Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics Dissertation Defense: Zachary H. Fusfeld

Wednesday, August 28, 2024

11:30 AM-12:30 PM

Zachary H. Fusfeld, MPH, will present "Housing Cost Burden and Mental Health: Family Housing Cost Burden Trajectories, Intergenerational Persistence and Impact on Intersectional Disparities in Housing Cost Burden and Psychological Distress."

Housing cost burden is common in the U.S. Poor mental health is also common, which has been shown to be positively associated with being housing cost burdened. Housing cost burden is also a life-long exposure heavily impacted by systems/policies/practices which perpetuate intersectional oppression and inequity in the US, particularly for women, Black, and Hispanic people. We used data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to address three aims: 1) Describe trajectories of (continuous) housing cost burden for families raising children, 2) explore the impact of family housing cost burden trajectory on psychological distress, and 3) explore how impacts on both outcomes are differential across lines of gender, race, and ethnicity.

Zach Fusfeld was born in Philadelphia and went to Johns Hopkins for his undergraduate degree in Neuroscience and Philosophy, Thomas Jefferson University for his Master of Public Health, and is currently a PhD candidate working under Félice Lê-Scherban. His work primarily focuses on how housing and other material and social conditions impact a range of health outcomes using an intersectional life-course approach.

Zoom link

Contact Information

Nancy Colon-Anderson
nanderson@drexel.edu