Research
Healthcare Utilization
My first line of research focuses on exploring the factors affecting the use of health services, including medical discrimination, quality of patient-provider relationships, and medical mistrust. I am particularly interested in how communication quality between patients and providers is associated with treatment adherence, healthcare utilization, and use of preventative measures. I have found that the impact of communication quality on mammogram screening differs by race (Cabuk & Ho, 2023-poster presentation). Furthermore, I am collecting qualitative data from Muslim women to explore their relationships with their providers. The goal of this work is to understand Muslim women’s unique needs, barriers, and resources when navigating the US healthcare system (Tor-Cabuk, 2024-under review). My previous work on the role of providers in mental health utilization among Muslims, written under my supervision by my undergraduate mentee, also revealed that providers need to be knowledgeable about the population they serve and educate themselves on different cultures (Areej et al., 2024- under review). One of my undergraduate students also submitted an IRB to collect qualitative data from religious leaders to understand their roles in supporting Muslims with mental illnesses. He presented his literature review at a national conference (Kazi et al., 2024). Our results emphasize the need for religious leader-oriented interventions to increase healthcare utilization for faith communities.
Discrimination & Health
My second line of research involves understanding the impact of discrimination on health. In our scoping review which was published in Ethnicity & Health, in which my doctoral advisor and I reviewed the literature on the impact of racial discrimination on the health of Asian Americans during COVID-19, we found that the psychological literature is extremely limited in terms of understanding the impact of discrimination on physical health (Ho & Cabuk, 2023). Therefore, I analyzed the SWAN (Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation) data to investigate the associations between perceived discrimination and physical health outcomes longitudinally (Tor-Cabuk et al., manuscript in progress). The analysis revealed significant reciprocal relationships between perceived discrimination and health outcomes across three time points. Interestingly, when we looked at whether perceived discrimination would predict health outcomes among American women a year later in a cross-lagged model, there was only a significant association between the first time point and third time point, revealing the importance of the long-term effects of discrimination on one’s physical health.
Intersectionality & Wellbeing
In my third line of work, I explore the effect of intersecting identities on well-being. During my branch lead position at the Stanford Muslim Mental Health lab, we published an article in Health Affairs Forefront reveals how the exclusion of a MENA category affected the health of the Muslim population by hindering the true diversity of the population and the underrepresentation of MENA populations in mental health research (Awaad et al., 2023). In collaboration with the NYU Langone Health Health Equity Section, our research on the face validity of the Everyday Discrimination Scale (EDS) also revealed that participants usually think about intersectional discriminatory experiences when answering the items in the EDS (Ahmed et al. in progress). Therefore, it is critical to research the impact of intersectional discrimination on health rather than solely focusing on one identity. It is also evident in my research on the religious and racial identities of Muslims and how they relate to their well-being (Tor-Cabuk et al., in progress).
