Research

As a gerontologist and population health scientist, I study how contextual, social, biological, and psychosocial processes operate across the life course to shape health and disease risk in later life. Using large, population-based survey data, much of my work highlights the diversity within the U.S.Latiné population (e.g., nativity, cultural/country of origin, gender, and place) to better understand and reduce health disparities in aging.

Research themes

Heterogeneity in Latiné aging. Latinés are often studied as a single group, which hides enormous variation. My work disaggregates the population (e.g., by nativity, cultural/country of origin, gender, and place) to reveal how health and healthspan differ across subgroups.

Structural inequity and health disparities. I examine how structural (ethno)racism, policy environments, and social conditions produce disparities in later-life health.

Aging in Puerto Rico. Older adults in Puerto Rico face a distinctive context of economic hardship, out-migration, and repeated disasters. I build and use contextual data resources to document their living conditions and inform local research and policy.

Biological aging. Using biomarkers and longitudinal data, I study patterns of biological risk and aging across diverse older populations.

Funding

My research has been supported by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) of the National Institutes of Health, including a research supplement under grant R01 AG064769, which funded the Puerto Rico Contextual Data Resource described below.

Featured project

Puerto Rico Contextual Data Resource (PR-CDR)

The PR-CDR is a contextual data resource curated for the Puerto Rican Elderly Health Conditions Project (PREHCO). Policymakers, researchers, and community members in Puerto Rico are hindered by a lack of up-to-date, reliable, and accessible data about the local context; the PR-CDR helps fill that gap and raises awareness about the living conditions of older adults on the island.

Developed in collaboration with Alberto García Gurucharri (University of Puerto Rico) and Michael Crowe (University of Alabama at Birmingham), and funded by NIA grant R01 AG064769.

Learn more about the PR-CDR →

Selected publications

For the complete, current list, see Google Scholar or ORCID.

• García, C., Kemp, B. R., Boen, C., & Garcia, M. A. (2026). Heterogeneity in healthy aging among U.S. Latinos: A dual functionality perspective. The Journals of Gerontology: Series B.