Demographic and Socio-Economic Effects in Public Health

Dr. Mike Reibel is a Demographer and a Professor at CSU Pomona. He has taken on another project with a large organ donor bank, the California Transplant Donor Network, and he will share with us his latest research and methodological challenges, including neighborhood level demographic and socio-economic effects/disparities in public health and health services.

Dr. Reibel will address the methodological impact on his research of several issues. He will develop key ideas such as why the neighborhood level effects are different from the effects of corresponding individual level factors, and why they don’t combine in simple ways. He will discuss his challenge for sorting out issues in health care such as it's obviously bad to be poor, and it’s bad to live in a poor neighborhood, but which is worse? And, in terms of main effects, it’s bad to be poor, and it’s good to live in a rich neighborhood, but can we assume that if you're in poverty that you would be better off in a rich neighborhood? Dr. Reibel points to the Relative Deprivation Theory which suggests the opposite, and is often observed empirically.

This is a great opportunity for our meetup group to kickoff the New Year. Please RSVP as usual, and as always, I will provide sandwiches, soft drinks and coffee, and a few treats.

I hope you have a great Holiday Season, and I'm looking forward to seeing you in the New Year!

Michael