Anjum Hajat, Crystal Hall, and Marieka Klawitter Awarded RRF to Explore Finance, Stress, and Health for Low Wage Workers
Posted: 7/22/2018 (CSDE Research)
We’re excited to announce that CSDE Affiliates Anjum Hajat, Assistant Professor in the Department of Epidemiology, Crystal Hill, Professor at the Evans School, and Marieka Klawitter, Professor at the Evans School, are the recipients of a Royalty Research Fund Award. Their pilot study will explore the connections between family finances, stress, and health for low wage workers.
Hall, Hajat, and Klawitter will implement financial coaching in a low wage workplace to assess its feasibility and the workers’ take up and satisfaction with the intervention. They also plan to will assess family finances and general and financial stress for workers through pre and post surveys. In future work, they will use multiple worksites and measure the impact of coaching on household finances and levels of stress, including physiological measures. Once fully realized, the study will strengthen the evidence about the links between financial stress and health and the importance of the social determinants of health.
Ultimately, Hall, Hajat, and Klawitter plan to build on this work, along with Karin Martin, to look at the impacts of criminal justice system involvement on health through the pathways of financial stress via legal financial obligations and employment impacts.
CSDE’s development core provided early input to the team as they developed their concept into a research proposal. You can learn more about the Royalty Research Fund here.
Story updated 7/22/2018 to reflect the addition of project team faculty.