Q&A with Linda Duong: Research, Child Health & more 🚼

Hello!! My name is Linda (she/her) and I’m in my second year of the Health Sciences program at McMaster University, pursuing a specialization in children’s health.

Studying health and health systems had always been a no-brainer for me. Growing up, my family was in and out of hospital/clinics/labs all the time—which allowed me to develop an appreciation for healthcare professionals, but also point out some of the issues I wanted to contribute to fixing later in my life! McMaster BHSc appealed to me because of the approach it takes to discussing healthcare. Health is so much more than what our cells and organs are doing; it’s everything, from the way we were raised, to the people that surround us, to the places we live. As someone who wants to practice medicine clinically and conduct research in the future, getting the full picture of health feels very important to me.

And why kids? Other than the fact that babies and children are adorable, they’re also in one of the most important developmental phases of their lives. Trauma (or the lack of) in childhood can quite literally change an individual's physiological expression, and shift psychological behaviour in adulthood. I find it so important to understand children and promote their well-being for those reasons!

Outside of my studies, I love to: spend all my money at restaurants, read/watch trashy romances, write the occasional poem or book, explore different cities, and play flute and baritone saxophone! I also currently work at the McMaster Students Union Child Care Centre, where I get lots of hugs (read: new viruses) every Monday.

Every summer, the BHSc Program at McMaster releases a scholarship called the “BHSc Summer Research Scholarship.” It’s valued at $4,000 ($2,000 is provided by the university and $2,000+ to be matched by a research supervisor). 

This was the opportunity that got me my paid, full-time (35 hours/week) position as a summer (May - August 2022) Research Assistant II at the Offord Centre for Child Studies which is a research centre affiliated with McMaster University and McMaster Children’s Hospital. I worked under the supervision of Dr. Kathy Geogiades in the Advancing Youth Mental Health (AYM) team, where our group focuses on studying child and youth mental health and increasing access to care. As a Research Assistant, my job was (as the name implies) to assist in all stages of the research process. I completed everything from literature searches, thematic analysis of stakeholder opinions, data collection, data extraction, and graphic design. Due to the nature of our work and the state of the pandemic, this was done remotely; however, our team does have an in-person office that I visited on occasion.

But the unique aspect of this summer was the opportunity the scholarship gave me! Because we had additional funds from the scholarship, I was able lead an independent research project with mentorship from other team members. Even though I had limited experience, our research coordinator pointed out some resources I could use to learn the basics of statistics and train myself in R/R Studio.

My study was called “Youth Life Satisfaction and Social Interaction during the COVID-19” pandemic. After learning an entire semester's worth of statistics in a couple of weeks (I can safely say this was as bad as it seems), I began writing my proposal, designing the methods, completing the data analysis, sharing my results with the team, writing a manuscript, and receiving feedback.

Our study compared life satisfaction (a component of subjective well-being) during periods of COVID-19 lockdown and periods of reopening in youth aged 11-18 in Ontario. Life satisfaction looks at an individual’s life as a whole. It’s a pretty resistant measure for that reason, and so when it significantly changes—that’s a sign that something major is going on! Using regression models, we also looked at the roles of in-person and virtual social interaction in predicting life satisfaction. The data came from youth questionnaires belonging to an ongoing, nationally-representative longitudinal study AYM is conducting. Although I can’t share many details just yet, the findings were incredibly interesting and will be useful for policymakers in the province! It was such an amazing opportunity since I got to work hands-on at every stage of the study, and I truly felt valued on the team.

I’ll be honest—this makes it seem like a quick process, but the project is still ongoing as of January 2023! Research takes a lot of back and forth to ensure the integrity of the data, results, and dissemination.

This opportunity had been in the works for a long time. I actually started volunteering as a Research Student at AYM in September 2021 when I started my first year of university, after seeing Dr. Georgaides’ work and emailing her. The first time I met with her, she told me that a paid position was possible and that I should apply for the scholarship when it came out. So, I did!

Side note: if you’re emailing someone you’ve never met before, keep it sweet and to the point! Here’s my checklist that works whether or not you’ve got experience:

This is what worked best for me—the email to Dr. Georgiades was the first and one of the only I sent.

The application opened up on AwardSpring, which is McMaster’s scholarship/awards site, in February 2022 and I submitted my application—which consisted of a 500-word explanation of the planned research project. My friend and co-worker (who had won the scholarship before) provided feedback on my application. If you (yes, you, reading this!) plan to apply, feel free to reach out to me—I’d be happy to read yours, too!

This experience was definitely a catalyst for other opportunities! I ended up loving research way more than I thought I would.

I extended my contract with the team and continued to work part time as a paid Research Assistant for the 2022-2023 school year under McMaster’s work-study program. I’m also signing an updated contract for summer 2023. You could say I’m loyal to the team…I’ve been here since first year and hopefully I can stay until my last! Since then, I’ve been working on two major projects in addition to my own: the first one is related to Canadian children’s mental health during the COVID-19 and the second one compared mental health outcomes in migrant versus non-migrant groups.

I also wanted to apply the skills I had learned to an independent project (outside of school or work). Like I mentioned earlier, my parents were in and out of medical centres all the time. As immigrants to Canada from Vietnam, their focus when they arrived was to learn enough English to get by, and get a job—not exactly to develop the specific language associated with medicine. I ended up translating a lot of their encounters and paperwork. As a result, I had always been curious whether there was a difference in the healthcare of English-speakers compared to non-English speakers. An epidemiologist I met from the University of Toronto recommended I use the National Survey of Children's Health to explore my interests. This is an example of a government-commissioned, national dataset that encompasses a huge sample. Many countries and fields of study have their own version of this. I took what I learned from my summer job and developed my own analyses, wrote out a manuscript, and submitted it to the Journal of Child Health Care, where it’s been accepted for publication. The study is called “Caregivers with Limited English Proficiency: Satisfaction with Primary Pediatric Healthcare” and it compares how over 20,000 parents feel about their child’s care, depending on their family’s level of comfort with the English language. I sent my revisions in a few weeks ago, so we’ll see where it goes from there! It has been such a rewarding experience scratching my curious itch, but don’t get me wrong—this was a difficult project. Even though it was independent, I did admittedly beg my second year epidemiology professor, my first year inquiry facilitator, and a statistical analyst (from my work) for advice when I received my first round of revisions. My partner also spent 4 hours cutting out 72 instances of the word “the” in my manuscript, since that’s what the editors wanted. I definitely don’t know everything yet (and maybe I never will), but I am so thankful for the support I’ve had so far in my research journey. Major, major shoutout to them.

Finally, this summer, I’ll be applying my skills on a project at William Osler Health System (WOHS) which I learned about from another BHSc student. Now that I feel more confident in my research abilities, I plan to help a student-directed WOHS team complete data collection interviews, analysis, and writing. The qualitative study will investigate the impacts of socio-economic status and demographic characteristics on patient experiences at a Cancer Survivorship Clinic. It’s a bit different from what I’m used to (children, mental health, epidemiology), but it’s certainly something I’m passionate about. My dad was diagnosed with (and beat!) cancer when I was young (hence all the hospital trips), so treatment and survivorship have been huge components of my personal life. I really look forward to exploring that area of my interest more.

If you have any questions about my journey, feel free to connect with me and send me a message on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/linda-duong-2845081a7/! 

If you’re a current student at McMaster in the BHSc program, you can apply for the scholarship on Awardspring: mcmaster.awardspring.ca/Dashboard! 

If you’re interested in working at the Offord Centre for Child Studies, check out the ongoing initiatives and supervisors here: offordcentre.com/!

If you’re looking for the statistics course I took, try this certificate at your own pace: coursera.org/learn/stanford-statistics!

If you’re looking to learn R, you can follow these tutorials: stats.oarc.ucla.edu/r/!

Breaking into healthcare as a student can be overwhelming! There can be pressure to engage in certain commitments, because it feels like it’s what everyone else is doing or what you “need” to be doing. Slow down! Think about what is important to you, what you love, and what you feel the most loved doing. And it’s okay if you don’t know exactly what this is yet. It’s okay if it’s 5 million things that seem unrelated to each other. As long as you feel good about it. Look for opportunities, and don’t just commit to the first one that wants you, but one that you want as well. Only when you feel passionate about what you do will you be able to contribute meaningfully. 

Also—don’t be afraid to make opportunities for yourself! The internet is such a powerful tool. There are completely free (and high quality) courses that will teach you about the research process, articles to read, and datasets to explore. Take advantage of it if you’re interested! Unlike what many think, engaging in research doesn’t always require a lab or a full study.