Social determinants of health (SDOH) interventions within clinical and community settings have been proposed as one promising strategy to address socioeconomic hardships faced by families in poverty, including Latina/os. Dr Martinez-Cardoso will share the result of a mixed-methods study that was used to examine the effects of Developmental Understanding and Legal Collaboration for Everyone (DULCE), a pediatric SDOH intervention, on outcomes among US-born and immigrant Latina/o families. In addition, she will present key recommendations for future social needs screening and referral programs that were generated from the study findings.

Aresha Martinez-Cardoso is an interdisciplinary public health researcher and Assistant Professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences. Her research integrates theoretical perspectives from the social sciences with epidemiological methods in public health to examine how social inequality in the US shapes population health, with a particular focus on the health of racial/ethnic groups and immigrants. Martinez-Cardoso’s work interrogates how race and social inequities have been deeply embedded into our nation’s culture and institutions and traces the biosocial mechanisms by which these inequities get “under the skin” to affect health across the lifecourse. Currently, Dr. Martinez-Cardoso’s research agenda is guided by three major lines of inquiry (1) conceptualizing structural racism and its impact on health (2) studying the biopsychosocial mechanisms by which lifecourse conditions shape health, and (3) empirically measuring the links between social inequities and health using diverse data sources. Martinez-Cardoso holds a PhD in Health Behavior and Health Education from the University of Michigan, and a MS in Community Health Sciences from UCLA.

This event is co-hosted with the Global Migration Center.