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Sanford is proud to announce that M. Giovanna Merli, Professor of Public Policy, Sociology and Global Health, and Director of the Duke Population Research Center (DPRC) and the Duke University Population Research Institute (DUPRI), has been awarded a prestigious R01 grant from the National Institute of Aging (1R01AG089146-01). Merli’s groundbreaking research project is titled "Dynamics of Ghanaian Immigrants' Health in the U.S.: Critical Life-Stage Experiences, Social Networks, Acculturation, and Selection."
The five-year grant, with a total budget of $3.66 million, positions Duke University as the prime institution for this research but features a very strong multi-institution team encompassing scholars at Duke (Merli, PI, James Moody and Marta Mulawa), at the University of Pennsylvania (Chenoa Flippen, PI, Jere Behrman and Irma Elo) and at the University of Ghana (Ayaga Bawah, PI, Patrick Asuming, Leander Kandilige and Pearl Kyei). This award marks a significant step forward in understanding the health dynamics of Sub-Saharan African immigrants in the United States, a rapidly growing population.
Merli's research will focus on Ghanaian immigrants, providing much-needed insight into their health outcomes over time compared to U.S.-born Blacks and non-migrant Ghanaians. By examining critical life-stage experiences, social networks, and acculturation processes, the study aims to uncover the complex factors shaping both physical and mental health among Ghanaian immigrants. The project utilizes a binational study design, recruiting participants from Ghana and the U.S. and following them over time to assess changes in health behaviors and outcomes.
Multidisciplinary Approach Will Broaden Impact of Research
"Our multi-disciplinary team includes demographers, economists, health behavior scholars, and sociologists, many of whom have worked together on earlier related projects," says Merli. "Using innovative approaches and perspectives from multiple disciplines, this collaboration has produced a rigorous research design, which I am particularly proud of. This design features the recruitment of linked samples of Ghanaians in Ghana and Ghanaian immigrants in the U.S., longitudinal data collection which follows migrants over time as they age in the U.S. or return to Ghana, and compares with Ghanaians at origin."
This research promises to fill significant gaps in existing knowledge, offering new insights into who migrates and how migration impacts health, particularly among racialized minority groups. Merli elaborates, "Our data and approach will allow us to rigorously explore the health advantage of African immigrants, who, as we already know, display higher levels of education in comparison with comparable individuals in Ghana and the U.S., and whether their health may paradoxically deteriorate with longer residence in the U.S. Our goal is to improve our understanding of the role of sensitive life stage exposures pre- and post-migration; selection; acculturation, discrimination and racism in the context of reception; and social networks, including cross-border ties, in predicting physical and mental health across the life course of immigrants. We hope these data will increase our understanding of the extent to which health outcomes and behaviors stem from practices and contexts in countries of origin and/or those related to the immigration experience itself."
With the increasing heterogeneity of immigrant groups in the U.S., Merli underscores the importance of this research: "We need a better understanding of the distinct experiences of immigrants from a wide range of countries of origin and migrant categorizations, and how their U.S.-based experiences shape their physical and mental health outcomes across the life course and contribute to racial/ethnic health inequities. Importantly, our team aims to develop and test an approach that can also be transferred to other immigrant groups."
Kate Bundorf, J. Alexander McMahon Distinguished Professor of Health Policy and Management and Faculty Director of Research for Sanford, commended the achievement, "Sanford is delighted to host this innovative research on immigration and health. Through this work, Professor Merli and her team will generate new insights on the relationship between immigration and the health of Ghanaian migrants and develop novel methods to deepen our understanding of other immigrant populations."