How did your interest in Public Health arise and how did you chart your scientific path at U.Porto?
During my undergraduate studies, I had the opportunity to engage with Epidemiology, a field I initially considered distant from the social sciences I had been pursuing. However, the prospect of exploring Epidemiology and Public Health while leveraging my knowledge of social sciences became quite enticing and challenging. I decided to enrol in the Master's in Public Health at FMUP/ICBAS, and later applied for the Doctoral Programme in Public Health at FMUP. After completing my PhD, I secured a post-doctoral fellowship, also funded by FCT, which allowed me to develop my first scientific research project as the principal investigator at the Institute of Public Health of the University of Porto (ISPUP) and to contribute to the establishment of the Epidemiology Research Unit (EPIUnit), joining the Social Epidemiology group. In 2019, I began a Junior Researcher contract under the CEEC-IND programme of the FCT, and since 2022, I have been an Assistant Researcher at ISPUP. I currently coordinate the Thematic Line on Syndemics, Health Inequalities, and Vulnerable Populations at the Associated Laboratory for Integrative and Translational Research in Population Health (ITR), which brings together research groups from three R&D units (EPIUnit, CIAFEL, and UMIB).

Could you highlight 2 or 3 key milestones in your career that have had a particularly significant impact on you?
One particularly significant milestone was securing funding for a research project as a Principal Investigator right after obtaining a post-doctoral fellowship. This project allowed me to establish an independent research line, attract master's and doctoral students, and begin forming a research group focused on social health inequalities. I also had the opportunity to join an international consortium that brought together a leading group of social epidemiologists, who had been key references for me. I seized this chance to establish connections and collaborations that continue to benefit my research. Another notable moment in my research career was securing a contract under the first edition of the Individual Scientific Employment Stimulus Competition, promoted by FCT. After several years as a fellow, having a research contract was crucial for my decision to continue in this field.

In the research you have been developing, there is a noticeable focus on issues related to children and adolescents. Why is the attempt to mitigate inequalities in these age groups particularly important to you?
The social determinants and inequalities in health are themes to which I have dedicated my entire scientific career. My background in Social Work has given me a better understanding of the social conditions of populations and a deeper awareness of the injustice of social inequalities. Evidence shows that social conditions—how people are born, live, grow, and age—have a recognised influence on the health and well-being of populations. One of the studies I participated in demonstrated that a less favoured socioeconomic condition contributes to an average reduction of 2 years in an individual's lifespan, regardless of other risk factors such as obesity, alcohol consumption, or tobacco use. These results highlight the relevance of social determinants of health, which, like individual behaviours, are potentially modifiable factors and thus targets for intervention. Although my interest spans understanding these phenomena throughout the life course, my focus on younger age groups is based on the principle that all children should have the best possible start in life to ensure a healthier and longer life course. Adversity and socioeconomic deprivation at earlier ages impact development and growth, undermining the maximum potential an individual could achieve. I believe that producing scientific evidence demonstrating the impact of inequalities, especially in childhood, can contribute to raising awareness among civil society, organisations, and policymakers, and foster a coordinated effort towards a more just society.

Mitigating inequalities will certainly involve making upstream changes, as it is crucial to equip the most vulnerable populations with tools to address the issues. If this is a feasible perspective, how could we achieve this?
According to the Human Rights Charter, "all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights", and therefore society should focus on ensuring that all children have the best possible start in life and can maintain a trajectory of health throughout childhood and adolescence, preventing the acquisition of risk behaviours and promoting healthy behaviours such as balanced nutrition and physical activity. Additionally, we should invest in promoting positive experiences and relationships in childhood, ensuring that all children grow up in positive, healthy, and resilient contexts. Only then can we aspire to a society with healthy, productive, and happy adults and promote healthy, active, and high-quality ageing.

You lead the Social Adversity and Health Inequalities Laboratory at ISPUP. What projects would you highlight as potential major catalysts for significant changes?
Currently, we have several ongoing projects with various specific objectives, always focusing on social health inequalities. We are developing a study on loneliness in the ageing process, another investigating the impact of structural determinants on children's cardiovascular health, and the UNFOLD project, of which I am the principal investigator and to which I have dedicated recent months. This project aims to investigate childhood adversity experiences, particularly experiences of violence, and their impact on the health and quality of life of young adults transitioning into adulthood, using data from a birth cohort – Geração XXI. In this project, we will explore how these social experiences alter our biology, contributing to the development of adverse health conditions over the lifespan. At the same time, we aim to identify which resilience factors during children's development and growth are important for mitigating the adverse effects of these experiences.

According to research findings, what can we, as a society, do in the immediate future to mitigate health inequalities?
Research has shown that the conditions in which we are born and grow up condition our health throughout life. A just, equitable, and healthy society must ensure that all individuals have the best possible start in life to reach their maximum potential. Therefore, it is desirable to pay greater attention, focus, and investment to the younger segments of the population, preventing exposure to adversity and promoting individual and contextual resilience factors.

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