INRICH Member Profile Card
Louise Séguin
Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Université de Montréal
Retired professor and now researcher at the same Department of Social and Preventive Medicine at the Université de Montréal. Member of the Institute of Research in Public Health of the Université de Montreal and of the Lea-Roback research center. From the beginning my research was always about the relationships between poverty and child health or maternal health. For the last 15 years I have been involved with my research team in the analysis of data from the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development. We examined longitudinally the links between diverse expositions to poverty and their timing, and child physical health to clarify the mechanisms underlying these links.
After a training in medicine and pediatrics at the Université de Montréal I specialized in Public Health (Maternal and Child Health) at the University of California at Berkeley. Beside my appointment at the Université de Montréal as a professor I was also consultant for Children and Youths programs of our Public Health Departments from which I am now retired.
Type of member: Regular (since 2008)
Telephone: 450-669-0725
Email Address: louise.seguin@umontreal.ca
Mailing Address: Département de médecine sociale et préventive, Université de Montréal, C.P. 6128, succ. Centre-Ville, Montréal, Québec, Canada H3C 3J7
Collaborative Projects
Poverty and chronic illness in early childhood: a comparison between UK and Quebec, with Nick Spencer and Béatrice Nikiéma | Longitudinal analysis of the Quebec birth cohort : pathways between early childhood poverty, stress, child health, cardiovascular risk factors and associated secular trends, and resiliency. L. Séguin (PI), with L. Gauvin, S. Lupien, J. Lynch, J. McGrath, P. Newacheck, J.O’Loughlin, M.-V. Zunzunegui and other co-researchers.
Current research interests
Among the social determinants of health, my research interests focus on poverty and child health looking at the dynamics in time of this relationship in rich countries and at the mechanisms and pathways underlying it. For these analyses we use the data from the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development, a representative birth cohort followed up annually since 1998. Taking advantage of the longitudinal data we analysed the differential effect of cumulative, lagged or concurrent poverty through multilevel analysis. We are also interested in a better understanding of the impact of multiple risk exposure for children living in poverty conditions especially during the early years of life on their health later during childhood and adolescence. We are currently examining the trajectories of family poverty and child health, and the factors that are linked with remaining in “good” health especially for poor children. We will soon begin to look at the level of stress and of reactivity to stressors and, their impact on health among poor children compare with non-poor ones. In all these analysis we aim at making a distinction between the influences of a low family income as such and the generally low level of education of poor mothers.
Research priorities
Pathways and mechanisms: Cumulative and additive social risk exposures (e.g. transient v. persistent poverty). | Methodological issues: Methods for examining change over time including longitudinal effects studies. Multi-level studies - Society, Family & Individual.
Selected publications
Nikiema, B., Spencer, N., & Seguin, L. (2010). Poverty and Chronic Illness in Early Childhood: A Comparison Between the United Kingdom and Quebec. Pediatrics, 125(3). doi:10.1542/peds.2009-0701
Ehounoux, N. Z., Zunzunegui, M., Seguin, L., Nikiema, B., & Gauvin, L. (2009). Duration of lack of money for basic needs and growth delay in the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development birth cohort. Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, 63(1), 45-49. doi:10.1136/jech.2007.072157
Kramer, M. S., Lydon, J., Seguin, L., Goulet, L., Kahn, S. R., Mcnamara, H., Genest, J., Dassa, C., Fong Chen, M., Sharma, S., Meaney, M., Thomson, S., Van Uum, S., Koren, G., Dahhou, M., Lamoureux, J. & Platt, R. W. (2009). Stress Pathways to Spontaneous Preterm Birth: The Role of Stressors, Psychological Distress, and Stress Hormones. American Journal of Epidemiology, 169(11), 1319-1326. doi:10.1093/aje/kwp061
Seguin, L., Nikiema, B., Gauvin, L., Zunzunegui, M., & Xu, Q. (2007). Duration of Poverty and Child Health in the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development: Longitudinal Analysis of a Birth Cohort. Pediatrics, 119(5). doi:10.1542/peds.2006-1750
Seguin, L. (2005). Understanding the dimensions of socioeconomic status that influence toddlers' health: unique impact of lack of money for basic needs in Quebec's birth cohort. Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, 59(1), 42-48. doi:10.1136/jech.2004.020438
profile updated: 06/13/2017