Peter M. Socha
I am an epidemiologist and Postdoctoral Fellow at the National Center for Register-based Research at Aarhus University. My research focuses on improving health and well-being across the reproductive life course. I have a PhD in Epidemiology from McGill University.
Email: [email protected]
Addressing knowledge gaps on the benefits and harms of antenatal corticosteroids
My primary research focus during graduate school was to study the effects of antenatal corticosteroids, which are drugs aimed at improving neonatal outcomes among fetuses that are likely to be born preterm. Contributions to this topic included:
Effectiveness in twins: A review of non-randomized studies on the effects of antenatal corticosteroids in twins (Obstet. Gynecol. 2022 140(1):20-30), which found evidence supporting benefits, but with risks of unmeasured and residual confounding; and a primary study using a regression discontinuity design to better control for confounding, which found that antenatal corticosteroids improved neonatal respiratory outcomes in twins (BJOG 2024 131(8):1064-1071).
Knowledge translation: A Technical Update (co-author) to the Canadian guidelines for antenatal corticosteroid use, which recommended that administration in the late-preterm period be considered after weighting the absolute benefits and risks (JOGC 2022 45(6):445-457); and a commentary highlighting two instances where studies concluded "no difference" in the effects of antenatal corticosteroids, but that only considered the relative effect sizes, and therefore "missed" that the absolute benefits were greater at earlier gestational ages and among planned caesarean deliveries (ANZJOG 2023 63(3):469-472).
Effect on cerebral palsy: A primary study that used an algorithm to improve identification of cerebral palsy cases in administrative health data (Ann. Epidemiol. 2026 114:26-31); and a primary study using a regression discontinuity design (and correcting for likely levels of misclassification) which did not find convincing evidence for or against an effect of antenatal corticosteroids on cerebral palsy (J. Pediatr. 2026 290:114960).
Interventions to improve reproductive health
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Improving epidemiology and public health content on Wikipedia
I am interested in creating, updating, and editing Wikipedia content on topics related to epidemiology, public health, and medicine. A recording of our symposium (co-chaired with Dr. Anna Palmer) at the 2026 Society for Epidemiologic Research (SER) Mid-Year Meeting is available for free to SER members.
Please reach out if you are interested in getting involved in collective efforts to improve Wikipedia content in epidemiology, public health, and medicine.