Laura Kelly

My research focuses on the reduction of population health inequalities and reflects my interdisciplinary training as a demographer, public health scientist, and biomedical researcher. My substantive interests include the dynamic consequences of population aging on morbidity, mortality, and health disparities. My work emphasizes health behaviors, chronic disease, social structure, and intergenerational transfers. I seek to place population health in the context of an interconnected global community, with populations of interest being both domestic and international embedded in developed and developing settings. As a public health practitioner, I ultimately hope to anchor my research in the context of public-private health systems, policy application, civic engagement, and program development. My ongoing works investigate the influence of social networks on adult health in urban South Asia and the impact of partner pregnancy intentions on birth outcomes in the United States. My most recent project explores the mortality disadvantage of Scotland in an international context, comparative to other high-income countries. I utilize novel indirect approaches to investigate Scotland’s worsening mortality performance over the last century and varying explanations, including poor health behaviors.