Rebekah J. Walker, PhD

Assistant Professor

Locations

General Internal Medicine

Contact Information

rebwalker@mcw.edu

Research Experience

Chronic Disease
Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2
Global Health
Health Services Research
Health Status Disparities
Minority Health
Social Determinants of Health
Socioeconomic Factors

MCW Program / Core Facilities

Center for Advancing Population Science

Research Interests

Dr. Walker is a health services researcher trained in research methodology and health disparities. Her research focuses on reducing and eliminating health disparities by addressing social determinants of health, with particular emphasis on psychosocial, behavioral, and community factors influencing low income populations. Dr. Walker is particularly interested in incorporating social determinants of health such as stress and food insecurity into interventions that improve health outcomes for low income individuals with diabetes. In addition, she is interested in global health effort, particularly in the areas of indigenous health, building health care capacity in low resource environments, and incorporating social determinants of health into health care efforts to improve outcomes for non-communicable diseases.

Dr. Walker has expertise in analytical techniques focused on understanding mechanisms and pathways, including confirmatory factor analysis, path analysis, and structured equation modeling. She also has training in health behavior, health services theory, health economics, and implementation science. Her ongoing work is funded through the American Diabetes Association and the NIH National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) focused on addressing food insecurity in African Americans with diabetes.

Maternal racial and ethnic disparities in glycemic threshold for pharmacotherapy initiation for gestational diabetes.

(Palatnik A, Harrison RK, Walker RJ, Thakkar MY, Egede LE.) J Matern Fetal Neonatal Med. 2020 Jan 13:1-8 PMID: 31902254 01/07/2020
Differential Impact of Food Insecurity, Distress, and Stress on Self-care Behaviors and Glycemic Control Using Path Analysis.

(Walker RJ, Campbell JA, Egede LE.) J Gen Intern Med. 2019 Dec;34(12):2779-2785 PMID: 31621045 PMCID: PMC6854195 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85074603080 10/18/2019
Pragmatic Trials as an Additional Tool in the Evidence Building Toolbox.

(Walker RJ, Egede LE.) J Gen Intern Med. 2019 Nov;34(11):2295-2296 PMID: 31410814 PMCID: PMC6848567 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85070994603 08/15/2019
Clinician Encouragement and Online Health Record Usage.

(Crotty BH, Winn AN, Asan O, Nagavally S, Walker RJ, Egede LE.) J Gen Intern Med. 2019 Nov;34(11):2345-2347 PMID: 31313113 PMCID: PMC6848784 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85069161619 07/18/2019
Multidisciplinary Team Meetings-a Venue to Improve Team Engagement and Quality in Resident Continuity Clinic.

(Lyons A, Walker RJ, Prigmore HL, Muntz M.) J Gen Intern Med. 2019 Oct;34(10):2001-2002 PMID: 31197731 PMCID: PMC6816636 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85067678966 06/15/2019
How Do We Address the Influence of Social Determinants on Health?

(Walker RJ, Jackson JL.) J Gen Intern Med. 2019 Sep;34(9):1673-1674 PMID: 31292903 PMCID: PMC6712130 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85068932506 07/12/2019
Examination of dietary habits among the indigenous Kuna Indians of Panama.

(Neitzel AL, Smalls BL, Walker RJ, Dawson AZ, Campbell JA, Egede LE.) Nutr J. 2019 08 01;18(1):44 PMID: 31370836 PMCID: PMC6670206 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85071016758 08/03/2019
Insulin therapy in patients with type 2 diabetes and high insulin resistance is associated with increased risk of complications and mortality.

(Mendez CE, Walker RJ, Eiler CR, Mishriky BM, Egede LE.) Postgrad Med. 2019 Jul 23:1-7 PMID: 31311382 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85071999184 07/18/2019
Prevalence and correlates of diagnosed and undiagnosed hypertension in the indigenous Kuna population of Panamá.

(Hanna DR, Walker RJ, Smalls BL, Campbell JA, Dawson AZ, Egede LE.) BMC Public Health. 2019 Jun 28;19(1):843 PMID: 31253116 PMCID: PMC6599360 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85068181535 06/30/2019
The Association of Paternal Race and Ethnicity with Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes in a Contemporary U.S. Cohort.

(Palatnik A, Garacci E, Walker RJ, Ozieh MN, Williams JS, Egede LE.) Am J Perinatol. 2019 Dec 13 PMID: 31858501 12/21/2019
The influence of daily stress on glycemic control and mortality in adults with diabetes.

(Walker RJ, Garacci E, Campbell JA, Egede LE.) J Behav Med. 2019 Oct 15 PMID: 31617047 10/17/2019
Relationship between social determinants of health and systolic blood pressure in United States immigrants

(Dawson AZ, Walker RJ, Gregory C, Egede LE.) International Journal of Cardiology: Hypertension. August 2019;2 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85070226762 08/01/2019

Rebekah J. Walker, PhD