Tuesday, December 3, 2024

Leveraging Secondary Data in Mental Health and Health Disparity Research: Applications, Collaborations, and Insights for Older Adults and Cancer Survivors

9:00 AM

Rackham Graduate School 
915 E. Washington Street

Register Here

The Eisenberg Family Depression Center presents Kaipeng Wang, Ph.D., Associate Professor, University of Denver Graduate School of Social Work.

In this presentation, Dr. Wang will showcase how secondary data can inform and enhance our understanding of psychosocial and mental health trends across populations, using examples from his work on the mental health of older adults, cancer survivors, and racial/ethnic minorities. He will also explore how interdisciplinary collaborations have enriched and expanded the impact of his research. Featured projects will showcase national trends in nonfatal suicidal behaviors, depression and health among cancer survivors and the use of Health and Retirement Study (HRS) data to examine health behaviors and outcomes.

The lecture will begin promptly at 9 a.m. and be followed by a networking reception from 10 to 11 a.m. The in-person event will be held in Rackham's 4th Floor Assembly Hall. Advanced registration is requested. 

Kaipeng Wang, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Graduate School of Social Work
Knoebel Institute for Healthy Aging
University of Denver
Faculty Profile

Associate Professor Kaipeng Wang focuses on examining psychosocial factors that influence older adults' health and mental health outcomes, advance care planning, and dementia prevention. Utilizing a social determinants of health framework, his research aims to understand how elements such as discrimination, acculturation, and food insecurity contribute to health and mental health disparities among ethnic minorities and immigrants, particularly older adults. To pursue his academic inquiries, Wang primarily employs advanced quantitative methods, including multi-level modeling, longitudinal data analysis, structural equation modeling, and spatial statistics. He is the Principal Investigator (PI) or sub-award PI of several research projects funded by the National Institute on Aging, the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, and the NextFifty Initiative. His research findings have been published in scientific journals such as Journal of the American Medical Directors Association, International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, Journal of Aging and Health, Journal of Applied Gerontology, Psychosomatic Medicine, Journal of Affective Disorders, and Preventive Medicine. Additionally, Professor Wang serves as an Editorial Board Member for Innovation in Aging and is a commissioner of the Denver Commission on Aging.