Sep 25, 2018

The National Institutes of Health has awarded a grant entitled “Health Disparities: Inflammatory Response, Immune Function, and Environment (In)Congruence” to Carolina Population Center (CPC) Faculty Fellow Taylor Hargrove and former CPC Postdoctoral Scholar Lauren Gaydosh. This funding will allow researchers to examine the biological and social mechanisms underlying the relationship between socioeconomic mobility and poorer physiological health outcomes.

The research funded by this grant will build on work documenting the unequal health benefits of upward mobility among racial minorities in the United States. Specifically, this grant will produce a novel database relevant for investigating the biosocial pathways underlying health, as well as support research evaluating the role of inflammatory response, immune function, and environmental incongruence in the relationship between upward mobility and physiological functioning among a nationally representative sample of young adults. The information resulting from this study will advance understandings of the complex and intergenerational patterns of health inequality, and create opportunities for researchers to conduct innovative, multilevel studies of health and well-being.

Hargrove is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at UNC. She is a former CPC Postdoctoral Scholar.
Gaydosh is an Assistant Professor of Medicine, Health, and Society at Vanderbilt University.