
Regina Shih is a Professor of Epidemiology with over 20 years of research experience on mental health, youth development, aging, and caregiving. Her skills include policy analysis, multi-level analysis of large datasets, study design, strategic planning, and program evaluation. She is grateful to her research sponsors including private foundations, local governments, CDC, NIA, NIMHD, NIAAA, NHLBI, NIOSH, and the Department of Defense.
Dr. Shih’s research interests are diverse and center community-engaged approaches and policy-relevant outcomes. With her collaborators, she evaluated the effects of alcohol and cannabis outlet density on youth substance use, developed medication reconciliation measures for post-acute care settings across the US under the Improving Medicare Post-Acute Care Transformation Act, created a national database of neighborhood measures to examine contextual influences on dementia risk, outlined policy recommendations for improving sleep in the U.S. military; published a policy blueprint for dementia long-term services and supports that resulted in Congressional testimony; tested a multi-site RCT to prevent substance use in middle schools; developed a toolkit for local public health and aging departments to prepare older adults for climate change-related events, and conducted a risk assessment of environmental health risks for the U.A.E.’s environmental health action plan.
Dr. Shih was previously a Program Director at the RAND Corporation where she oversaw RAND's portfolio of public health, social services, and prevention research to promote the economic, physical, and mental well-being of individuals and families. Prior to her 16-year tenure at RAND, she was an IRTA Post-doctoral fellow with the NICHD Division of Epidemiology, Statistics, and Prevention Research where she helped design the Natonal Children's Study on children's environmental health. She currently serves as an adjunct researcher at RAND and a board member of the National Alliance for Caregiving.
Current Projects:
NIA U24 "Research Network for Alzheimer's Disease Home and Community Based Services" (PI Shih). Build data infrastructure on measures of dementia HCBS structure, process, and outcomes, diversify the research bench and train researchers to develop policy-relevant research related to dementia HCBS.
CDC "Evaluation of the BOLD Public Health Center of Excellence on Dementia Caregiving" (PIs Rollison and Shih). Evaluate the effectiveness of the Center in supporting tribal, local, and state public health agencies' dementia caregiving efforts outlined in the congressionally mandated BOLD Act.
NIA T32 "NRSA Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Study of Aging" (PI Shih). Support scholars in the study of aging-related issues, enhance analytical skills, effectively present research results, and develop a research agenda.
NIMHD R01 "Evaluating Disparities in Older Adult Institutionalization and Mortality after Implementation of Medicaid’s Balancing Incentive Program" (PI Shih). Apply econometric and qualitative methods to determine whether rebalancing long-term care from facility-based care to home-and community-based services is associated with health outcomes, and uncover any disparities by race/ethnicity and rural/urban residence among dual-eligible beneficiaries. An NIMHD dementia supplement supports the examination of whether access to HCBS differs for people with and without dementia.
NIA R01 "Green Space and Cognitive Health: Role of Structural Racism in Environmental and Health Disparities" (PI Madrigano). Estimate associations between green space, structural racism, and dementia over a 20-year period. Examine the moderating role of gentrification and psychosocial stressors, mental health, and perceived neighborhood characteristics.
NIA R01 "Health, Wellbeing, and the Social Networks of Family Caregivers of People with Alzheimer’s Disease" (PI Friedman). Establish a longitudinal online panel of dementia family caregivers to identify the structure of support networks of older adults and family caregivers. An NIA COVID supplement supports the examination of network changes attributable to the COVID-19 pandemic.
NIA R01 "The Sweet Life: Long-Term Effects of Excess Sugar Consumption in Early Childhood" (PI Gracner). Using a quasi-experimental design, evaluate how a national nutritional policy affects cognitive decline in late life.
Areas of Interest
- Addiction/Substance Abuse
- Adolescent Health/Child Health
- Aging
- Climate and Health
- Mental Health
- Public Health Preparedness and Response
- Sleep Epidemiology
- Social Epidemiology
- Women’s Health
Education
- BA in Neuroscience 2000, Johns Hopkins University
- PhD in Psychiatric Epidemiology 2005, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
- Post-Doc in Children's Environmental Health 2007, NICHD
Affiliations & Activities
RAND Corporation, Affiliated Adjunct and Health Policy Partner
National Alliance for Caregiving, Board of Advisors
Leveraging an Interdisciplinary Consortium to Improve Care and Outcomes for Persons Living With Alzheimer’s and Dementia NIA R24 Network, Research Steering Committee
Advancing Workforce Analysis and Research for Dementia NIA R24, Leadership Council
National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine, Consensus Panel on Evaluating the Quality of the Census 2020
Publications
- Waymouth M, Siconolfi D, Friedman EM, Saliba D, Ahluwalia S, Shih RA, 2023, Barriers and facilitators to accessing home and community based services for persons with dementia and their caregivers, Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences, Online,
- Rodriguez A, Shih RA, Troxel WM, & D’Amico EJ, 2023, Differential item functioning of the Acculturation, Habits, and Interests Multicultural Scale for Adolescents (AHIMSA) by race/ethnicity, International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 92, 1017-1040
- Siconolfi D, Thomas EG, Chen EK, Friedman EM, Shih RA, 2023, Low exposure to home- and community-based services among U.S. adults: Cause for concern, Journal of Applied Gerontology, 42, 341-346
- Perez LG, Siconolfi D, Troxel WM, Tucker JS, Seelam R, Rodriguez A, Shih RA, D’Amico EJ, 2022, Loneliness and multiple health domains: Associations among emerging adults, Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 45, 260-271
- Perez LG, Peet E, Vegetabile B, Shih RA, 2022, Big data needs and challenges to advance research on racial and ethnic inequities in maternal and child health, Women’s Health Issues, 32, 90-94
- Burgette LF, Weidmer BA, Bozick R, Kofner A, Tzen M, Brand JE, Beltran-Sanchez H, Shih RA, 2022, California Neighborhoods Count 2020: Validation of U.S. Census Population Counts and Housing Characteristic Estimates Within California, California Department of Finance, RAND Corporation, RR-A2028-1, 1-132
- Davis JP, Pedersen ER, Rodriguez A, Tucker JS, Seelam R, Shih RA, D’Amico E, 2022, Do recent experiences of sexual violence and co-occurring depression and anxiety symptoms predict poorer functioning one year later during the transition to young adulthood?, Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 37, 804-834
- Understanding What Works: Measuring and Monitoring Quality in Medi-Cal’s Home and Community-Based Services, 2022, Harrison J, Shih R, Ahluwalia A, California Health Care Foundation, RAND Corporation, 1-22
- Firth CL, Warren KM, Perez L, Kilmer B, Shih RA, Tucker JS, D’Amico EJ, Pedersen ER, 2022, Licensed and unlicensed cannabis outlets in Los Angeles County: The potential implications of location for social equity, Journal of Cannabis Research, 11, 18
- Perez LG, Tucker JS, Pedersen ER, Troxel WM, Rodriguez A, Firth CL, Seelam R, Shih RA, D'Amico EJ, 2022, Neighborhood social environment change in late adolescence predicts substance use in emerging adulthood, Health and Place, Online,
- Shih RA, Friedman EM, Chen EK, Whiting GC, 2022, Prevalence and correlates of gray market use for aging and dementia long-term care in the U.S. , Journal of Applied Gerontology , 41, 1030-1034
- Fischer SH, Shih RA, McMullen TL, Edelen MO, Ahluwalia SC, Chen EK, Dalton SE, Paddock S, Rodriguez A, Saliba D, Mandl S, Mota T, 2022, Standardized assessment of medication reconciliation in post-acute care, Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 70, 1047-1056
- Fraade-Blanar L, Best R, Shih RA, 2022, Transportation Equity for Older Adults, RAND Corporation , PE-A1615-1, 1-24