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Karbeah Lab

Dr. Karbeah leads a variety of mixed-methods projects that examine the impact of social and structural determinants of health. Dr. Karbeah’s primary research focus, and the mission of this lab is to examine how structural, policy, and interpersonal exposures contribute to persistent racial health inequities in adolescent and perinatal populations.

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RACISM'S IMPACT ON CHILD AND ADOLESCENT HEALTH

Exposure to racism in early life has life course implications that may result in increased risk of adverse health outcomes in later life. Of particular importance is the need to understand how racism, impacts the quality and nature of care received by children with marginalized racialized identities. Our work in this area highlight racism’s historical (Karbeah and Hacker 2023) and contemporary impacts on child and adolescent health, focusing in great detail on how racial disparities in health care access and quality exacerbate existing health inequities (Karbeah, Hassan, and Hardeman 2023).

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RACISM AS A STRUCTURAL DETERMINANT OF HEALTH

Racial health disparities disproportionately impact minority individuals and contribute to mortality and morbidity burdens throughout the life course. A growing body of research suggests that these disparities may be due to racism and the way in which racial discrimination limits opportunities and stifles access to opportunity. Studies have shown that higher levels of racial discrimination are associated with an increase likelihood of poor health. Unfortunately, this body of research has focused mainly on interpersonal perceptions of discrimination; only recently have scholars begun to explore racism as a structural phenomenon that impacts all aspects of an individual’s life. Previous work has focused on housing, neighborhood factors, and to some extent educational factors, typically ignoring how public health and health care providers also contribute to experiences of racism. Our research contributes to a growing body of research that attempts to address this paucity of research and is aimed at understanding how experiences of discrimination within health care fields impacts minority populations.

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POLICE VIOLENCE, MASS PROBATION, AND HEALTH

Understanding how social factors structure the experiences of populations is foundational to both public and population health scholarship. Disparate law enforcement contact and experiences of police brutality are events that disproportionately impact racial and ethnic minority communities and dramatically impact the health and wellbeing of community members. Our work in this area attempts to draw attention to and build a knowledge base around the psychological and physiological impacts of police brutality on the health of the communities most impacted.

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RACIAL AND ETHNIC DISPARITIES IN REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH

Racial and ethnic disparities in perinatal and preterm health have not improved significantly since the late twentieth century. Despite medical advancements and improved public health, infants born to non-Hispanic African American women face a two-fold higher risk of death and African American birthing individuals are three to four times more likely to die due to pregnancy-related complications than their white counterparts. A growing body of research suggests that these persistent disparities are due to structural racism and experiences of discrimination. To date, there are few projects that have investigated potential interventions to mitigate the impact of racism during the perinatal period. By studying the ways through which culturally-centered models of perinatal care can improve birth outcomes, our work has uses a reproductive justice lens to understand how structural racism and racial bias impact birth outcomes for African American families.

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