
Alex Montiel Ishino, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Independent Research Scholar
Epidemiology Laboratory/SocioEnvironmental & Ecological Disparities Group
NIEHS
Research Topics
Montiel Ishino, Ph.D., M.P.H., C.P.H., leads the NIEHS SocioEnvironmental and Ecological Disparities (SeEDs) Group. His team studies socioenvironmental and socioecological factors — such as acculturative stress, discrimination, and neighborhood cohesion — that affect the health and disease processes of underserved, underrepresented, and hard-to-reach subpopulations. Of particular interest to the SeEDs Group is syndemic risk. That term refers to the cooccurring and synergizing social, environmental, and ecological determinants of health that can exacerbate observed and latent chronic health disparities among at-risk groups.
Although research on health disparities has been growing, there remains a need to assess how inequities in dynamic environments can affect cardiometabolic risk among diverse populations experiencing demographic shifts. Those shifts can occur because of global events such as migration due to climate change; war; and sociopolitical conflict. As such, risk will vary between individuals, communities, and societies.
The SeEDs Group combines approaches from ethnographic, participatory action, community-based participatory, and epidemiologic research. The goal is to understand how contextual factors affect health disparities measured through cardiometabolic risk biomarkers and novel biomarkers of stress and accelerated aging, such as telomere length and DNA methylation. Those factors will be examined in populations including, but not limited to, immigrant and refugee groups such as the Bhutanese residing in the U.S.
To this end, the SeEDs Group uses advanced quantitative and qualitative methods, including mixed methods, to not only understand syndemic risk but also identify the most efficient and effective interventions. The research processes and outputs from the SeEDs Group will fill critical gaps in public health needs and enhance strategies to further strengthen epidemiological research through the inclusion of diverse community organizations, study participants, and trainees.
Biography
Selected Publications
- Cohen JH, Maleku A, Pyakurel S, Suzuki T, Raut S, Montiel Ishino FA. Exploring the Digital Divide among the Bhutanese Refugee Community during COVID-19: Engaged Research in Action. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022;19(24).
- Montiel Ishino FA, McNab P, Villalobos K, Cohen JH, Nápoles AM, Williams F. Hispanic/Latino Acculturation Profiles and Telomere Length: Latent Class Analysis on a Nationally Representative Sample. Front Public Health. 2021;9:640226.
- Montiel Ishino FA, Rowan CE, Villalobos K, Rajbhandari-Thapa J, Williams F. A Time-Varying Effect Model (TVEM) of the Complex Association of Tobacco Use and Smoke Exposure on Mean Telomere Length: Differences between Racial and Ethnic Groups Assessed in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022;19(17).
- Montiel Ishino FA, Odame EA, Villalobos K, Whiteside M, Mamudu H, Williams F. Applying Latent Class Analysis on Cancer Registry Data to Identify and Compare Health Disparity Profiles in Colorectal Cancer Surgical Treatment Delay. J Public Health Manag Pract. 2022;28(2):E487-E496.
- Perryman C, Platt S, Montiel Ishino F. Identifying the Mental Health Profiles of Black Adolescents Who Experience School Policing and School Discipline: A Person-Centered Approach. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2022;61(8):1034-1040.
Related Scientific Focus Areas
Social and Behavioral Sciences
View additional Principal Investigators in Social and Behavioral Sciences
This page was last updated on Friday, July 28, 2023