Occupational Segregation as a Determinant of Racial Health Disparities

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Katherine Chung, MD, MPH, is a board certified family physician, and research fellowship trained epidemiologist, who has researched, written, and taught on the social determinants of African American health disparities, including social class and family structure. She is developing an independent research career in occupational health disparities. Through the proposed K01 Mentored Research Scientist Development Award, Dr. Chung will develop her occupational health disparities research skills, with tangible outcomes including manuscript publications, scientific presentations, and the submission of independent research proposals including investigator-initiated R03 and R01 applications. She also plans to gain more intense epidemiology training by pursuing her PhD in Epidemiology at the University of Miami. Dr. Chung will be mentored by Lora Fleming, MD, PhD, MPH, MSc, David Lee, PhD, Carles Muntaner, MD, PhD, MHS, and Kris Arheart, EdD, MS, MS. Dr. Chung's proposed project (which will also serve as her PhD dissertation) focuses on elucidating the relationship between occupational segregation and health outcomes for African American, Latino, and White workers. Patterns of racial segregation in jobs are as yet unexamined as a potential mechanism linking occupation with racially disparate health outcomes and behaviors. Occupational segregation is defined as the proportion or concentration of members of different racial groups in each occupational group. This study will examine potential associations between occupational segregation, family structure, social class, and racially disparate health outcomes (morbidity, mortality, and health behaviors) using the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) data for years 1986-1994. This study proposal satisfies at least 3 NIOSH research priority areas (NORA): Surveillance research methods with unique mortality and morbidity data on 1) the entire US workforce; 2) older, race-ethnic, lower socio-economic and gender-specific worker subpopulations; and 3) social and economic costs of workplace disease and injury. By using a representative sample, this research is applicable to all US workers and their specific occupations.