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Afra Alkan.jpg

Name: Afra Alkan

Email: afra.alkan@mail.mcgill.ca

Position: Postdoctoral Fellow

Biography:

Afra Alkan joined the DEPRESSD team as a postdoctoral fellow in April 2023. She completed her PhD in Biostatistics at Ankara University in 2022 in Ankara, Türkiye, during which she worked as both a research assistant and statistical consultant in the Department of Biostatistics and Medical Informatics and at the Statistical Consultancy, Application, and Research Centre, respectively, at Ankara Yildirim Beyazit University. Her research includes evaluation of diagnostic accuracy measures, multivariate analysis, longitudinal data analysis, and R programming.

Grants & Scholarships

  • PhD Scholarship, The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK, BIDEB 2211) ($2000 /year) 2016 – 2020.

  • Grant for Participation in International Scientific Meetings, TUBITAK (BIDEB 2224-A) ($500), 2019.

  • MSc Scholarship, TUBITAK (BIDEB 2210-E) ($1100 /year), 2009-2011. 

  • Outstanding Undergraduate Student Scholarship, TUBITAK (BIDEB 2205), ($1700/year), 2005-2009. 

 

Courses Taught

Lecturer

  • SBF102-Biostatistics (major in Nursing, Speech and Language Therapy, Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation, Audiology, Health Management, Nutrition and Dietetics), SBB302-Statistics (major in Sports Sciences), Biostatistics (major in Dentistry), 2018-2022 (online during pandemic).

 

Teaching Assistant

  • FTR505-Clinical Research (Graduate course major in Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation), BIS535-Biostatistics (Graduate course major in Nursing), ODYH540- Statistics (Graduate course major in Audiology), HLKS512-Biomedical Statistics (Graduate course major in Public Health), Biostatistics (major in Medicine), ODY213- Biostatistics (major in Audiology), HEM305- Biostatistics (major in Nursing)

 

​Selected Publications

Peer-reviewed journal articles indexed by the international databases

  • Alkan A, Carrier ME, Henry RS, Kwakkenbos L, Bartlett SJ, Gietzen A, Gottesman K, Guillot G, Lawrie-Jones A, Hudson M, Hummers LK, Malcarne VL, Mayes MD, Mouthon L, Richard M, Wojeck RK, Worron-Sauvé M, Benedetti A, Thombs BD, SPIN Investigators. Minimal detectable changes of the HAQ-DI, PROMIS-29v2.0 domains, and PHQ-8 in Systemic Sclerosis: A SPIN Cohort cross-sectional study. AC&R. In press.

  • Turan N, Alkan A, Çekiç Y (2024). Perceived parental psychological control and the risk of internet gaming disorder in adolescents: a cross-sectional study. Curr Psychol. doi:10.1007/s12144-024-05951-4. Online ahead of print.

  • Orhan AI, Alkan A, Orhan K, Tezel A, Karaoglanoglu S, Oztas D (2024). Dental caries and associated factors among Turkish children and adults: Findings from the 3rd National Oral Health Survey. Community Dent Oral Epidemiol. doi: 10.1111/cdoe.12943. Online ahead of print.

  • Arslan YK, Alkan A, Elhan AH (2023). Comparison of the response time-based effort-moderated IRT model and three-parameter logistic model according to computerized adaptive test performances: A simulation study. Communications in Statistics-Simulation and Computation. doi: 10.1080/03610918.2023.2245175. Online ahead of print.

  • Yıldız NT, Alkan A, Kulunkoglu B (2022).  Validity and reliability of the Turkish version of Mandibular Function Impairment questionnaire. CRANIO®, 18, 1-11, doi: 10.1080/08869634.2021.2004715

  • Yuksel S, Demir P, Alkan A (2019). Factors causing occurrence of artificial DIF: A simulation study for dichotomous data. Communications in Statistics-Simulation and Computation, 48(7), 2004-2011, doi: 10.1080/03610918.2018.1429622 

 

Presentations in the international seminars, congresses, and conferences

  • Yuksel S, Alkan A, Demir P, Sanisoğlu S.Y, Ercan I, Ture M, Karahan S, Ates C, Elmali F, Erdogan S, Kaya M.O, Sahin B, Yavuz Z, Yildirim D (2019). The standardization of the content of the biostatistics education lectured at the undergraduate term of the medical faculties in Turkey: a Delphi study. The 21st National and 4th International Biostatistics Congress, Oct 26-29, Antalya, Turkey, p:219-269. (Oral – Full text)

  • Demir P, Alkan A, Yuksel S (2019). How is the performance of the Mc-Nemar test to determine cut-off comparing to the Youden index and the minP methods for ordinal data? A simulation study. The 5th International Researchers, Statisticians and Young Statisticians Congress, Oct 18-20, Aydın, Turkey, p: 140-149. (funded by TUBITAK BIDEB 2224-A). (Oral – Full text)

  • Alkan A, Yuksel S, Demir P (2019). Which of the favorite optimal cut-off determination methods is preferable for the ordinal response data? A simulation study. The 13th International Conference on Applied Statistics, June 8-9, Bucharest, Romania, Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Applied Statistics, 1(1), 1-7, doi:10.2478/icas-2019-0001 (funded by TUBITAK BIDEB 2224-A) (Oral – Full text)

  • Alkan A, Demir P, Yuksel S (2018). Two new measures to evaluate the accuracy of screening tests in diagnostic studies involving paired organs: binocular sensitivity and binocular specificity. The 20th National and 3rd International Biostatistics Congress, Oct 26-29, Gaziantep, Turkey, p:99. (Poster – Abstract)

  • Yuksel S, Alkan A, Demir P (2018). Evaluation of receiver operating characteristic analysis to determine the minimum clinically important difference on interpretability of scales. The 20th National and 3rd International Biostatistics Congress, Oct 26-29, Gaziantep, Turkey, p:42 & 119-122. (Oral – Full text)

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