Discipline(s):
Demography, Social Epidemiology
Area(s) of Expertise:
Mortality, Disability, Adult Chronic Diseases, Obesity, Immigration, Migration, Survival Analysis, Event History Analysis
E-Mail:
nmehta@sas.upenn.edu
Background:
Neil Mehta received his PhD in Demography from the University of Pennsylvania in 2009. His dissertation research has focused on the association between obesity and mortality in the United States. Neil has found that mortality attributable to obesity is far smaller than that of smoking, which challenges previous findings suggesting that rising obesity will stall long-standing mortality improvements in the United States. Neil has also examined the contextual determinants of obesity. In one published paper, he investigated the association between the restaurant environment and weight status in the United States. Neil’s other major area of research pertains to the health of non-Hispanic U.S. immigrants. He has found that immigrants from the former Soviet Republics display considerably higher levels of disability and poorer overall health compared to other major U.S. immigrant groups and to native-born white Americans, which is a finding that has not received attention previously. As a Health & Society Scholar, Neil aims to help reconcile conflicting evidence on the effect of obesity on mortality by investigating a wide range of current data and evidence. He is also interested in investigating the behavioral determinants of adult mortality and disability in the United States and comparing obesity’s effect on healthy life expectancy versus overall life expectancy. Neil plans to continue to research the determinants of health among U.S. immigrants with an emphasis on integrating biological and contextual data. Neil holds an MSc from the London School of Economics and a BA from Oberlin College.
Journal Articles:
Click here for a list of Neil Mehta's available publications in PubMed.
