Yan Wang

Associate Professor

School: Milken Institute School of Public Health

Department: Prevention and Community Health

Contact:

Email: Yan Wang

Yan Wang, MD, DrPH, is an associate professor at the Department of Prevention and Community Health at the George Washington University (GWU) Milken Institute School of Public Health. She joined GWU from University of Maryland at Baltimore (UMB), School of Medicine in 2020, where she had been an associate professor in the Department of Pediatrics.

Dr. Wang's research has two main focuses. One is on epidemiology and prevention intervention on risky health behaviors and health problems, including substance use, especially tobacco smoking, obesity, risky sexual behaviors, unintentional injuries, mental health disorders, and medical problems, e.g. lung cancer and HIV infection. The other focus is on the statistical methodology and causal inference. She has conducted multilevel modeling, Generalized Estimation Equation (GEE) modeling, survival analyses, structural equation modeling (e.g. mediation analysis, cross-lagged panel model, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, latent class analysis, latent growth modeling, dyadic analyses). She is also specialized in causal inference, e.g. the evaluation of intervention effect in Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT), cluster RCT, quasi-experimental designs, including propensity score analysis (PSA), complier average causal effect (CACE), interrupted time series (ITS) design and difference in difference (DID) analyses. She is also conducted research on health disparities. She has published over 70 peer-reviewed articles in health behaviors/problems. She was a PI for two NIH R03 grants and have been a co-I for numerous NIH R01 or equivalent grants.

Expertise

Behavioral Health

Biostatistics

Children's Health

Chronic Disease

Community Health

Epidemiology

Health Disparities

Mental Health

Obesity

Prevention

Program Evaluation

Underserved Populations

Women's Health

Education

Doctor of Public Health, Morgan State University, 2007

Teaching

Instructor: The Application of Structural Equational Modeling (SEM) to Public Health Research (Fall 2023)
Co-instructor: Study Design and Evaluation Methods (PUBH 8416)
Instructor: Research Leadership (PUBH 8413)
Instructor: Independent Study (PUBH 8010)

Research

Dr. Wang's research work has been concentrated on epidemiology and prevention intervention of risky health behaviors/problems, including tobacco smoking, risky health behaviors, overweight/obesity, HIV infection, unintentional injuries, and the prevention intervention. She has assessed the factors and consequences of these risky health behaviors/problems. She has also participated in the design and implementation of over 15 prevention intervention trials to prevent the risk behaviors. Her other focus is on the applied statistical methodology and causal inference. She is familiar with multi-level modeling, survival analysis, dyadic analysis, structural equation modeling including mediation analyses, factor analyses, latent class analyses, and other longitudinal structural equation modeling methods. She is also familiar with propensity score analysis (PSA), Complier Average Causal Effect (CACE) model, Difference in Difference (DID) analysis, and interrupted time series (ITS) analyses.

Publications

Selected out of >70 publications

Wang, Y., Duan, Z., Romm, K.F., Ma, Y., Evans, W.D., Bennett, B., Klinkhammer, K.E., Wysota, C.N., & Berg, C.J. (2022). Bidirectional associations between depressive symptoms and cigarette, e-cigarette, cannabis, and alcohol use: Cross-lagged panel analyses among young adults before and during COVID-19. Addictive Behaviors.134: 107422.
Wang Y, Zhu E, Hager ER, Black MM (2022) Maternal depressive symptoms, attendance of sessions and reduction of home safety problems in a randomized toddler safety promotion intervention trial: A latent class analysis. PLoS ONE 17(1): e0261934.
Wang, Y., Karver S., T., Barrington, C., Donastorg, Y., Perez, M., Gomez, H., Davis, W., Galai, N. , Kerrigan, D. (2022). Structural and psychosocial impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on HIV care and treatment outcomes among female sex workers in the Dominican Republic. J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr. 89(5):481-488.
Mead, K.H., Wang, Y., Cleary, S., Arem H., & Pratt-Chapman M.L. (2021). Defining a patient-centered approach to cancer survivorship care: development of the patient centered survivorship care index (PC-SCI). BMC Health Serv Res 21, 1353.
Wang, Y., Lynne S.D., Witherspoon, D., Black M.M. (2020) Longitudinal bidirectional relations between body dissatisfaction and depressive symptoms among Black adolescents: A cross-lagged panel analysis, Plos One, 15(1): e0228585.
Wang, Y., Hager, E., Magder, L., Black M.M. (2020). Varying Effect of a Randomized Toddler Home Safety Promotion Intervention Trial by Initial Home Safety Problems, Maternal and Child Health Journal, 24(4), 432-438.
Wang, Y., Hager, E. , Magder, L.S., Arbaiza, R., Wilkes, S., Black, MM (2019). A dyadic analysis on source discrepancy and a mediation analysis via self-efficacy in the parental support and physical activity relation among Black girls. Childhood Obesity. 15(2):123-130.
Wang, Y., Gielen, A., Magder, L.S., Hager, E., Black, M.M. (2018). A Randomized Safety Promotion Intervention Trial among Low-income Families with Toddlers. Injury Prevention. 24(1): 41-47.