Professor Janis Baird

I first became involved in the SWS in 2002 when I did some work to look at how the diet of an infant was related to their growth. I also carried out cleaning and checking of the data collected in SWS children and so became familiar with the study and the data collected over the years. Since then I have worked with the SWS team to examine the predictors of childhood sleep patterns and their relationship with behaviour at three years of age.

I have gradually become more involved with SWS over the years and am now leading our plans for the next phase of follow-up – examining the health and wellbeing of the SWS children who are now young adults aged 17 to 19 years.

I trained in medicine in Cardiff, graduating in 1987, and carried out a PhD here at the MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Centre from 1993 to 1997, working on a study of adult twins. I am currently Professor of Public Health and Epidemiology and I lead a programme of work that aims to identify behaviours that lead to a greater risk of disease in order to find ways of preventing disease and improving health. My work is particularly focused on the time before conception and during pregnancy when we know that the health of young women and men is important for them and also for their future children. The SWS forms an important part of that work as do intervention studies that aim to support people to live healthy lives.

University of Southampton Profile for Professor Janis Baird