Diane S. Lauderdale is Professor and Chair of the Department of Public Health Sciences. She is an epidemiologist whose research examines how behavioral and social factors influence health. Recent work has focused on sleep as a behavioral risk factor. This work includes studies of how people’s perceptions of sleep duration and disruption are related to objective sleep measures, studies of how social factors such as social connectedness and loneliness relate to sleep, and studies of how both sleep perceptions and objective measures are associated with health outcomes, including coronary artery disease, obesity, mortality, cortisol levels, and sensory perception. She found marked racial, socioeconomic, and gender disparities in objective sleep duration and disruption among middle aged adults and demonstrated that self-reported sleep duration is systematically biased relative to objective measures. She has also carried out a series of studies about the health of immigrants to the United States. These includes studies of mortality, pre-immigration influence on late-life health, ethnic enclave variation in health behaviors, and discrimination effects on health. In this area, she demonstrated that Arab American women who gave birth in the months following 9/11, a period of unprecedented violence and discrimination for this group, had worse birth outcomes than similar women giving birth a year earlier, a difference not seen for other racial and ethnic groups. This study provided new evidence of stress effects on birth outcomes. She directs the University of Chicago's new MPH program and also the MS for Clinical Professionals (MSCP) in Public Health Sciences, a degree program that prepares clinicians to carry out research in clinical epidemiology and health services research.
University of Illinois at Chicago
Chicago, IL
PhD - Epidemiology/Public Health
1996
University of Chicago
Chicago, IL
MALS - Library Science
1981
University of Chicago
Chicago, IL
MADiv - Divinity
1978
Harvard
Cambridge, MA
BA - Religion
1977
Prefrontal tDCS fails to modulate memory retrieval in younger and older adults.
Prefrontal tDCS fails to modulate memory retrieval in younger and older adults. Curr Biol. 2025 Jan 06; 35(1):50-58.e4.
PMID: 39644890
Adaptive measurement of cognitive function based on multidimensional item response theory.
Adaptive measurement of cognitive function based on multidimensional item response theory. Alzheimers Dement (N Y). 2024 Oct-Dec; 10(4):e70018.
PMID: 39748843
Use of Medications With Somnolence Adverse Effects and Somnolence Symptoms Among Older Adults in the U.S.
Use of Medications With Somnolence Adverse Effects and Somnolence Symptoms Among Older Adults in the U.S. J Aging Health. 2024 Nov 26; 8982643241298734.
PMID: 39599921
Associations of actigraph sleep characteristics with blood pressure among older adults.
Associations of actigraph sleep characteristics with blood pressure among older adults. Sleep Health. 2024 Aug; 10(4):455-461.
PMID: 38906803
Risk Factors for Hospital Readmission in Patients With Interstitial Lung Disease.
Risk Factors for Hospital Readmission in Patients With Interstitial Lung Disease. Respir Care. 2024 04 22; 69(5):586-594.
PMID: 38199762
Stress, Isolation, and Sleep Quality among Breast Cancer Survivors throughout the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Longitudinal Study in a Multi-Ethnic Cohort.
Stress, Isolation, and Sleep Quality among Breast Cancer Survivors throughout the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Longitudinal Study in a Multi-Ethnic Cohort. Res Sq. 2023 Aug 10.
PMID: 37609132
Machine learning with multimodal data for COVID-19.
Machine learning with multimodal data for COVID-19. Heliyon. 2023 Jul; 9(7):e17934.
PMID: 37483733
Did Resilience and Socioeconomic Status Predict Older Adults' Finding a Silver Lining in COVID?
Did Resilience and Socioeconomic Status Predict Older Adults' Finding a Silver Lining in COVID? Innov Aging. 2023; 7(6):igad058.
PMID: 37719663
HepCCATT: a multilevel intervention for hepatitis C among vulnerable populations in Chicago.
HepCCATT: a multilevel intervention for hepatitis C among vulnerable populations in Chicago. J Public Health (Oxf). 2022 12 01; 44(4):891-899.
PMID: 34156077
The social vulnerability metric (SVM) as a new tool for public health.
The social vulnerability metric (SVM) as a new tool for public health. Health Serv Res. 2023 08; 58(4):873-881.
PMID: 36401593
Louis Block Distinguished Service Professor
University of Chicago
2023
Louis Block Professor of Public Health Sciences and the College
University of Chicago
2020
BSD Faculty Award for Distinguished Educator/Mentor
University of Chicago
2018
Elected membership American Epidemiological Society
2016
President, Society for Epidemiologic Research
2015 - 2016
Fellow, American College of Epidemiology
2006