About
Professor Elaine Dennison is Professor of Musculoskeletal Epidemiology and Honorary Consultant in Rheumatology within Medicine at the University of Southampton. Having worked as a Principal Investigator of the Hertfordshire Cohort Study for many years, her research interest centres around musculoskeletal aging. Based at the MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Centre, she is particularly interested in how events early in life interact with adult lifestyle factors to determine how we age. Professor Dennison is author of over 420 journal articles.
As a clinical academic with a keen interest in clinical academic training, Professor Dennison was appointed as Director of the Southampton Clinical Academic Training Scheme in 2018; formerly she led the Southampton Academic Foundation training programme and has served as Training Programme Director for Wessex Rheumatology for 5 years. She sits on the rheumatology SAC as the Academic representative.
In recent years she has served as Chair of the National Osteoporosis Society Grants Committee, and as a member of the National Osteoporosis Society Clinical and Scientific Committee. She sits on the International Osteoporosis Foundation Committee of the Scientific Advisers, and chaired the British Society of Rheumatology Biologics Register Steering Committee. She has also been a clinical member of the Bone Research Society Committee. Currently she sits on the Versus Arthritis Research Committee and the BSR Hebedren Committee. Professor Dennison also sits on many editorial boards, including Osteoporosis International, Calcified Tissue International, Aging Clinical Experimental Research and the Journal of Developmental Health and Adult Disease. She is Associate Editor for Frontiers Epidemiology of Women's Health.
Research
Research groups
Research interests
- The epidemiology of musculoskeletal disease, particularly those conditions common in later life (osteoporosis and osteoarthritis)
Current research
The Hertfordshire Cohort Study; incepted in 1998, a longitudinal cohort of 3000 men and women born in 1931-9 in Hertfordshire for whom birth records are available and who have participated in numerous studies of health in later life, linked to an intergenerational study incepted in 2018
The GLOW study; a multinational cohort of women >55 years who have been recruited to a study that investigates perception of osteoporosis risk, absolute risk and therapies for osteoporosis
SALSA: a new community based cohort study in Southampton incepted to understand interrelationships between muscle/ joint/ bone in later life
Research projects
Active projects
Completed projects
Publications
Supervision
Current PhD Students
Teaching
Rheumatology lead undergraduate medicine
Teacher of BM5 students (years 1, 2, 4, 5)
Tutor for academic foundation courses
Supervisor third year undergraduate research projects
External roles and responsibilities
Biography
Prizes
- Pierre Meunier award (2016)
- Esceo Lilly scholarship (2015)
- Michael Mason Prize (2014)
- NIHR Senior Investigator/Clinical Excellence Award (2018)
- Committee Member of the Heberden Committee (British Society for Rheumatology (2020)
- NOS Clinical and Scientific committee (2015)
- Bronze Clinical Excellence Award (2019)
- Editor of Osteoporosis Textbook entitled Osteoporosis: a clinical overview (2020)
- IOF Olof Johnell Science Award (2022)
- NIHR Senior Investigator/Clinical Excellence Award (2020)