SUMMARY
This application seeks support for Ms. Eskira Kahsay, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Epidemiology,
through a Research Supplement to Promote Diversity in Health-Related Research. This supplement builds on
the activities of the parent grant (R01-MH128198; PI: Mezuk) which supports the Aging, Transitions over the
Life course, and Suicide (ATLAS) Project. The overarching goal of the parent project is to examine the ways
major transitions in domains of work, housing, health, and relationships shape suicide risk over the lifespan
using multiple large existing datasets. We seek to understand how contextual factors such as gender, race,
ethnicity, poverty, urbanicity, social capital, etc. shape suicide risk during these transitions. Through this
supplement, Ms. Kahsay will build on the parent ATLAS Project, and her own prior work, to test hypotheses
about how contextual factors shape suicide risk for Black adolescents and adults. This supplement will
incorporate an additional, unique dataset into the ATLAS Project: the National Survey of American Life (NSAL),
a nationally-representative sample of over 5,000 Black Americans aged 13+ originally interviewed in 2001,
which has since been geocoded and linked to the National Death Index. This proposed research will use the
NSAL and other ATLAS datasets to address the following aims: (1) Investigate the relationship between
residential segregation and suicide morality among Black Americans; (2) Examine the relationship between
residential segregation and suicidal behavior (i.e., ideation, attempts and death) among Black adolescents and
adults; and (3) Explore salient psychosocial and contextual risk and protective factors associated with suicide
and suicidal behavior among Black Americans using machine learning approaches. This supplement supports
a comprehensive mentoring and career development plan for the candidate, Ms. Kahsay, to guide her through
the completion of her doctoral training and successful launch of her academic research career. This mentoring
plan leverages long-standing partnerships with the Institute for Social Research Program for Research on
Black Americans (PRBA) and the Michigan Center for Urban African American Aging Research (MCUAAAR:
P30-AG059300; Mezuk is the co-Director of the Analysis Core). Both PRBA and MCUAAAR have a variety of
structures for supporting professional development, team mentorship, and research activities for early-career
investigators working in minority health. This supplement will provide dedicated time for the candidate to
engage in focused research activities, to build her professional network, to engage in additional trainings and
workshops that will strengthen her methodological skills in data science and spatial modeling, and to receive
expert team mentorship from leaders in the fields of epidemiology, sociology, biostatistics, and minority health.
She will emerge from this period of training well-prepared to compete as PI for her own F- and K-level NIH
grants to support the next stage of her research career focused on minority mental health.
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