معرفی
Dr. Yeonwoo Kim serves as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Kinesiology at The University of Texas at Arlington, with additional affiliation in Social Work. She directs the Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) Lab, conducting research on how neighborhood and social factors influence health outcomes and disparities across diverse populations.
Dr. Kim earned her PhD from the University of Texas at Austin in 2018, followed by postdoctoral training at the University of Michigan School of Kinesiology. This academic foundation has positioned her at the forefront of social epidemiology research.
Her research program centers on social determinants of health to explain racial/ethnic and socioeconomic disparities. She investigates neighborhood impacts on health behaviors including obesity, physical activity, dietary habits, and their relationships to cardiovascular health, cognitive aging, and disease outcomes. Her methodological expertise spans spatial analysis, longitudinal cohort studies, and multi-level modeling to examine how neighborhood socioeconomic status, built environments, and social cohesion influence health across the lifespan.
Analysis of Dr. Kim's recent publications (2024-2025) reveals a sophisticated research portfolio examining neighborhood-level social inequalities, protective effects of social cohesion against loneliness during the pandemic, healthcare access barriers for older Korean Americans, and neighborhood safety impacts on hypertension risk. Her work consistently demonstrates how contextual factors shape health outcomes across multiple domains including cardiovascular disease, cognitive health, mental health, and substance use.
Dr. Kim has secured significant research funding as Principal Investigator from NIH, the US Department of Health and Human Services, and university sources. Current projects include investigations of neighborhood socioeconomic environments and child obesity, social isolation and cognitive impairment in older adults, and county built environments and cardiovascular disease incidence.
As an educator, Dr. Kim teaches courses in biostatistics, social epidemiology, social determinants of health, and gerontology. She mentors students through research projects focused on understanding how residential neighborhood attributes (community walkability, access to healthy food, parks, housing values, segregation) impact cardiovascular disease and related risk factors.
