Cynthia Colen
Biographic Data
| ID | 365349 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Cynthia Colen |
| GIVEN NAMES | Cynthia |
| FAMILY NAME | Colen |
| SIGNATURE | COLEN C |
| AFFILIATIONS | The Ohio State University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-6926-2541 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 27 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 431 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 27 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2001 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 11 |
Policy Brief
Multigenerational Coresidence and Psychological Distress during Adolescence and Young Adulthood: An Exploration among White, Black, and Hispanic Individuals
Childhood family structures are crucial for long-term health and well-being. However, the effects of an increasingly common family structure-multigenerational households comprising a child, parent(s), and grandparent(s)-remained underexplored. Using panel data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 and its young adult sample (N = 8,230), we examine trajectories of psychological distress among White, Black, and Hispanic adolescents an…
Racial Disparities in the Relationship Between Parental Incarceration and Childhood Obesity
A Matter of Time: Racialized Time and the Production of Health Disparities
An expansive and methodologically varied literature designed to investigate racial disparities in health now exists. Empirical evidence points to an overlapping, complex web of social conditions that accelerate the pace of aging and erodes long-term health outcomes among people of color, especially Black Americans. However, a social exposure-or lack thereof-that is rarely mentioned is time use. The current paper was specifically designed to addre…
Big Data to Knowledge Analytics Reveals the Zika Virus Epidemic as Only One of Multiple Factors Contributing to a Year-Over-Year 28-Fold Increase in Microcephaly Incidence
During the 2015-2016 Zika Virus (ZIKV) epidemic in Brazil, the geographical distributions of ZIKV infection and microcephaly outbreaks did not align. This raised doubts about the virus as the single cause of the microcephaly outbreak and led to research hypotheses of alternative explanatory factors, such as environmental variables and factors, agrochemical use, or immunizations. We investigated context and the intermediate and structural determin…
Shades of health: Skin color, ethnicity, and mental health among Black Americans
Structural and Social Determinants of Health Factors Associated with County-Level Variation in Non-Adherence to Antihypertensive Medication Treatment
AHM non-adherence varies by geographical location, one-third of which is explained by contextual SDH factors including poverty/food insecurity, weak social supports and healthy built environments
The Effects of Social, Personal, and Behavioral Risk Factors and PM2.5 on Cardio-Metabolic Disparities in a Cohort of Community Health Center Patients
(1) Background: Cardio-metabolic diseases (CMD), including cardiovascular disease, stroke, and diabetes, have numerous common individual and environmental risk factors. Yet, few studies to date have considered how these multiple risk factors together affect CMD disparities between Blacks and Whites. (2) Methods: We linked daily fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) measures with survey responses of participants in the Southern Community Cohort Study …
Intergenerational Coresidence and Mothers’ Body Weight at Midlife
Application of the Public Health Exposome Framework to Estimate Phenotypes of Resilience in a Model Ohio African-American Women’s Cohort
The Intergenerational Transmission of Discrimination: Children's Experiences of Unfair Treatment and Their Mothers' Health at Midlife
A growing body of research suggests that maternal exposure to discrimination helps to explain racial disparities in children's health. However, no study has considered if the intergenerational health effects of unfair treatment operate in the opposite direction-from child to mother. To this end, we use data from mother-child pairs in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 to determine whether adolescent and young adult children's experien…
Do rising tides lift all boats? Racial disparities in health across the lifecourse among middle-class African-Americans and Whites
Although racial inequalities in health are well documented, much less is known about the underlying mechanisms that create and sustain these population patterns, especially among nonpoor subgroups. Using 20 waves of data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), we estimate the magnitude of the Black/White gap in self-rated health among middle-income, working-age (18-65) adults and explore potential sources of this disparity. Findings from …
Racial disparities in health among nonpoor African Americans and Hispanics: The role of acute and chronic discrimination
Framing the Gun Control Debate: Press Releases and Framing Strategies of the National Rifle Association and the Brady Campaign
Objective How can social movements increase their presence in the news? We argue that press releases can do so via social movement framing. Press releases from, and news coverage of, social movement organizations (SMOs) in the gun control debate serve as our case. Methods A qualitative framing analysis is conducted to identify frames in press releases from the National Rifle Association and the Brady Campaign. Logistic regressions assess the effe…
Two Mechanisms: The Role of Social Capital and Industrial Pollution Exposure in Explaining Racial Disparities in Self-Rated Health
This study provides an empirical test of two mechanisms (social capital and exposure to air pollution) that are theorized to mediate the effect of neighborhood on health and contribute to racial disparities in health outcomes. To this end, we utilize the Social Capital Benchmark Study, a national survey of individuals nested within communities in the United States, to estimate how multiple dimensions of social capital and exposure to air pollutio…
Is breast truly best? Estimating the effects of breastfeeding on long-term child health and wellbeing in the United States using sibling comparisons
Fundamental Causes of Colorectal Cancer Mortality in the United States: Understanding the Importance of Socioeconomic Status in Creating Inequality in Mortality
Objectives. We used the fundamental cause hypothesis as a framework for understanding the creation of health disparities in colorectal cancer mortality in the United States from 1968 to 2005. Methods. We used negative binomial regression to analyze trends in county-level gender-, race-, and age-adjusted colorectal cancer mortality rates among individuals aged 35 years or older. Results. Prior to 1980, there was a stable gradient in colorectal can…
Excess Black Mortality in the United States and in Selected Black and White High-Poverty Areas, 1980–2000
Objectives. Black working-aged residents of urban high-poverty areas suffered severe excess mortality in 1980 and 1990. Our goal in this study was to determine whether this trend persisted in 2000. Methods. We analyzed death certificate and census data to estimate age-standardized all-cause and cause-specific mortality among 16- to 64-year-old Blacks and Whites nationwide and in selected urban and rural high-poverty areas. Results. Urban men's mo…
Geronimus et al. Respond
Geronimus et al. Respond
The Sociology of Suicide
Since Durkheim's classic work on suicide, sociological attention to understanding the roots of self-destruction has been inconsistent. In this review, we use three historical periods of interest (pre-Durkheim, Durkheim, post-Durkheim) to organize basic findings in the body of sociological knowledge regarding suicide. Much of the twentieth-century research focused on issues of integration and regulation, imitation, and the social construction of s…
Addressing Racial Disparities in Health Using Life Course Perspectives: Toward a Constructive Criticism
In the United States, African Americans face stark inequalities in health. The life course perspective offers a unique viewpoint through which racial disparities in morbidity and mortality may be understood as the result of repeated exposures to risk factors during both childhood and adulthood. However, the utility of this approach is limited by its failure to investigate the degree to which racial/ethnic minorities are able to translate gains in…
Rubin Et Al. Respond
King et al. are concerned about our use of relative measures to gauge progress toward health equality in HIV mortality. Prior work by some of these same authors suggests,1 and we concur, that values and moral issues are involved and that explicit consideration of these is essential. Their comment is useful as it spurs us to think more deeply and provides an opportunity to report why, in this situation, relative measures more adeptly address moral…
Examination of Inequalities in HIV/Aids Mortality in the United States From a Fundamental Cause Perspective
Objectives. We examined changes in socioeconomic status (SES) and Black to White inequalities in HIV/AIDS mortality in the United States before and after the introduction of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). Methods. Taking a fundamental cause perspective, we used negative binomial regression to analyze trends in county-level gender-, race-, and age-specific HIV/AIDS mortality rates among those aged 15 to 64 years during the period 19…
Maternal Upward Socioeconomic Mobility and Black–White Disparities in Infant Birthweight
Objectives. We estimate the extent to which upward socioeconomic mobility limits the probability that Black and White women who spent their childhoods in or near poverty will give birth to a low-birthweight baby. Methods. Data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 and the 1970 US Census were used to complete a series of logistic regression models. We restricted multivariate analyses to female survey respondents who, at 14 years of a…
The Sociology of Suicide
Since Durkheim's classic work on suicide, sociological attention to understanding the roots of self-destruction has been inconsistent. In this review, we use three historical periods of interest (pre-Durkheim, Durkheim, post-Durkheim) to organize basic findings in the body of sociological knowledge regarding suicide. Much of the twentieth-century research focused on issues of integration and regulation, imitation, and the social construction of s…
Racial disparities in health among nonpoor African Americans and Hispanics: The role of acute and chronic discrimination
Inequality in life expectancy, functional status, and active life expectancy across selected black and white populations in the United States
We calculated population-level estimates of mortality, functional health, and active life expectancy for black and white adults living in a diverse set of 23 local areas in 1990, and nationwide. At age 16, life expectancy and active life expectancy vary across the local populations by as much as 28 and 25 years respectively. The relationship between population infirmity and longevity also varies. Rural residents outlive urban residents, but their…
Addressing Racial Disparities in Health Using Life Course Perspectives: Toward a Constructive Criticism
In the United States, African Americans face stark inequalities in health. The life course perspective offers a unique viewpoint through which racial disparities in morbidity and mortality may be understood as the result of repeated exposures to risk factors during both childhood and adulthood. However, the utility of this approach is limited by its failure to investigate the degree to which racial/ethnic minorities are able to translate gains in…
Maternal Upward Socioeconomic Mobility and Black–White Disparities in Infant Birthweight
Objectives. We estimate the extent to which upward socioeconomic mobility limits the probability that Black and White women who spent their childhoods in or near poverty will give birth to a low-birthweight baby. Methods. Data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 and the 1970 US Census were used to complete a series of logistic regression models. We restricted multivariate analyses to female survey respondents who, at 14 years of a…
Examination of Inequalities in HIV/Aids Mortality in the United States From a Fundamental Cause Perspective
Objectives. We examined changes in socioeconomic status (SES) and Black to White inequalities in HIV/AIDS mortality in the United States before and after the introduction of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). Methods. Taking a fundamental cause perspective, we used negative binomial regression to analyze trends in county-level gender-, race-, and age-specific HIV/AIDS mortality rates among those aged 15 to 64 years during the period 19…
Is breast truly best? Estimating the effects of breastfeeding on long-term child health and wellbeing in the United States using sibling comparisons
Excess Black Mortality in the United States and in Selected Black and White High-Poverty Areas, 1980–2000
Objectives. Black working-aged residents of urban high-poverty areas suffered severe excess mortality in 1980 and 1990. Our goal in this study was to determine whether this trend persisted in 2000. Methods. We analyzed death certificate and census data to estimate age-standardized all-cause and cause-specific mortality among 16- to 64-year-old Blacks and Whites nationwide and in selected urban and rural high-poverty areas. Results. Urban men's mo…
The Intergenerational Transmission of Discrimination: Children's Experiences of Unfair Treatment and Their Mothers' Health at Midlife
A growing body of research suggests that maternal exposure to discrimination helps to explain racial disparities in children's health. However, no study has considered if the intergenerational health effects of unfair treatment operate in the opposite direction-from child to mother. To this end, we use data from mother-child pairs in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 to determine whether adolescent and young adult children's experien…
Getting a piece of the pie? The economic boom of the 1990s and declining teen birth rates in the United States
Fundamental Causes of Colorectal Cancer Mortality in the United States: Understanding the Importance of Socioeconomic Status in Creating Inequality in Mortality
Objectives. We used the fundamental cause hypothesis as a framework for understanding the creation of health disparities in colorectal cancer mortality in the United States from 1968 to 2005. Methods. We used negative binomial regression to analyze trends in county-level gender-, race-, and age-adjusted colorectal cancer mortality rates among individuals aged 35 years or older. Results. Prior to 1980, there was a stable gradient in colorectal can…
Framing the Gun Control Debate: Press Releases and Framing Strategies of the National Rifle Association and the Brady Campaign
Objective How can social movements increase their presence in the news? We argue that press releases can do so via social movement framing. Press releases from, and news coverage of, social movement organizations (SMOs) in the gun control debate serve as our case. Methods A qualitative framing analysis is conducted to identify frames in press releases from the National Rifle Association and the Brady Campaign. Logistic regressions assess the effe…
Shades of health: Skin color, ethnicity, and mental health among Black Americans
A Matter of Time: Racialized Time and the Production of Health Disparities
An expansive and methodologically varied literature designed to investigate racial disparities in health now exists. Empirical evidence points to an overlapping, complex web of social conditions that accelerate the pace of aging and erodes long-term health outcomes among people of color, especially Black Americans. However, a social exposure-or lack thereof-that is rarely mentioned is time use. The current paper was specifically designed to addre…
Multigenerational Coresidence and Psychological Distress during Adolescence and Young Adulthood: An Exploration among White, Black, and Hispanic Individuals
Childhood family structures are crucial for long-term health and well-being. However, the effects of an increasingly common family structure-multigenerational households comprising a child, parent(s), and grandparent(s)-remained underexplored. Using panel data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 and its young adult sample (N = 8,230), we examine trajectories of psychological distress among White, Black, and Hispanic adolescents an…
Inequality in life expectancy, functional status, and active life expectancy across selected black and white populations in the United States
We calculated population-level estimates of mortality, functional health, and active life expectancy for black and white adults living in a diverse set of 23 local areas in 1990, and nationwide. At age 16, life expectancy and active life expectancy vary across the local populations by as much as 28 and 25 years respectively. The relationship between population infirmity and longevity also varies. Rural residents outlive urban residents, but their…
Maternal Upward Socioeconomic Mobility and Black–White Disparities in Infant Birthweight
Objectives. We estimate the extent to which upward socioeconomic mobility limits the probability that Black and White women who spent their childhoods in or near poverty will give birth to a low-birthweight baby. Methods. Data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 and the 1970 US Census were used to complete a series of logistic regression models. We restricted multivariate analyses to female survey respondents who, at 14 years of a…
Getting a piece of the pie? The economic boom of the 1990s and declining teen birth rates in the United States
Rubin Et Al. Respond
King et al. are concerned about our use of relative measures to gauge progress toward health equality in HIV mortality. Prior work by some of these same authors suggests,1 and we concur, that values and moral issues are involved and that explicit consideration of these is essential. Their comment is useful as it spurs us to think more deeply and provides an opportunity to report why, in this situation, relative measures more adeptly address moral…
Examination of Inequalities in HIV/Aids Mortality in the United States From a Fundamental Cause Perspective
Objectives. We examined changes in socioeconomic status (SES) and Black to White inequalities in HIV/AIDS mortality in the United States before and after the introduction of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). Methods. Taking a fundamental cause perspective, we used negative binomial regression to analyze trends in county-level gender-, race-, and age-specific HIV/AIDS mortality rates among those aged 15 to 64 years during the period 19…
Excess Black Mortality in the United States and in Selected Black and White High-Poverty Areas, 1980–2000
Objectives. Black working-aged residents of urban high-poverty areas suffered severe excess mortality in 1980 and 1990. Our goal in this study was to determine whether this trend persisted in 2000. Methods. We analyzed death certificate and census data to estimate age-standardized all-cause and cause-specific mortality among 16- to 64-year-old Blacks and Whites nationwide and in selected urban and rural high-poverty areas. Results. Urban men's mo…
Geronimus et al. Respond
Geronimus et al. Respond
The Sociology of Suicide
Since Durkheim's classic work on suicide, sociological attention to understanding the roots of self-destruction has been inconsistent. In this review, we use three historical periods of interest (pre-Durkheim, Durkheim, post-Durkheim) to organize basic findings in the body of sociological knowledge regarding suicide. Much of the twentieth-century research focused on issues of integration and regulation, imitation, and the social construction of s…
Addressing Racial Disparities in Health Using Life Course Perspectives: Toward a Constructive Criticism
In the United States, African Americans face stark inequalities in health. The life course perspective offers a unique viewpoint through which racial disparities in morbidity and mortality may be understood as the result of repeated exposures to risk factors during both childhood and adulthood. However, the utility of this approach is limited by its failure to investigate the degree to which racial/ethnic minorities are able to translate gains in…
Fundamental Causes of Colorectal Cancer Mortality in the United States: Understanding the Importance of Socioeconomic Status in Creating Inequality in Mortality
Objectives. We used the fundamental cause hypothesis as a framework for understanding the creation of health disparities in colorectal cancer mortality in the United States from 1968 to 2005. Methods. We used negative binomial regression to analyze trends in county-level gender-, race-, and age-adjusted colorectal cancer mortality rates among individuals aged 35 years or older. Results. Prior to 1980, there was a stable gradient in colorectal can…
Is breast truly best? Estimating the effects of breastfeeding on long-term child health and wellbeing in the United States using sibling comparisons
Two Mechanisms: The Role of Social Capital and Industrial Pollution Exposure in Explaining Racial Disparities in Self-Rated Health
This study provides an empirical test of two mechanisms (social capital and exposure to air pollution) that are theorized to mediate the effect of neighborhood on health and contribute to racial disparities in health outcomes. To this end, we utilize the Social Capital Benchmark Study, a national survey of individuals nested within communities in the United States, to estimate how multiple dimensions of social capital and exposure to air pollutio…
Framing the Gun Control Debate: Press Releases and Framing Strategies of the National Rifle Association and the Brady Campaign
Objective How can social movements increase their presence in the news? We argue that press releases can do so via social movement framing. Press releases from, and news coverage of, social movement organizations (SMOs) in the gun control debate serve as our case. Methods A qualitative framing analysis is conducted to identify frames in press releases from the National Rifle Association and the Brady Campaign. Logistic regressions assess the effe…
Do rising tides lift all boats? Racial disparities in health across the lifecourse among middle-class African-Americans and Whites
Although racial inequalities in health are well documented, much less is known about the underlying mechanisms that create and sustain these population patterns, especially among nonpoor subgroups. Using 20 waves of data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), we estimate the magnitude of the Black/White gap in self-rated health among middle-income, working-age (18-65) adults and explore potential sources of this disparity. Findings from …
Racial disparities in health among nonpoor African Americans and Hispanics: The role of acute and chronic discrimination
Application of the Public Health Exposome Framework to Estimate Phenotypes of Resilience in a Model Ohio African-American Women’s Cohort
The Intergenerational Transmission of Discrimination: Children's Experiences of Unfair Treatment and Their Mothers' Health at Midlife
A growing body of research suggests that maternal exposure to discrimination helps to explain racial disparities in children's health. However, no study has considered if the intergenerational health effects of unfair treatment operate in the opposite direction-from child to mother. To this end, we use data from mother-child pairs in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 to determine whether adolescent and young adult children's experien…
Structural and Social Determinants of Health Factors Associated with County-Level Variation in Non-Adherence to Antihypertensive Medication Treatment
AHM non-adherence varies by geographical location, one-third of which is explained by contextual SDH factors including poverty/food insecurity, weak social supports and healthy built environments
The Effects of Social, Personal, and Behavioral Risk Factors and PM2.5 on Cardio-Metabolic Disparities in a Cohort of Community Health Center Patients
(1) Background: Cardio-metabolic diseases (CMD), including cardiovascular disease, stroke, and diabetes, have numerous common individual and environmental risk factors. Yet, few studies to date have considered how these multiple risk factors together affect CMD disparities between Blacks and Whites. (2) Methods: We linked daily fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) measures with survey responses of participants in the Southern Community Cohort Study …
Intergenerational Coresidence and Mothers’ Body Weight at Midlife
Big Data to Knowledge Analytics Reveals the Zika Virus Epidemic as Only One of Multiple Factors Contributing to a Year-Over-Year 28-Fold Increase in Microcephaly Incidence
During the 2015-2016 Zika Virus (ZIKV) epidemic in Brazil, the geographical distributions of ZIKV infection and microcephaly outbreaks did not align. This raised doubts about the virus as the single cause of the microcephaly outbreak and led to research hypotheses of alternative explanatory factors, such as environmental variables and factors, agrochemical use, or immunizations. We investigated context and the intermediate and structural determin…
Shades of health: Skin color, ethnicity, and mental health among Black Americans
Racial Disparities in the Relationship Between Parental Incarceration and Childhood Obesity
A Matter of Time: Racialized Time and the Production of Health Disparities
An expansive and methodologically varied literature designed to investigate racial disparities in health now exists. Empirical evidence points to an overlapping, complex web of social conditions that accelerate the pace of aging and erodes long-term health outcomes among people of color, especially Black Americans. However, a social exposure-or lack thereof-that is rarely mentioned is time use. The current paper was specifically designed to addre…
Medicine (23 works) · Sociology (18 works) · Demography (17 works) · Health disparities and outcomes (16 works) · Demography (13 works) · Environmental health (13 works) · Psychology (12 works) · Gerontology (11 works) · Population (10 works) · Public health (9 works)