William Grady

M.A. 1977, University of Washington. Fertility regulation, sexual behavior, STD/HIV risk and prevention behaviors, multi-level analysis.

Department: CPHRE
Position: Director, Site Operations
Email: click here
Phone: (206) 528-3136

Research Summary:

William R. Grady is a Health Research Leader at the Battelle Centers for Public Health Research and Evaluation (CPHRE), Seattle Operations. During the last three years, in collaboration with other Battelle colleagues, he has designed, directed and conducted a number of NIH-funded studies examining how social, demographic and contextual factors affect such health-related behaviors as the fertility regulation and AIDS acquisition and AIDS prevention behavior of men and women, and the use of alcohol and other drugs among adolescents. Importantly, Grady has adopted an approach to the investigation of contraceptive and disease prevention behaviors that explicitly recognizes that such decisions take place within the context of sexual relationships. Indeed, in his current study that uses data from the Cycle V National Survey of Family Growth, he models the decision by young, unmarried women to use dual methods (the use of a highly effective method with the condom for disease prevention) as being jointly determine with decisions about relationship entrances and exits, particularly those that affect whether the woman is in multiple, concurrent relationships. Further, by constructing a micro-simulation model of these jointly-determined behaviors, he is able to provide a comprehensive understanding of the role of both individual and relationship factors in determining women’s dual use.

In addition to these substantive contributions to basic and policy-relevant research, Grady and his Battelle colleagues were contacted by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) who asked that we provided them with information about the experiences in designing and implementing the 1991 National Survey of Men (NSM). This information was deemed important by NCHS as they made plans for including men in Cycle 6 and subsequent cycles of the NSFG. We also made recommendations for the questionnaire content and methodology to collect quality data on sexual partners in the Cycle 6 NSFG male and female surveys.

Grady also collaborated with John Billy and other Battelle colleagues in constructing contextual databases that provides other investigators with the means to examine the effects on health-related behaviors of the structural characteristics of communities. In 1997 and 1998, respectively, they designed and created the contextual database for NCHS that is linked with the NSFG-V and the contextual database that is linked to the Add Health data set. They continue to provide consultation in the use of those databases.