Health Statistician/Epidemiologist

In the United States, obesity is a major risk factor for chronic disease, common, and related medical costs are estimated to increase by at least $48 billion annually through 2030. CDC’s Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity (DNPAO) funds 15 land grant universities to work with community extension services in counties where more than 40% of adults have obesity through Programs to Reduce Obesity in High Obesity Areas, also referred to as HOP. The program was a result of congressional funding authorization for land-grant universities to work with the US Department of Agriculture’s Cooperative Extension Services to launch an outreach program to combat obesity where obesity rates are the highest. In response to congressional inquiries to incorporate childhood obesity into programs, DNPAO successfully used previous methods to generate county level childhood obesity rates for 2020-2021. Newer obesity data as well as risk factors that affect obesity are available thus an update is desired.

Purpose:

The purpose of this work is to generate the prevalence of childhood obesity, nutrition, and physical activity for every U.S. county using previously developed modeling methods and restricted data from the 2023-2024 National Survey of Children’s Health.

Duties/Responsibilities:

An epidemiologist or health statistician proficient in SAS is needed to:

1. Perform simple and complex statistical procedures such as risk prediction, multivariable logistic regression, linear regression, mixed or hierarchal model, variance estimation methods to evaluate study hypotheses.
2. Update previously used SAS code that predicts county level obesity from individual level and geographic variables consistent with previous methodology
3. Generate a limited set of direct estimates of county level childhood estimates from validation data sources e.g. direct estimate for counties from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, estimates from electronic health records (EHR), or estimates from the National Survey of Children’s Health
4. Travel to and conduct approved data management and statistical analyses at a designated Federal Statistical Research Data Center (FSRDC)
5. Prepare comprehensive reports of study results
6. Collaborate with investigators on research reports and papers
7. Document processes to ensure accuracy and outcomes of research
8. Evaluate inconsistencies and trends in the data and present hypotheses related to the implications in the analysis.
9. Examine correlations between estimates from external sources such as CDC PLACES with generated childhood obesity estimates
10. Present findings to collaborators and incorporate the feedback into additional iterations of the report.
11. Support additional statistical analyses for DNPAO as needed

Deliverables:

1. Table shells and SAS code consistent with previous methodologies and the approved FSRDC proposal
2. County level childhood estimates from validation data sources, data methodology report, and data dictionary
3. Completed tables from FSRDC
4. SAS dataset linking external and generated estimates, data methodology report, and data dictionary
5. Comprehensive summary of findings

Qualifications:

• Master’s degree (PhD preferred) in biostatistics, statistics, epidemiology, public health, or related field.
• Minimum of two years of experience relevant to Statistician responsibilities.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Strong interpersonal skills and demonstrated success as a team player.
• Demonstrated ability to interact with individuals from a variety of disciplines and backgrounds.
• Capable of independent work with the production of high-quality output.
• Experience of applying advanced statistical techniques to data analysis, statistical predictions or forecasting, and quality control.
• Experience linking data by geographic identifiers
• Advanced knowledge of analytical software such as SAS or SUDAAN
• Eligible to access a designated FSRDC or have completed FSRDC security access requirements including obtaining Special Sworn Status (SSS)