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Tyson Brown

Tyson Brown CV

Professor of Sociology
Sociology
tyson.brown@duke.edu
263 Social Psychology Building, BOX_90088, Durham, NC 27708
CV

Selected Publications

Conceptualizing and Measuring Systemic Racism.

Journal Article Annual review of public health · April 2025 Featured Publication This article provides a guide for rigorous, theory-driven measurement approaches, proposing best practices for the scientific study of systemic racism in health research. We argue that the analytical crux of measuring systemic racism-a complex, interconnec ... Full text Cite

Methods for studying structural oppression in quantitative family research

Journal Article Journal of Marriage and Family · October 1, 2024 Researchers have long documented the impact of social inequalities on family life. Most family research has focused on inequalities at the individual and family levels, and extant studies on macro-level conditions have primarily examined economic condition ... Full text Cite

Perceptions of Racial-Ethnic Inequities in COVID-19 Healthcare and Willingness to Receive the COVID-19 Vaccine.

Journal Article Epidemiology (Cambridge, Mass.) · May 2024 BackgroundPerceptions of the US healthcare system can impact individuals' healthcare utilization, including vaccination intentions. This study examined the association between perceived racial-ethnic inequities in COVID-19 healthcare and willingne ... Full text Cite

Structural Racism and Health Stratification: Connecting Theory to Measurement.

Journal Article Journal of health and social behavior · March 2024 Featured Publication Less than 1% of studies on racialized health inequities have empirically examined their root cause: structural racism. Moreover, there has been a disconnect between the conceptualization and measurement of structural racism. This study advances the field b ... Full text Cite

Multimorbidity trajectories in early adulthood and middle age: Findings from the CARDIA prospective cohort study.

Journal Article J Multimorb Comorb · 2024 BACKGROUND: Multimorbidity research has focused on the prevalence and consequences of multimorbidity in older populations. Less is known about the accumulation of chronic conditions earlier in the life course. METHODS: We identified patterns of longitudina ... Full text Link to item Cite

Design and pilot test of an implicit bias mitigation curriculum for clinicians.

Journal Article Front Med (Lausanne) · 2024 INTRODUCTION: Clinician implicit racial bias (IB) may lead to lower quality care and adverse health outcomes for Black patients. Educational efforts to train clinicians to mitigate IB vary widely and have insufficient evidence of impact. We developed and p ... Full text Link to item Cite

The Add Health Parent Study: A Biosocial Resource for the Study of Multigenerational Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Alzheimer's Disease and Alzheimer's Disease-Related Dementias.

Journal Article Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD · January 2024 BackgroundAlzheimer's disease and Alzheimer's disease related dementias (AD/ADRD) have increased in prevalence.ObjectiveThis article describes the Add Health Parent Study (AHPS) Phase 2, a study of social, behavioral, and biological facto ... Full text Cite

Association of educational attainment with cancer mortality in a national cohort study of black and white adults: A mediation analysis.

Journal Article SSM Popul Health · December 2023 BACKGROUND: Low educational attainment is associated with excess cancer mortality. However, the mechanisms driving this association remain unknown. METHODS: Using data from the REasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) study, we eva ... Full text Link to item Cite

How Social Roles Affect Sleep Health during Midlife.

Journal Article Journal of health and social behavior · June 2023 This study draws on role theory and the life course perspective to examine how sleep health (duration, quality, and latency) is shaped by social role accumulation (number of roles), role repertoires (role combinations), and role contexts amon ... Full text Cite

Racialized Health Inequities: Quantifying Socioeconomic and Stress Pathways Using Moderated Mediation.

Journal Article Demography · June 2023 Featured Publication Racism drives population health inequities by shaping the unequal distribution of key social determinants of health, such as socioeconomic resources and exposure to stressors. Research on interrelationships among race, socioeconomic resources, stressors, a ... Full text Cite

Racial inequality in functional trajectories between Black and White U.S. veterans.

Journal Article J Am Geriatr Soc · April 2023 BACKGROUND: Racial inequality in functional trajectories has been well documented in the U.S. civilian population but has not been explored among Veterans. Our objectives were to: (1) assess how functional trajectories differed for Black and White Veterans ... Full text Link to item Cite

The Future of Social Determinants of Health: Looking Upstream to Structural Drivers.

Journal Article The Milbank quarterly · April 2023 Featured Publication Policy Points Policies that redress oppressive social, economic, and political conditions are essential for improving population health and achieving health equity. Efforts to remedy structural oppression and its deleterious effects should account for its ... Full text Cite

Attribution for everyday discrimination typologies and mortality risk among older black adults: Evidence from the health and retirement study?

Journal Article Social science & medicine (1982) · January 2023 BackgroundThe present study assessed how attributions of everyday discrimination typologies relate to all-cause mortality risk among older Black adults.MethodsThis study utilized data from a subsample of older Black adults from the 2006/2 ... Full text Cite

Work-Related Stress, Psychosocial Resources, and Insomnia Symptoms Among Older Black Workers.

Journal Article Journal of aging and health · June 2022 Objectives: To examine the association between work-related stress (job lock and job stress appraisal) and insomnia symptoms among older Black workers, as well as the extent to which psychosocial resources (mastery, social support, and religious inv ... Full text Cite

Frontiers in measuring structural racism and its health effects.

Journal Article Health services research · June 2022 Full text Cite

Sick And Tired Of Being Excluded: Structural Racism In Disenfranchisement As A Threat To Population Health Equity.

Journal Article Health affairs (Project Hope) · February 2022 Theoretical research suggests that racialized felony disenfranchisement-a form of structural racism-is likely to undermine the health of Black people, yet empirical studies on the topic are scant. We used administrative data on disproportionate felony dise ... Full text Cite

Improving The Measurement Of Structural Racism To Achieve Antiracist Health Policy.

Journal Article Health affairs (Project Hope) · February 2022 Featured Publication Antiracist health policy research requires methodological innovation that creates equity-centered and antiracist solutions to health inequities by centering the complexities and insidiousness of structural racism. The development of effective health policy ... Full text Open Access Cite

Empirical evidence on structural racism as a driver of racial inequities in COVID-19 mortality.

Journal Article Frontiers in public health · January 2022 Featured Publication ObjectiveThis study contributes to the literature by empirically testing the extent to which place-based structural racism is a driver of state-level racial inequalities in COVID-19 mortality using theoretically-informed, innovative approaches. Full text Open Access Cite

Overcrowding and COVID-19 mortality across U.S. counties: Are disparities growing over time?

Journal Article SSM Popul Health · September 2021 A growing line of research underscores that sociodemographic factors may contribute to disparities in the impact of COVID-19. Further, stages of disease theory suggests that disparities may grow as the pandemic unfolds and more advantaged areas are better ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Structural Intersectionality as a New Direction for Health Disparities Research.

Journal Article Journal of health and social behavior · September 2021 Featured Publication This article advances the field by integrating insights from intersectionality perspectives with the emerging literatures on structural racism and structural sexism-which point to promising new ways to measure systems of inequality at a macro level-to intr ... Full text Cite

Prevalence, severity and distribution of depression and anxiety symptoms using observational data collected before and nine months into the COVID-19 pandemic.

Journal Article Lancet regional health. Americas · September 2021 BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic has been accompanied by substantial increases in adverse mental health, particularly among the young. However, it remains unclear to what extent increases in population scores on mental health assessments are due to ... Full text Cite

The Color of COVID-19: Structural Racism and the Disproportionate Impact of the Pandemic on Older Black and Latinx Adults.

Journal Article The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · February 2021 ObjectivesThe aim of this evidence-based theoretically informed article was to provide an overview of how and why the COVID-19 outbreak is particularly detrimental for the health of older Black and Latinx adults.MethodsWe draw upon curren ... Full text Open Access Cite

Stress Processes and the Physical Health of Older Black Women

Chapter · January 1, 2021 Although older Black women experience disproportionately high rates of morbidity, relatively little is known about the psychosocial mechanisms underlying their health. This study advances the field by drawing on stress processes and intersectionality frame ... Full text Cite

Budgetary Consequences of High Medical Spending Across Age and Social Status: Evidence from the Consumer Expenditure Surveys.

Journal Article The Gerontologist · September 2020 Background and objectivesThis study examines high medical spending among younger, midlife, and older households.Research design and methodsWe investigate high medical spending using data from the 2010 through March 2018 Consumer Expenditu ... Full text Cite

Racial Stratification, Immigration, and Health Inequality: A Life Course-Intersectional Approach

Journal Article Social Forces · May 14, 2018 Featured Publication While health inequalities related to race/ethnicity, nativity, and age are well documented, it remains unclear how these axes of stratification combine to shape health trajectories, especially in middle and late life. This study addresses gaps in the liter ... Full text Open Access Cite

Psychosocial Mechanisms Underlying Older Black Men’s Health

Journal Article Journals of Gerontology - Series B Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences · August 3, 2017 Open Access Link to item Cite

(En)gendering Racial Disparities in Health Trajectories: A Life Course and Intersectional Analysis.

Journal Article SSM - population health · December 2016 Historically, intersectionality has been an underutilized framework in sociological research on racial/ethnic and gender inequalities in health. To demonstrate its utility and importance, we conduct an intersectional analysis of the social stratification o ... Full text Cite

Tourism Experiences and Self-Rated Health Among Older Adults in China.

Journal Article J Aging Health · June 2016 OBJECTIVE: To investigate factors associated with tourism experiences, and the association between tourism experiences and subsequent self-rated health. METHOD: Multilevel logistic regression models and four waves of panel data from a large nationally repr ... Full text Link to item Cite

Using Multiple-hierarchy Stratification and Life Course Approaches to Understand Health Inequalities: The Intersecting Consequences of Race, Gender, SES, and Age.

Journal Article Journal of health and social behavior · June 2016 Featured Publication This study examines how the intersecting consequences of race-ethnicity, gender, socioeconomics status (SES), and age influence health inequality. We draw on multiple-hierarchy stratification and life course perspectives to address two main research questi ... Full text Cite

Childhood adversity and adult health: Evaluating intervening mechanisms.

Journal Article Social science & medicine (1982) · May 2016 Substantial evidence has accumulated supporting a causal link between childhood adversity and risk for poor health years and even decades later. One interpretation of this evidence is that this linkage arises largely or exclusively from a process of biolog ... Full text Cite

Diverging Fortunes: Racial/Ethnic Inequality in Wealth Trajectories in Middle and Late Life

Journal Article Race and Social Problems · March 1, 2016 The primary aim of this study is to examine whether racial/ethnic inequality in wealth dissipates or increases between middle and late life, and by how much. To address this aim, this study draws on critical race and life course perspectives as well as 10 ... Full text Cite

Genome-Wide Meta-Analysis of Longitudinal Alcohol Consumption Across Youth and Early Adulthood.

Journal Article Twin Res Hum Genet · August 2015 The public health burden of alcohol is unevenly distributed across the life course, with levels of use, abuse, and dependence increasing across adolescence and peaking in early adulthood. Here, we leverage this temporal patterning to search for common gene ... Full text Link to item Cite

Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Men’s Health: Examining Psychosocial Mechanisms

Journal Article Journal of Family and Community Health · 2015 This study uses data from the Health and Retirement Study and an approach informed by the Biopsychosocial Model of Racism as a Stressor to examine the extent to which socioeconomic status, stressors, discrimination, and neighborhood conditions are mechanis ... Cite

Multidimensional Approaches to Examining Gender and Racial/Ethnic Stratification in Health

Journal Article Women, Gender, and Families of Color · October 1, 2013 AbstractExtant research on health disparities has traditionally employed a unidimensional approach to stratification, focusing on gender and racial/ethnic inequality separately. Such studies implicitly assum ... Full text Cite

Race-ethnicity and health trajectories: tests of three hypotheses across multiple groups and health outcomes.

Journal Article Journal of health and social behavior · September 2012 Racial-ethnic disparities in static levels of health are well documented. Less is known about racial-ethnic differences in age trajectories of health. The few studies on this topic have examined only single health outcomes and focused on black-white dispar ... Full text Cite

The Intersection and Accumulation of Racial and Gender Inequality: Black Women's Wealth Trajectories

Journal Article Review of Black Political Economy · January 1, 2012 Prior research has found evidence of large racial and gender disparities in wealth, with blacks possessing less wealth than whites and women having less wealth than men. An intersectionality approach suggests that the overlapping impacts of racial and gend ... Full text Cite

Understanding how race/ethnicity and gender define age-trajectories of disability: an intersectionality approach.

Journal Article Social science & medicine (1982) · April 2011 A number of studies have demonstrated wide disparities in health among racial/ethnic groups and by gender, yet few have examined how race/ethnicity and gender intersect or combine to affect the health of older adults. The tendency of prior research to trea ... Full text Cite

Pathways to the All-Volunteer Military

Journal Article Social Science Quarterly · 2010 Objectives: The present study investigates the role of a disadvantaged background, the lack of social connectedness, and behavioral problems in channeling young men to the opportunities of the all-volunteer military instead of to college and the labor mark ... Cite

Divergent Pathways? Racial/ethnic Differences in Older Women's Labor Force Withdrawal

Journal Article Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences · 2008 Cite