Viktor H. Ahlqvist

Migrant health, particularly reproductive health, is a growing public health priority. Pregnancy weight gain guidelines and neonatal growth references are widely used in clinical care to guide maternal and neonatal assessments. However, these guidelines and references are primarily based on data from non-migrant populations in high-income countries, and their relevance for migrant women and their children remains uncertain.This project will therefore examine the validity, clinical application, and patient perspectives of these guidelines and references in the context of migrant health. It comprises three work packages: 1) registry-based studies of over one million pregnancies to assess whether the predictive capacity of current guidelines and references for a wide range of adverse pregnancy and childhood outcomes varies across maternal birth regions

2) mixed-methods studies to explore how healthcare professionals apply them in clinical practice

and 3) qualitative studies to understand how pregnant women perceive them.The project builds on ongoing research and unique national registry data, and is led by a multidisciplinary team with strong expertise in migrant and reproductive health, including the main applicant, who has over 15 years of experience in maternal and infant health. The findings are expected to inform clinical guidelines and health policies, reduce reproductive health inequalities, and promote more equitable and individually adapted care.

Children with autism are transitioning into adulthood. Emerging evidence suggests an increased risk of early-onset dementia among individuals with autism and a higher risk of any dementia among their family members. However, existing studies have primarily treated autism and dementia as binary variables, overlooking the fact that autism represents a continuum of symptoms, while dementia likely involves a prolonged neurodegenerative process leading to its onset.The overarching aim of this project is to utilize pre-existing cohorts with individual-level data on genotyping and various neurodegeneration markers to examine the relationship between genetic liability for autism and neurodegeneration. We will compare: 1) the risk of cognitive decline and its progression to dementia

2) measures of brain aging

and 3) the burden of known risk factors and antecedent conditions for dementia between individuals with high versus low genetic liability for autism. Additionally, we will conduct -omics analyses to investigate biological pathways for the link between autism and dementia.The large sample size, unique data access, cutting-edge analytical approaches, cross-country comparisons, and an experienced and dedicated research team underscore the scientific novelty and significance of this project. The findings from this research will have important implications for developing targeted interventions aimed at preventing or delaying the onset of dementia in the autistic population.