Our Current Projects
Ending Entanglement
Investigating how policies affect birth outcomes among immigrant mothers
Since 2001, county and local-level policies increasingly restrict immigrant rights, limiting access to employment, legal protections, and mobility beyond informal work. These restrictions may have significant consequences for the health of immigrants, their families, and their communities.
We are assessing whether birth outcomes among immigrant mothers changed after a local policy was implemented between 2004 and 2014. Specifically, we are focusing on county-level policies that limited immigrant access to formal employment, career mobility, and legal safeguards.
The purpose of this study is to expand our understanding of the influence of county-level policymaking on the spatial patterning of health inequities among immigrant mothers over time.
HBIA-HBIS
As the Latinx population in the United States rapidly ages, projected to become the largest segment of the immigrant older population by 2050, significant health disparities are emerging. Despite initially having better health outcomes, aging Latinx immigrants face the fastest decline in health, largely due to limited access to health insurance and delayed healthcare utilization. This project investigates how health insurance access influences these disparities by analyzing the impact of Illinois’ Health Benefits for Immigrant Seniors (HBIA) and Health Benefits for Immigrant Adults (HBIS) programs. Launched in 2020 and 2022, these pioneering state policies extended full-scope Medicaid coverage to low-income undocumented immigrants and noncitizens aged 42 and older, with over half of the enrollees being Latinx. Utilizing Medicare cost data, HBIA/HBIS enrollment records, and county-level statistics from the American Community Survey, the study employs quasi-experimental difference-in-differences models to assess changes in uncompensated care in Illinois hospitals compared to neighboring states.
Learn more on our study website
Structural Drivers
Funded by the National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities, we are investigating how upstream systems across housing, education, labor, and local governance shape racial and ethnic disparities in maternal and child health (MCH) across U.S. counties. Our goal is to move beyond traditional measures of social determinants of health to identify the structural drivers—the policies, institutions, and power structures—that create and sustain inequities in health. To do this, we are compiling a national dataset of county-level indicators that capture economic, political, and social systems that influence opportunity and wellbeing. Using machine learning and spatial analytic methods, we will then identify typologies of structural environments and link them to MCH outcomes to examine how place-based conditions drive disparities in preconception and perinatal health. By integrating data science and population health frameworks, we aim to reveal how places shape inequities and to inform structural interventions and policies that advance health equity for women, children, and families.
Past Projects
Click each project to learn more!