About me

I am a research scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR) and the Max Planck – University of Helsinki Center for Social Inequalities in Population Health. My research centers on the intersections of aging, long-term care, health disparities, and health policy, with a strong focus on improving overall well-being. Utilizing large-scale secondary, registry, and administrative datasets, I aim to answer critical questions that inform health policies and drive equitable care solutions. My work spans the following key areas:

Aging behavior/LTC policy and formal/informal care/wellbeing of older population

Examine how long-term care (LTC) policies in US influence both formal and informal caregiving by family members
Examine how LTC programs in US affects the well-being of older adults aging in place
Examine how grandchild care provision affects health outcomes of grandparents
Examine how widowhood among older individuals affects their mental health
Examine how opioids exposure affects the wellbeing of the aging population
Policies: Medicaid home- and community- based services (HCBS), Partnership Long-Term Care Insurance (PLTC)
Datasets: Health and Retirement Study (HRS) (public and restricted), Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), CMS HCBS data

Describe different patterns of inequality in diagnosis, treatment, and mortality by education, income, urban/rural, occupation, geography among cancer patients in Finland
Explore the factors that drive these inequality patterns
Policies: education reform, cancer screening policies
Datasets: Finnish registry data, cancer screening data

Assess the impact of health insurance policies on healthcare use and health outcomes in China
Evaluate the effectiveness of LTC insurance on the quality of life
Policies: Long-term care insurance, New Cooperative Medical Scheme (NCMS)
Datasets: China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS), public health yearbooks, administrative hospital data

Comprehensive exploration of the historical dimensions and contemporary repercussions of structural racism in US
Policies: discrimination and antidiscrimination laws, hospital desegregation
Datasets: Health and Retirement Study (HRS) (public and restricted), Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), discrimination data