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Yorghos Apostolopoulos, PhD

Associate Professor

I am a social epidemiologist with sociological training (PhD, University of Connecticut, 1994) and extensive hands-on epidemiological experience. In addition to social epidemiology, my areas include health demography, psychosocial occupational epidemiology, and research design and methodology in public health.

My transdisciplinary research examines the ways social structure and work and built environments influence health outcomes across diverse populations and geographies. The primary emphasis of my current work is on the aetiology of health disparities among working-class populations by delving into an array of occupational health issues for commercial motor-vehicle operators (CMVO).

The central focus of this work is on truck and bus drivers, other CMVO, as well as other populations working in the transportation sector. Within this occupational context, I examine links between the occupational environment (i.e., work organization, corporate policies) and (a) cardiovascular, cancer, and psychiatric disorders and associated comorbidities (i.e., sleep disorders) and other adverse outcomes (i.e., accidents, medical claims) and (b) substance misuse and infectious disease acquisition and dissemination (NIH-funded study on the potential role of truck drivers in disease transmission, which has received media attention). The ultimate goal of this work is the delineation of the role of the commercial driving environment in CMVO health, and the eventual implementation of health-promotion programs via multilevel, multistakeholder interventions that simultaneously take into account health, safety, and work productivity.

Representative samples of my work include:

• Worksite-induced morbidities among truck drivers in the United States, AAOHN Journal, 2010
• Active living in the trucking sector: Environmental barriers and health promotion strategies, Journal of Physical Activity & Health (in press)
• Infection risk along US highways? The case of a 'truckchaser' cruising for truckers, International Journal of Sexual Health, 2010
• Cruising for truckers on highways and the Internet: Sexual networks and infection risk, AIDS Education & Prevention (in press)

I use diverse qualitative and quantitative designs, methodologies, and analytical techniques that incorporate surveys, audit instruments, ethnographies, biometry, network analysis, as well as textual (NVivo) and multivariate statistical (SAS, SPSS) procedures. The eclectic use of these tools has helped me in the ascertainment of the aetiological pathways of morbidities, diminished work productivity, and health disparities among CMVO.

In addition to my UNCG appointment, I hold the post of clinical associate professor of medicine at Emory University. I have also taught and conducted epidemiological fieldwork in Cyprus, Ethiopia, Greece, and the UAE.

Courses I teach (or plan to teach) at UNCG include: Global Health, Social Epidemiology, Research Methods, Social Epidemiology of Obesity, Built Environment and Public Health, and Work and Health (psychosocial occupational epidemiology).

Page updated: 20-Dec-2010

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