Dr. Richard Carpiano is Professor of Public Policy and Sociology at the University of California, Riverside, where he is also a faculty affiliate of the Center for Healthy Communities. He is co-editor (with Brian Kelly of Purdue University) of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior.
Dr. Carpiano is a medical sociologist and population health scientist who studies how social factors, such as socioeconomic status, race-ethnicity, social connections, and community conditions, contribute to the physical and mental health of adults and children. His research focuses on an extensive range of health issues and populations, spanning the life course and US and international contexts. Some of his past projects examine social determinants of child undernutrition in India, childhood asthma, early child development, HPV vaccination, smoking and alcohol use among adults, body mass index among Danish women, substance use and sexual risk among gay men, suicide ideation among Canadian immigrants, and life expectancy/mortality risk among high status individuals. The most recent arm of Dr. Carpiano’s research program investigates social, behavioral, and attitudinal factors underlying child vaccination uptake, hesitancy, and coverage, as well as public support for vaccination policies, in the US, Canada, and several other countries. His solo- and co-authored publications have appeared in forums such as the American Journal of Public Health, American Sociological Review, Health & Place, Journal of Health and Social Behavior, Social Science & Medicine, and Sociology of Health & Illness.
Dr. Carpiano received his Ph.D. (2004) in Sociomedical Sciences (with concentration in Sociology) from Columbia University, his M.P.H. (2001) from Case Western Reserve University, and M.A. (1998) and B.A. (1997) in Sociology from Baylor University. From 2004-2006, he was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholar at University of Wisconsin-Madison.