Author's School

Brown School

Author's Department

Social Work

Language

English (en)

Date of Award

1-20-2024

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Chair and Committee

Ross Brownson

Committee Members

Ana Baumann, Maura Kepper, Byron Powell, Rachel Tabak

Abstract

Marginalized populations are inequitably burdened by chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, obesity, and cancer. The goal of health equity work is to ensure all people have a fair and just opportunity to achieve optimal health. Implementation science has made health equity a greater focus and priority in recent years. There has been a proliferation of guidance on what implementation science needs to do to advance equity. However, the field currently lacks specific, actionable guidance on how to integrate equity. The overarching goal of this dissertation is to synthesize conceptual and theoretical underpinnings regarding health equity and bring them to bear in actionable resources and methods for implementation science. Aim 1 seeks to identify and characterize health equity TMFs applied in empirical chronic disease prevention and control research. Aim 2 focuses on developing a practical resource to aid implementation researchers in designing and tailoring equity-focused implementation strategies. Aim 3 applies an equity lens to assess adaptations made to a home-delivered evidence-based intervention focused on healthy eating and physical activity among mothers with overweight or obesity. These studies will offer insights for integrating health equity into implementation science frameworks and methods, and will contribute to growing efforts to advance equitable implementation.

Included in

Public Health Commons

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