My interests lie at the intersection of public health, clinical medicine, and behavioural sciences, all in service of improving child and youth health. My work employs techniques from health services research, behavioural economics, epidemiology, experimental psychology, and health economics in an effort to improve the health and healthcare of children.

The goal of my research is to better understand how children and their parents make decisions about their health, and to use these results to improve the prevention and management of pediatric chronic disease. In particular, I aim to improve the treatment of asthma by identifying the behavioural and cognitive factors that make adherence to treatment more difficult, in order to address these characteristics to improve the care and quality of life of asthmatic children. 

I am leading the development of a screening and intervention tool for lifestyle behaviours in pediatrics. This tool, founded in principles of behavioural scieneces, will serve to improve the prevention of chronic diseases.

I prioritize communication with the public as an integral part of my work in public health, and I endeavour to properly communicate the facts, uncertainty, and the balance of risks and benefits in my communication with families and with the media, so that everyone can make informed decisions about their health and that of their children. 

Dr. O’Loughlin is a Professor in the School of Public Health at the University of Montreal. She is a senior member of the Health Innovation and Evaluation Hub in the University of Montreal Hospital Research Center (CRCHUM), a fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, a consultant to the Tobacco Control Research team at the Institut national de sante publique (INSPQ) and an elected member of the American Academy of Pediatrics Tobacco Consortium. Her team is housed at the CRCHUM and in addition to local researchers Dr. O’Loughlin has many ongoing collaborations nationally and internationally. During her 10-year tenure (to date) as a Tier I Canada Research Chair in the Early Determinants of Adult Chronic Disease, her research had focused on increased understanding of the relative importance of genetic, psychosocial, behavioral and environmental determinants of the childhood risk for adult chronic disease. She heads two pediatric cohort investigations (i.e., the Nicotine Dependence in Teens (NDIT) Study and AdoQuest) and she is a co-investigator on another four.

From 2007-13, she headed an interdisciplinary capacity enhancement team (funded 1.5 million by the CIHR), which included 35 investigators and students working on tobacco control research. Her research output over the past 5 years includes 123 publications and over 151 presentations at local, national and international conferences, as well as Knowledge Transfer products including 13 “Feuillets” on her work with INSPQ practitioners improving cessation counseling practices in six health professional groups. These feuillets are distributed to tobacco control practitioners and policy makers across Quebec and help assure that the results of her research are incorporated in practice.

Dr. O’Loughlin’s work has attracted media coverage, and she was one of the University of Montreal’s Top Newsmakers in 2008. Perhaps a key indicator of how her work is influential, is its citation in “Preventing Tobacco Use Among Youth and Young Adults: A Report of the Surgeon General, 2012” and “A Report of the Surgeon General: How Tobacco Smoke Causes Disease: The Biology and Behavioral Basis for Smoking-Attributable Disease, 2010.” Her research is also cited in a recent INSPQ submission to the Quebec government on proposed legislative changes to the Quebec Tobacco Control Act. Overall Dr. O’Loughlin’s work exemplifies interdisciplinary research that is well-grounded in public health, it demonstrates leadership in child and adolescent research, and it provides the “cells to society” underpinnings for furthering early prevention of adult chronic disease.