Institute of Environmental Medicine · Karolinska Institutet · Stockholm
Jiajin
(Jane) Yan
Biostatistician & Epidemiologist — causal inference,
register-based epidemiology, and the epistemology of observational data.
01 — Introduction
Making causal claims from observational data — with rigour and epistemic honesty.
I am a medical statistician and biostatistician at the Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, with an MD from Xiamen University and an MSc in Global Health from KI. My work spans 30+ collaborative research projects across reproductive health, cardiometabolic disease, gastric cancer, and psychiatric epidemiology.
With 18+ publications in journals including The Lancet and European Heart Journal, I combine methodological depth with a genuine interest in the philosophy of causal inference — asking not only how to estimate causal effects, but what it means to claim one.
18+
Publications
30+
Research Projects
6+
Years at Karolinska
02 — Research
Research Projects
001
Causal Inference & Target Trial Emulation
Applying counterfactual frameworks and target trial emulation to observational register data — translating randomised trial logic into pharmacoepidemiology to produce actionable clinical evidence.
002
Reproductive & Perinatal Epidemiology
Swedish register-based studies on perinatal depression, premenstrual disorders, and migraine in relation to adverse birth outcomes — including first-author work published in The Lancet.
003
Cardiometabolic & GI Outcomes Research
Survival analysis and competing risks regression in large population cohorts — studying gastrointestinal surgery outcomes and cardiometabolic disease in collaboration with Karolinska MEB research groups.
03 — Publications
Selected Publications
2024
Perinatal depression and premenstrual disorders: a Swedish register-based cohort study
The Lancet · First Author
2023
Migraine and adverse birth outcomes: a nationwide cohort study using Swedish national registers
European Heart Journal · First Author
2021–
18+ publications across reproductive health, psychiatric epidemiology, and cardiometabolic disease
Multiple high-impact journals · First & co-author
04 — Methods & Expertise
Methods & Expertise
Precision in methodology is not separate from epistemic clarity — it is its precondition.
My methodological work is grounded in a philosophy-of-science perspective on causal inference, drawing on Bradford Hill, van Fraassen, and Cartwright. I work in R, SAS, and Stata across large Swedish register cohorts.
Causal Inference
Target Trial Emulation
IPW / Propensity Scores
Competing Risks Regression
Survival Analysis
Register-Based Epidemiology
Pharmacoepidemiology
R · SAS · Stata
Real-World Evidence
Missing Data Methods
Philosophy of Science
Bradford Hill Criteria
06 — Contact
Open to PhD & research opportunities.
I am actively seeking funded PhD positions in epidemiology, biostatistics, or related fields — particularly projects at the intersection of causal inference methodology and real-world data.
Jiajin Yan 