Norbert Schmitz
PhD

Division: 
Clinical Research


 

Researcher, Douglas Research Centre
Full Professor, Department of Psychiatry, McGill University
Associate Member, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, McGill University
Researcher, Montreal Diabetes Research Center (MDRC)


My research program currently focuses on three topics in mental health research:

i)    I am directing (PI) three CIHR funded longitudinal community studies: the Montreal Diabetes Health and Well-Being Study (DHS), the Evaluation of Diabetes Treatment Study (EDIT) and the Emotional well-being, metabolic factors and health status (EMHS) study. These studies include an interdisciplinary team of Co-Investigators who have expertise in endocrinology, nutrition, psychiatry, physical activity, epidemiology and genetics. Furthermore, I am Co-PI of a prospective catchment area study (ZEPSOM). 

ii)    Psychiatric Epidemiology: My research activities involved analyzing data from large national surveys, namely the English Longitudinal Study of Aging, the Canadian National Population Health Survey (NPHS) and its longitudinal cohort and the Canadian Community Health Surveys. Using these data, I have addressed a number of research questions including the (longitudinal) relationship between depression, obesity, psychosocial characteristics, and health status. Depression in the community is an additional focus of interest.

iii)     Measurement of health status: I am interested in the development and application of methods for the assessment of health status. This includes the evaluation of instruments as well as the development and application of sophisticated psychometric methods to study health outcomes (e.g., item response theory, structural regression models, latent class analysis, hierarchical linear models, and classification and regression trees). Applications include the interactions of risk factors for impaired functioning.  


Recent publications