PhD in Population Health Sciences, 2020
Harvard University
Master of Public Health, 2016
The University of Tokyo
BSc in Health Sciences, 2014
The University of Tokyo
My research focuses on the application of epidemiologic and social science thinking and methods for rigorous causal inference in studying social determinants of health.
Specifically, I have worked on three themes of research. First, I study the effects of traumatic events (e.g., disasters, child adversity, pandemic, and global financial crisis) on population health. Second, I study the roles of social relationships and social engagement in promoting health of older adults and building resiliency. I have also investigated how the internet-based social interactions can influence population health. Third, my research extends the traditional “risk factor” epidemiology examining a narrow set of health outcomes. I study the impacts of positive psychological factors (e.g., purpose in life, Ikigai) on health and determinants of multidimensional well-being (i.e., human flourishing).
Methodologic tools for causal inference I often use include: methods for the analysis of a time-varying treatment (e.g., marginal structural model, doubly-robust targeted maximum likelihood estimation combined with Super Learner ensemble of algorithms including ML-based ones), causal mediation analysis, assessment of effect heterogeneity using either a traditional interaction analysis or a novel ML-based technique, and longitudinal outcome-wide analytic framework.
For the full list of publications, please visit my google scholar page.