Scholars@Duke
Jay A. Pearson

Jay A. Pearson

McLain Foundation Associate Professor of Public Policy
Sanford School of Public Policy
jay.pearson@duke.edu
211 Sanford Building, Box 90245, Durham, NC 27708
201 Science Drive, SB 211, Box 90245, Durham, NC 27708

Scholarly Works - Journal articles

Colorism and Health Inequities among Black Americans: A Biopsychosocial Perspective.

Journal article Journal of health and social behavior · September 2025 The mechanisms generating skin-tone-based health inequities among ethnic Black Americans remain poorly understood. To address this gap, our study advances a novel biopsychosocial model of embodied colorism-related distress. We test this model with survey a ... Full text Cite

Naming and Framing: Six Principles for Embedding Health Equity Language in Policy Research, Writing, and Practice.

Journal article The Milbank quarterly · March 2025 Policy Points Science communication and health policy language often fail to adequately define and contextualize systemic barriers-like structural racism and wealth inequity-that contribute to disparities in health outcomes. Health policy practitioners sho ... Full text Cite

Ethical Considerations and Recommendations for Humanizing Immigrant Language in Health Equity Data Collection, Reporting, and Measurement.

Journal article Health Equity · 2025 Collecting accurate and consistent sociodemographic data is needed to improve health measurement and public health interventions. Missing or inaccurate data hinders the adequate assessment of the state of access, quality, and coverage in the overall popula ... Full text Link to item Cite

Erosion of the Latino Health Advantage in the US.

Journal article JAMA health forum · October 2024 Full text Cite

Education in the Jim Crow South and Black-White inequities in allostatic load among older adults

Journal article Ssm Population Health · September 1, 2022 In the U.S., Black adults consistently have higher allostatic load – an indicator of physiological dysregulation – than White adults. Education is considered a likely mechanism given racial differences in attainment, but evidence is mixed. This may be due, ... Full text Cite

Weathering in Detroit: Place, Race, Ethnicity, and Poverty as Conceptually Fluctuating Social Constructs Shaping Variation in Allostatic Load.

Journal article The Milbank quarterly · December 2020 Policy Points Despite 30 years of attention to eliminating population health inequity, it remains entrenched, calling for new approaches. Targeted universalism, wellness-based local development, and Jedi Public Health approaches that are community informed ... Full text Cite

Addressing health inequalities in diverse, rural communities: An unmet need.

Journal article SSM Popul Health · April 2019 Research on rural health needs to represent the diverse demographics of these regions by carefully considering the distinct characteristics, inequities, and stressors occurring in rural communities. Drawing from our own findings and other empirical investi ... Full text Link to item Cite

Jedi public health: Co-creating an identity-safe culture to promote health equity

Journal article Ssm Population Health · December 1, 2016 The extent to which socially-assigned and culturally mediated social identity affects health depends on contingencies of social identity that vary across and within populations in day-to-day life. These contingencies are structurally rooted and health dama ... Full text Open Access Cite

Race-Ethnicity, Poverty, Urban Stressors, and Telomere Length in a Detroit Community-based Sample.

Journal article Journal of health and social behavior · June 2015 Residents of distressed urban areas suffer early aging-related disease and excess mortality. Using a community-based participatory research approach in a collaboration between social researchers and cellular biologists, we collected a unique data set of 23 ... Full text Cite

The role of socioeconomic factors in Black-White disparities in preterm birth.

Journal article American journal of public health · April 2015 ObjectivesWe investigated the role of socioeconomic factors in Black-White disparities in preterm birth (PTB).MethodsWe used the population-based California Maternal and Infant Health Assessment survey and birth certificate data on 10 400 ... Full text Cite

Sociocultural and socioeconomic influences on type 2 diabetes risk in overweight/obese African-American and Latino-American children and adolescents.

Journal article Journal of obesity · January 2013 PurposeIt is unclear whether sociocultural and socioeconomic factors are directly linked to type 2 diabetes risk in overweight/obese ethnic minority children and adolescents. This study examines the relationships between sociocultural orientation, ... Full text Open Access Cite

Race/ethnicity, socioeconomic characteristics, coethnic social ties, and health: evidence from the national Jewish population survey.

Journal article American journal of public health · July 2011 ObjectivesWe explored whether a White ethnic group with a history of structural disadvantage, Jewish Americans, shows evidence of continuing health impact independent of socioeconomic position (SEP), whether coethnic social ties appear health prot ... Full text Cite

Do US black women experience stress-related accelerated biological aging?: A novel theory and first population-based test of black-white differences in telomere length

Journal article Human Nature · March 1, 2010 We hypothesize that black women experience accelerated biological aging in response to repeated or prolonged adaptation to subjective and objective stressors. Drawing on stress physiology and ethnographic, social science, and public health literature, we l ... Full text Cite

Stress, allostatic load, and health of Mexican immigrants

Journal article Social Science Quarterly · December 1, 2009 Objective. To assess whether the cumulative impact of exposure to repeated or chronic stressors, as measured by allostatic load, contributes to the "unhealthy assimilation" effects often observed for immigrants with time in the United States. Methods. We a ... Full text Cite

Can't buy me whiteness: New Lessons from the Titanic on Race, Ethnicity, and Health

Journal article Du Bois Review · January 1, 2008 A basic tenet of public health is that there is a robust relationship between socioeconomic status and health. Researchers widely accept that persons at average or median levels of socioeconomic status have better health compared to those at lower levels—w ... Full text Cite