the exposure and the disease. An important part of Dr. Talbot’s research program, funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, targets the development of such statistical methods.
Other interests in causal inference
Dr. Talbot is also interested in many other aspects of causal inference, notably in causal mediation methods and treatment regime effects (for example, cumulative exposure, and marginal structural models). He is involved in various collaborative research projects, for instance on health at work, nutrition or physical activity.
1050, chemin Sainte-Foy
J0-03
Québec, Québec
Canada G1S 4L8
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- Adenyo, Nyamador Komla DavidDoctoral studentnyamador-komla-david.adenyo@crchudequebec.ulaval.ca
- Chatton, ArthurPostdoctoral fellow
- Isangwe, SabineMaster studentCHUL+1 418-525-4444sabine.isangwe.1@ulaval.casabine.isangwe@crchudequebec.ulaval.ca
2705, boulevard Laurier
Québec, QC
Canada G1V 4G2 - Julmiste, Gaetane RaymondeMaster studentgaetane-raymonde.julmiste@crchudequebec.ulaval.ca
- Niang, Ndeye MaguetteMaster student
- Trenou, Kossi ClémentMaster studentkossi-clement.trenou@crchudequebec.ulaval.ca
- Trenou, Kossi ClémentDoctoral studentkossi-clement.trenou@crchudequebec.ulaval.ca
Multimorbidity prevalence and health outcome prediction: assessing the impact of lookback periods, disease count, and definition criteria in health administrative data at the population-based level
Journal ArticleBMC Med Res Methodol, 24 (1), 2024.
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Value-based comparison of ambulatory children with respiratory diseases in an emergency department and a walk-in clinic: a retrospective cohort study in Québec, Canada
Journal ArticleBMJ Open, 14 (4), 2024.
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Evaluation and comparison of covariate balance metrics in studies with time-dependent confounding
Journal ArticleStat Med, 2024.
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Traditional Methods Hold Their Ground Against Machine Learning in Predicting Potentially Inappropriate Medication Use in Older Adults
Journal ArticleValue Health, 2024.
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Impact of Educational Activity Formats, Online or In-Person, on the Intention of Medical Specialists to Adopt a Clinical Behaviour: A Comparative Study
Journal ArticleJ CME, 13 (1), 2024.
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Strategies aiming to improve statin therapy adherence in older adults: a systematic review
Journal ArticleBMC Geriatr, 24 (1), 2024.
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History-restricted marginal structural model and latent class growth analysis of treatment trajectories for a time-dependent outcome
Journal ArticleInt J Biostat, 2024.
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10-Year Multimorbidity Trajectories in Older People Have Limited Benefit in Predicting Short-Term Health Outcomes in Comparison to Standard Multimorbidity Thresholds: A Population-Based Study
Journal ArticleClin Epidemiol, 16 , 2024.
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A value-based comparison of the management of respiratory diseases in walk-in clinics and emergency departments
Journal ArticleCJEM, 25 (5), 2023.
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An Alternative Perspective on the Robust Poisson Method for Estimating Risk or Prevalence Ratios
Journal ArticleEpidemiology, 34 (1), 2023.
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Active projects
- Causal inference methods for adaptive treatment strategies, from 2023-04-01 to 2028-03-31
- Centre de recherches mathématiques (CRM), from 2022-04-01 to 2028-03-31
- Favoriser l'engagement des femmes ayant eu un cancer du sein dans les décisions concernant l'hormonothérapie adjuvante prolongée, from 2023-10-01 to 2027-05-31
- Méthodes d'inférence causale pour l'analyse de données médico-administratives et pour la médecine personnalisée, from 2022-07-01 to 2026-06-30
- Personalized risk-stratified breast cancer follow-up care: a feasibility and acceptability study, from 2023-06-26 to 2026-06-30
- Prévenir l’hypertension, le diabète de type 2 et les maladies cardiovasculaires en ciblant les stresseurs psychosociaux au travail, les longues heures de travail et les mauvaises habitudes de vie : Des fractions, from 2022-10-01 to 2026-03-31
- The right care, for the right patient, at the right time, by the right provider: A value-based comparison of the management of ambulatory respiratory diseases in walk-in clinics, primary care physician practices and emergency departments, from 2021-10-01 to 2025-03-31
- The test-negative design for the estimation of COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness: design evaluation and development of statistical methods in the evolving context, from 2022-10-01 to 2025-09-30
- Urogenital tissue engineering solutions for transgender surgeries, from 2024-03-31 to 2026-03-30
- Utilisation de l’inférence causale pour l’attribution des ventes en assurance de dommage, from 2023-10-02 to 2024-10-01
- Vers des trajectoires de soins en cancer du sein personnalisées en fonction du risque et des besoins des patientes: une étude de faisabilité et d'acceptabilité, from 2023-04-01 to 2025-03-31
Recently finished projects
- Déterminer la qualité de la polypharmacie chez les aînés : une approche basée sur l’intelligence artificielle, from 2020-04-01 to 2023-03-31
- Funding to support this manuscript development was provided by the International Society for Pharmacoepidemiology (ISPE)., from 2021-12-01 to 2022-12-31
- Model and variable selection for causal inference., from 2016-04-01 to 2023-03-31
- Prize 202203PJT - The test-negative design for the estimation of COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness: design evaluation and development of statistical methods in the evolving context, from 2022-10-01 to 2023-03-31
- Real-World Evaluation of the Efficacy, Safety and Cost-Effectiveness of Statins for Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease Among the Elderly – A Causal Perspective to Treatment Trajectory Analysis, from 2019-10-01 to 2023-03-31
- The right care, for the right patient, at the right time, by the right provider: A value-based comparison of the management of ambulatory respiratory diseases in walk-in clinics, primary care physician practices and emergency departments, from 2020-04-01 to 2024-03-31