Sophie Wood

Area of Study / Keywords

Health Services Research Social Epidemiology Population Health Program Evaluation Administrative Health Data Health Equity Child and Family Health Alcohol-Related Harm Refugee and Newcomer Health Community-Engaged Research

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About

Sophie Wood, PhD, is a postdoctoral researcher in the University of Alberta School of Public Health and a health and social systems researcher. Her work focuses on how social and family circumstances shape health, service use and outcomes, particularly for children, families and populations experiencing inequities. She uses linked administrative, clinical and electronic health record data, alongside mixed-methods and community-engaged approaches, to examine population health needs, inequalities, and pathways through health and social service systems.

Sophie completed her PhD through Cardiff University’s School of Medicine, where her research examined population variation in children’s entry into out-of-home care using administrative data, survey research and evidence synthesis. Before joining the University of Alberta, she worked extensively in child and family research at Cardiff University, examining how family circumstances and service systems shape children’s wellbeing and outcomes.

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Research

My research focuses on using population-level and routinely collected data to understand unmet need, inequalities in access and outcomes, and how children and families interact with health and social service systems. Across my work, the common theme is making better use of existing data to identify needs that may otherwise remain hidden, understand pathways through services, and generate evidence that can support more effective and equitable care. I am particularly interested in linked administrative and clinical data, applied epidemiology, real-world evidence, and the integration of quantitative, qualitative and community-engaged approaches.

My current research has two major strands. The first examines parental alcohol use and its consequences for children and families. I lead a National Institute for Health and Care Research-funded longitudinal study using linked population data in Wales to investigate the extent and impact of parental alcohol use on children’s welfare and social care outcomes. This work includes causal mediation approaches to examine pathways through which parental alcohol use may affect children, and the role of family, socioeconomic and service-related factors in shaping those outcomes.

The second focuses on the mental health of refugee and newcomer children and youth in Alberta. Working in partnership with the New Canadians Health Centre, I am examining mental health need, access to care and service pathways using electronic medical record data alongside qualitative and community-engaged research. This strand also includes the local, offline deployment of large language models to identify mental health themes and subthemes within unstructured clinical notes. Using manually coded records to develop and validate a mental health ontology, the approach will then be applied to a larger cohort of clinical notes to better characterize mental health need and patterns of care. Together, this work aims to generate evidence that can directly inform the delivery and improvement of services.

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Teaching

I teach and supervise students in public health research and evaluation. At the University of Alberta, I have taught Evaluation in Public Health Practice (SPH 563) and contributed to graduate and professional teaching in evaluation and applied research methods. My teaching emphasizes the application of methodological concepts to real-world public health problems, with particular attention to evaluative thinking, use of routine data, health equity and community-engaged research.

I also supervise and mentor students undertaking quantitative, qualitative and mixed-methods projects in population health and health services research.

SPH 563 - Evaluation in Public Health Practice

An overview of evaluative thinking and practice in the assessment, planning, implementation and monitoring of public health interventions. Different types of evaluation are considered, including: needs assessment, process evaluation, monitoring of outputs and outcomes, impact assessment, and cost analysis. Evaluation approaches, steps, strategies, and rigour are explored. Consideration is given to how Indigenous and other minoritized populations' ways of knowing can be incorporated into the design and conduct of evaluation. The course addresses evaluation practice competencies that align with the Canadian Evaluation Society's competency framework. Prerequisite: SPH 562 or consent of instructor.

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Browse more courses taught by Sophie Wood

Lee Sobo-Allen, Lois Liao, Jonathan Scourfield, Felicity Smith, Sophie Wood, Melissa Meindl, Kar Man Au, Abigail Palmer, Rhiannon Evans, Fiona Lugg-Widger, Tarirai Mahachi, Philip Pallmann, Stavros Petrou, Michael Robling, Elizabeth-Ann Schroeder, David Wilkins

2026 September; 10.1093/bjsw/bcag248

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Jonathan Scourfield, Sophie Wood, Melissa Meindl

2025 October; 10.4337/9781035327157.00011

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Sophie Wood, Annie Williams, Nell Warner, Helen Ruth Hodges, Aimee Cummings, Donald Forrester

Journal of Children's Services. 2024 May; 10.1108/jcs-04-2023-0018

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BRITISH JOURNAL OF SOCIAL WORK. 2024 January; 10.1093/BJSW/BCAE019

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Plos One. 2024 January; 10.1371/journal.pone.0300834

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Adoption and Fostering. 2024 January; 10.1177/03085759231212501

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British Journal of Social Work. 2023 January; 10.1093/bjsw/bcad097

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Developmental Child Welfare. 2023 January; 10.1177/25161032231204967

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Children’s Social Care Research and Development Centre. 2022 December;

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A. Williams, A. Cummings, D. Forrester, H. Hodges, N. Warner, S. Wood

Residential Treatment for Children & Youth. 2022 October; 10.1080/0886571x.2022.2044431

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BRITISH JOURNAL OF SOCIAL WORK. 2022 January; 10.1093/BJSW/BCAB213

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CHILDREN AND YOUTH SERVICES REVIEW. 2022 January; 10.1016/J.CHILDYOUTH.2022.106685

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BRITISH JOURNAL OF HOSPITAL MEDICINE. 2020 January; 10.12968/HMED.2020.0244

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BMC MEDICAL INFORMATICS AND DECISION MAKING. 2019 January; 10.1186/S12911-019-0953-2

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BMJ OPEN. 2019 January; 10.1136/BMJOPEN-2018-026691

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London: What Works for Children's Social Care.. 2019 January;

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2019 January;

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London: What Works Centre for Children’s Social Care.. 2018 January;

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JOURNAL OF MEDICAL INTERNET RESEARCH. 2018 January; 10.2196/JMIR.9044

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HEALTH & PLACE. 2016 January; 10.1016/J.HEALTHPLACE.2016.05.010

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