CE_21C: Effectively Operationalizing Race and Structural Racism in Health Equity Research (Added Fee)

Effectively operationalizing social constructs like race and structural racism in population health analyses has been a challenge. The development and application of statistical methods in examining population health inequities relies heavily on the operationalization and measurement of race and racism. Despite many statistical methodological advances (e.g., multilevel modeling, causal inference, Bayesian approaches, geospatial statistics, structural equation modeling) traditional approaches of modeling race (e.g., confounder, control variable) are often misinformed, suboptimal, descriptive rather than inferential, and limit our ability to make substantial progress in identifying efficacious (causal) targets for the eradication of health inequities. Given statisticians play a crucial role in improving the health and well-being of vulnerable populations, like racial/ethnic minorities, it is imperative that our methodologic operationalization of race and structural racism in our analyses be guided by an informed understanding of how these constructs operate in our society. In this course, we will provide a comprehensive overview of the historical underpinnings of structural racism and the social construction of race in the United States in addition to interactively exploring advanced statistical approaches to measurement and modeling of race and structural racism in population health research. The session will include didactic lectures and experiential individual and group activities. Format: 4 hours (half day) Instructors Emma K. T. Benn, DrPH, MPH Dr. Emma K. T. Benn (she/her) is an Associate Professor in the Center for Biostatistics and Department of Population Health Science and Policy at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai . She is also the Founding Director of the Center for Scientific Diversity and Associate Dean of Faculty Well-being and Development at ISMMS. Dr. Benn has collaborated on a variety of interdisciplinary research projects over the course of her career and is particularly interested in health disparities research. Dr. John W. Jackson (he/him/his) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Epidemiology with joint appointments in the Departments of Mental Health and Biostatistics at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Health. He is also core faculty in the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Equity and also the Center for Health Disparities Solutions. His research focuses on the development, application, and dissemination of epidemiologic methods with a particular focus on translational health disparities research. Dr. Melody S. Goodman (she/her) is the Associate Dean for Research, Director of the Center for Anti-racism, Social Justice & Public Health, and Professor of Biostatistics, in the School of Global Public Health at New York University. Her research interest is on identifying origins of health inequities and developing, as necessary, evidence-based primary prevention strategies to reduce these health inequities. Dr. Loni Philip Tabb (she/her) is an Associate Professor of Biostatistics in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Drexel University's Dornsife School of Public Health in Philadelphia, PA. She develops novel statistical methods to address zero inflation in longitudinal count data – with applications to environmental health and health disparities research