Antwan Jones
Antwan Jones
Professorial Lecturer - On leave: National Science Foundation
School: Milken Institute School of Public Health
Department: Epidemiology
Contact:
Dr. Antwan Jones is a Professor of Sociology (with courtesy appointments in Africana Studies, Epidemiology, and Public Policy & Public Administration) at The George Washington University. Receiving degrees from Duke University and Bowling Green State University, he has published research on various health outcomes. However, he focuses his research on the residential and neighborhood context in which individuals live to understand health disparities among marginalized populations, and he is particularly interested in child obesity and adult cardiovascular outcomes. Dr. Jones is a former board member of the Capital City Area Health Education Center, the Society for the Study of Social Problems, and the American Sociological Association, and he is a former member of the Washington DC Commission on African-American Affairs. Currently, Dr. Jones serves on the National Advisory Committee for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Evidence for Action (E4A) Program and the DC Policy Center’s Advisory Board.
Biostatistics
Chronic Disease
Epidemiology
Health Disparities
Obesity
Population Health
Bachelor of Arts (Sociology, African & African-American Studies, Psychology), Duke University, 2004
Masters of Arts (Sociology, Applied Demography), Bowling Green State University, 2007
Doctor of Philosophy (Sociology, Quantitative Methodology), Bowling Green State University, 2010
Sociology 1000 (Healthy Cities, Globalization, and Urban Policy)
Sociology 2101 (Social Research Methods)
Sociology 2102 (Techniques of Data Analysis)
Sociology 2181 (Demography + The Social World)
Sociology 6250 (Urban Sociology)
Sociology 6290 (Principles of Demography)
Senior Associate Editor, Behavioral Medicine
Associate Editor, Population Research and Policy Review
Editorial Board, Biodemography and Social Biology
Editorial Board, City & Community (former)
National Advisory Committee, Evidence for Action, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Commission on African-American Affairs, Washington, DC (former)
Advisory Board, DC Policy Center
Dr. Jones studies the linkages between residence and health. He also explores racial variation in both residence and health as a unique contribution to science. Although he focuses on health and well-being across various stages of the life course, he relies on sociological theories and epidemiological approaches to understand how place and race affect health and illness. As a methodologist and statistician, Dr. Jones utilizes population data collected at many levels to demonstrate variation in how space is related to health. Dr. Jones focuses on three larger topical areas:
1. Socio-behavioral mechanisms of health inequities
Mechanisms such as the frequency/duration of moves and socioeconomic indicators (such as education) have been key to Dr. Jones’s research in order to understand why health inequities are unevenly distributed in the population, and how these health inequities are reproduced across generations.
2. Contextual, environmental, and geographic dimensions of health
Dr. Jones explores contextual, environmental, and geographical dimensions of health. He studies how physical characteristics (e.g., parks, physical activity-promoting resources) and social characteristics (e.g., racial residential segregation and metropolitan levels of foreclosure) are associated with various health outcomes. Contextually, Dr. Jones has taken US literature on health and tested its applicability in international contexts.
3. Racial patterning of social and health outcomes
Broadly, Dr. Jones considers race and ethnicity as social constructs that have real social and health ramifications. In this realm, his research focuses specifically on Latinx communities, but these social and health disparities exist in the US and beyond. Dr. Jones’s overall goal is to provide evidence that can help eliminate racial and ethnic disparities in many social outcomes, including health.
Dr. Jones is also recognized in the popular press for his expertise on inequality, the impact of unequal neighborhoods on health, and the implications of gentrification on community race relations. His appearances, public writings, and interviews are found on this page.
Selected Recent Publications
Jones, A, Ishizawa, H, and Samant, P. Neighborhood and behavioral effects on weight change across immigrant generations: Evidence from The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health). International Journal of Behavioral Medicine. 2023. PMID: 36765017
Adzrago, D, Fujimoto, K, Harrell, MB, Jones, A, and Wilkerson, JM. Association between e-cigarette use behaviors and perceived harmfulness of e-cigarettes and anxiety/depression symptoms among Black/African American adults. Preventive Medicine Reports. 2022. PMID: 36471769
Adzrago, D, Harrell, MB, Fujimoto, K, Jones, A, and Wilkerson, JM. Association between e-cigarette use behaviors and anxiety/depression among Black/African American adults based on sexual identity. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 2022. PMID: 36767446
Stanton, MV, Jones, A, and Shahani, D. Relationship among interpersonal stressors in adolescence, social support buffers, and obesity in adulthood 14 years later. Health Psychology. 2022. PMID: 36227311
Keng, S-L, Stanton, MV, Haskins, LB, Almenara, CA, Ickovics, J, Jones, A, Grigsby-Toussaint, D, …. and Leander, NP. COVID-19 stressors and health behaviors: A multilevel longitudinal study across 86 countries. Preventive Medicines Reports. 2022. PMID: 35313454
Jones, A, Squires, GD, and Nixon, C. Ecological associations between inclusionary zoning policies and cardiovascular disease risk prevalence. Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes. 2021. PMID: 34493068
Mamudu, HM, Jones, A, Paul, TK, Osedeme, F, Stewart, D, Alamian, A, Wang, L, Orimaye, S, Bledsoe, J, Poole, A, Blackwell, G, and Budoff, M. The co-existence of diabetes and subclinical atherosclerosis in rural central Appalachia: Do residential characteristics matter? Journal of Diabetes and Its Complications. 2021. PMID: 33468398
Grigsby-Toussaint, DS, Shin, JC, and Jones, A. Disparities in the distribution of COVID-19 testing sites in black and Latino areas in New York City. Preventive Medicine. 2021. PMID: 33647352