Katherine P. Theall
Professor & Cecile Usdin Professorship in Women’s Health, Director Mary Amelia Women’s Center
Biography
Katherine Theall, the Cecile Usdin Professor and director of the Mary Amelia Douglas-Whited Community Women’s Health Education Center, is faculty in the department of global community health and behavioral sciences. As a social epidemiologist, Theall's research focuses on policy and community influences on health disparities, with a particular emphasis on neighborhood conditions. Her research and teaching interests and area span both practical and theoretical social epidemiology, including women and children’s health; community and social network influences on health outcomes; race and gender inequities; substance use and mental health; and social epidemiologic theory and methods. She is actively involved in interventions and policies aimed at altering environments for better health in vulnerable populations.
Education
Tulane University
Emory University
Louisiana State University
Articles
Lifetime alcohol use among persons living with HIV is associated with frailty
2020
The average lifespan of persons living with HIV (PLWH) on antiretroviral therapy approximates the general population. However, PLWH are susceptible to early aging and frailty. Behaviors such as alcohol consumption may contribute to frailty among PLWH.
Mass incarceration and public health: the association between black jail incarceration and adverse birth outcomes among black women in Louisiana
2019
A growing body of evidence is beginning to highlight how mass incarceration shapes inequalities in population health. Non-Hispanic blacks are disproportionately affected by incarceration and criminal law enforcement, an enduring legacy of a racially-biased criminal justice system with broad health implications for black families and communities. Louisiana has consistently maintained one of the highest rates of black incarceration in the nation. Concurrently, large racial disparities in population health persist.
Associations of Liver Disease with Alcohol Use among People Living with HIV and the Role of Hepatitis C: The New Orleans Alcohol Use in HIV Study
2019
This cross-sectional analysis of the New Orleans Alcohol Use in HIV (NOAH) study assesses whether current and lifetime alcohol use in people living with HIV (PLWH) are associated with greater liver disease and how hepatitis C-viral (HCV) co-infection (HIV/HCV+) modifies the association.
Media Appearances
Neighborhood violence tied to biological stress for kids
“I think we often may overlook the impact of just witnessing violence or living in communities with higher violence,” Theall told Reuters Health by email.
Unemployment stress may cause men to age faster, study finds
That’s part of aging. However, the process can be accelerated. The exact biological triggers for this premature shortening “is complicated,” suggested Katherine Theall, an associate professor in Tulane University’s Department of Global Community Health and Behavioral Sciences.
