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.

Prevalence of psychological distress, depression and suicidal ideation in an indigenous population in Panamá.

(Walker RJ, Campbell JA, Dawson AZ, Egede LE.) Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol. 2019 Oct;54(10):1199-1207.
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.
Pragmatic Trials as an Additional Tool in the Evidence Building Toolbox.

(Walker RJ, Egede LE.) J Gen Intern Med. 2019 Aug 13.
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 Aug 01;18(1):44.
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 Aug;6(4):743-751.
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.
Clinician Encouragement and Online Health Record Usage.

(Crotty BH, Winn AN, Asan O, Nagavally S, Walker RJ, Egede LE.) J Gen Intern Med. 2019 Jul 16.
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.
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 Jun 13.
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.
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.

Rebekah J. Walker, PhD