Research Summary:Kathleen O' Connor is Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology. Her research brings methods and theory from allied and relevant fields together in anthropological demography to model and investigate the biological processes underlying human life history patterns of fertility and mortality.
Her research on mortality employs etiologic models of mortality across the lifespan to examine the characteristics and correlates of mortality in prehistoric, historic and modern populations. These models are useful for fitting and comparing mortality patterns across populations, estimating the effects of covariates, incorporating heterogeneity in frailty, and estimating growth rates, and sex and age differentials (Holman et al in press; Wood et al 2002; Holman et al 2002).
O'Connor's research on fertility examines reproductive aging, environmental effects on female reproductive function, and population variation in reproductive function and fertility. O'Connor and colleagues have made important methodological contributions to population research on reproduction. They have developed and optimized biomarker methods for population field research, including biological sample (e.g. urine) collection and storage methods, reproductive hormone assay methods, and analytic methods (e.g. methods for estimating day of ovulation) (O'Connor et al. 2003, 2004, 2006, Miller 2004, Ferrell et al 2005). O'Connor's laboratory specializes in designing methods for accommodating the samples, field conditions, and research questions particular to population research in anthropology, demography, and allied fields.
Recent Publications:- Holman, D. J.; O'Connor, K. A.; Jones, R. E., (Forthcoming), Assessing biological mortality bias in deciduous tooth emergence, American Journal of Physical Anthropology.
- O’Connor, K.; Ferrell, R.; Brindle, E.; Shofer, J.; Trumble, B.; Holman, D.; Weinstein, M., (Forthcoming), Progesterone and ovulation across stages of the transition to menopause, Menopause.
- Snipes, S.; Thompson, B.; O’Connor, K.; Shell-Duncan, B.; King, D.; Herrera, A.; Navarro, B., (Forthcoming), Pesticides Protect the Fruit, But Not the People… Using Community-Based Ethnography to Understand Farmworker Pesticide Exposure Risks, American Journal of Public Health.
- O'Connor, K. A.; Ferrell, R. J.; Brindle, E.; Shofer, J.; Holman, D. J.; Miller, R. C.; Schechter, D. E.; Singer, B.; Weinstein, M., (2009), Total and Unopposed Estrogen Exposure across Stages of the Transition to Menopause, Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev, 3: 18, 828-836.
- Wander, K. W.; Brindle, E.; O’Connor, K. A., (2008), C-reactive protein across the menstrual cycle, American Journal of Physical Anthropology : Published Online: Feb 6 2008 DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.207.
- Ferrell, R.; O'Connor, K.; Holman, D.; Brindle, E.; Miller, R.; Rodriguez, G.; Simon, J.; Mansfield, P.; Wood, J.; Weinstein, M., (2007), Monitoring reproductive aging in a 5-year prospective study: aggregate and individual changes in luteinizing hormone and follicle-stimulating hormone with age, Menopause, 14: 1, 29.
- Ferrell, R. J.; O’Connor, K. A.; Rodriguez, G.; Holman, D. J.; Brindle, E.; Miller, R. C.; Simon, J.; Mansfield, P. K.; Wood, J. W.; Weinstein, M., (2007), Monitoring reproductive aging in a 5-year prospective study: aggregate and individual changes in luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) with age, Menopause, 14: 1, 29-37.
- Fujita, M.; Brindle, E.; Shofer, J.; Ndemwa, P.; Kombe, Y.; Shell-Duncan, B.; O'Connor, K. A., (2007), Retinol-binding protein stability in dried blood spots, Clinical Chemistry , 53: 1972-1975.
- Snipes, S. A.; Thompson, B.; O’Connor, K. A.; Godina, R.; Ibarra, G., (2007), Anthropological and psychological merge: Design of a stress measure for Mexican farmworkers, Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry, 31: 3, 359-388.
- Brindle, E.; O'Connor, K. A.; C., M. R.; Shofer, J. B.; A., K. N.; Soules, M. R., (2006), Urinary beta-luteinizing hormone and beta-follicle stimulating hormone immunoenzymometric assays for population research, Clinical Biochemistry, 39: 11, 1071.
- Ferrell, R. J.; O'Connor, K. A.; Holman, D. J.; Simon, J. A.; Pincus, S. M.; Rodriguez, G.; Weinstein, M., (2006), The length of perimenopausal menstrual cycles increases later and to a greater degree than previously reported, Fertility and Sterility, 86: 3, 619.
- Holman, D. J.; Grimes, M. A.; Achterberg, J. T.; Brindle, E.; O'Connor, K. A., (2006), Distribution of postpartum amenorrhea in rural Bangladeshi women, American journal of physical anthropology., 129: 4, 609.
- Holman, D. J.; O'Connor, K. A.; Wood, J. W., (2006), Age and female reproductive function: Identifying the most important biological determinants, Age: Human Clock and Scale of Social Organization, Hill, A.; Mascie-Taylor, N.; Sauvain-Dudgeril, C., Oxford University Press, Oxford.
- O'Connor, K. A.; Holman, D. J.; Brindle, E.; Miller, R. C.; Shofer, J. B.; Ferrell, R. J.; Klein, N. A.; Soules, M. R.; Mansfield, P. K.; Wood, J. W., (2006), Ovulation detection methods for urinary hormones: precision, daily and intermittent sampling and a combined hierarchical method, Human Reproduction, 21: 6, 1442-1452.
- Ferrell, R. J.; O'Connor, K. A.; Rodriguez, G.; Gorrindo, T.; Holman, D. J.; Brindle, E.; Miller, R. C.; Schechter, D. E.; Korshalla, L.; Simon, J. A.; Mansfield, P. K.; Wood, J. W.; Weinstein, M., (2005), Monitoring reproductive aging in a five year prospective study: Aggregate and individual changes in steroid hormones and menstrual cycle lengths with age, Menopause, 12: 5, 567-577.
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Ph.D. 1995, SUNY-Albany. Biodemography, age patterns of mortality, human reproductive ecology, paleodemography.
