PhD defence: Asbjørn Kloppenborg

Title: Repeated Measurement of Personal and Time-Varying Exposure in Health Research: Advances Using Personal Sensors

Date and Time: Friday, June 26th, 2026, at 11:00

Venue: Aarhus University, Samfundsmedicinsk Auditorium, Bartholins Allé 4, 8000 Aarhus C

Institution: Department of Public Health, Aarhus University

Air pollution and physical activity vary from hour to hour. However, much health research still relies on measurements that describe people at a single time point or location, for example through their home address or questionnaires.

This PhD project examines how personal sensors and wearables can be used to measure such time-varying conditions in greater detail.

This is investigated in two applied contexts: personal air pollution exposure and running-related injury prediction. A published part of the project showed that a personal sensor for measuring fine particles in the air could follow changes in particle concentrations over time. At the same time, the study showed that individual measurements from such sensors may be uncertain, even after calibration. This means that personal sensors should not necessarily be used uncritically to determine accurate concentrations for an individual person. They may, however, be useful for studying how exposure varies in everyday life, provided that measurement uncertainty is known and considered in the interpretation.

Kristian Overgaard, Professor (Chair)

Department of Public Health, Aarhus University, Denmark

Tunga Salthammer, Professor

Faculty of Life Sciences, TU Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Germany

Laurent Malisoux, Professor

Department of Precision Health, Luxembourg Institute of Health, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg. 

Torben Sigsgaard, Professor

Department of Public Health, Aarhus University, Denmark