Rebekah J. Walker, PhD

Assistant Professor

Locations

General Internal Medicine

Contact Information

rebwalker@mcw.edu

Research Interests

Dr. Walker's research focuses on racial and social determinants of health, in an effort to eliminate disparities in patients with chronic disease, with a special emphasis on diabetes. Her work concentrates on understanding the impact of social determinants of health in individuals with chronic diseases, and she is particularly interested in the psychosocial influences on health outcomes, the racial/ethnic and socioeconomic differences in health outcomes, and how to develop interventions that address the impact of social determinants in low-income populations. In addition, she is interested in global health efforts and developing programs that ameliorate the impact of social determinants of health on individuals from low- and middle-income countries. She has a particular interest in indigenous health and the use of both technology and community engagement to support empowerment and improved outcomes.

Dr. Walker has conducted quantitative analyses investigating the influence of factors such as depression, empowerment, coping, fatalism, self-efficacy, discrimination, and meaning of illness, leading to over 40 publications. She has devoted particular emphasis to understanding depression and diabetes distress, as these psychosocial factors consistently show significant impact on diabetes outcomes. She has expertise in analytical techniques focused on understanding mechanisms and pathways, including confirmatory factor analysis, path analysis, and structured equation modeling. Her ongoing work is focused on using the understanding of mechanisms explaining these relationships to develop effective behavioral and community interventions to directly address the social determinants of health and improve health outcomes for low-income patients with Type 2 diabetes.

The co-occurrence of diabetes and adverse childhood experiences and its impact on mortality in US adults.

(Campbell JA, Mosley-Johnson E, Garacci E, Walker RJ, Egede LE.) J Affect Disord. 2019 Apr 15;249:20-25.
Assessing the relationship between food insecurity and mortality among U.S. adults.

(Walker RJ, Chawla A, Garacci E, Williams JS, Mendez C, Ozieh MN, Egede LE.) Ann Epidemiol. 2019 Apr;32:43-48.
Prevalence of Diabetes, Prediabetes, and Obesity in the Indigenous Kuna Population of Panamá.

(Campbell JA, Walker RJ, Dawson AZ, Egede LE.) J Racial Ethn Health Disparities. 2019 Feb 25.
The Impact of Dual Health Care System Use for Obtaining Prescription Medications on Nonadherence in Veterans With Type 2 Diabetes.

(Taber DJ, Ward R, Axon RN, Walker RJ, Egede LE, Gebregziabher M.) Ann Pharmacother. 2019 Feb 06:1060028019828681.
Racial and Ethnic Differences in Out-of-Pocket Expenses among Adults with Diabetes.

(Simmons M, Bishu KG, Williams JS, Walker RJ, Dawson AZ, Egede LE.) J Natl Med Assoc. 2019 Feb;111(1):28-36.
Trends in Food Insecurity in the USA for Individuals with Prediabetes, Undiagnosed Diabetes, and Diagnosed Diabetes.

(Walker RJ, Grusnick J, Garacci E, Mendez C, Egede LE.) J Gen Intern Med. 2019 Jan;34(1):33-35.
Quality of Diabetes Care Among Recent Immigrants to the USA.

(Srivastava R, Bishu KG, Walker RJ, Williams JS, Egede LE.) J Racial Ethn Health Disparities. 2018 Nov 14.
The differential impact of adverse childhood experiences in the development of pre-diabetes in a longitudinal cohort of US adults.

(Campbell JA, Mendez CE, Garacci E, Walker RJ, Wagner N, Egede LE.) J Diabetes Complications. 2018 Nov;32(11):1018-1024.
Preferences for Health Information Technologies Among US Adults: Analysis of the Health Information National Trends Survey.

(Asan O, Cooper Ii F, Nagavally S, Walker RJ, Williams JS, Ozieh MN, Egede LE.) J Med Internet Res. 2018 Oct 18;20(10):e277.
Differential relationship between colorectal cancer and diabetes in a nationally representative sample of adults.

(Restifo D, Williams JS, Garacci E, Walker RJ, Ozieh MN, Egede LE.) J Diabetes Complications. 2018 Sep;32(9):819-823.
Cost-Effectiveness of Behavioral Activation for Depression in Older Adult Veterans: In-Person Care Versus Telehealth.

(Egede LE, Dismuke CE, Walker RJ, Acierno R, Frueh BC.) J Clin Psychiatry. 2018 Aug 28;79(5).
Geographic Disparities in Mortality Risk Within a Racially Diverse Sample of U.S. Veterans with Traumatic Brain Injury.

(Dismuke-Greer CE, Gebregziabher M, Ritchwood T, Pugh MJ, Walker RJ, Uchendu US, Egede LE.) Health Equity. 2018;2(1):304-312.

Rebekah J. Walker, PhD