Beth Waitzfelder, PhD, is a sociologist with a research portfolio focusing on the organization and processes of health care delivery for groups of people defined by widely varying social and clinical characteristics. Her interests include health care organization and quality, health disparities, and epidemiology studies describing patterns of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, mental health, and associated health care utilization.
Dr. Waitzfelder has worked as a community-based investigator and within research departments of large general health and mental health care systems for more than 25 years. Throughout much of her career, she has addressed appropriate methods of inclusion and consideration of the broad and diverse population of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, and well-defined mixed-race groups. This work is the focus of two of her current NIH-funded projects, the Hawaii Asian and Pacific Islander Diabetes study (HAPI-D) and Cardiovascular Disease Among Asians and Pacific Islanders (CASPER) studies.
Before joining CHR-Hawaii in 2010, Dr. Waitzfelder was an investigator at the Pacific Health Research Institute in Honolulu for nearly 20 years, and the assistant director of research and evaluation at a psychiatric center in New York.
She received her master’s degree in sociology from the State University of New York at Buffalo and her doctorate in sociology from the University of Hawaii.
Selected Publications
- Waitzfelder B, Stewart C, Coleman KJ, Rossom R, Ahmedani BK, Beck A, Zeber JE, Daida YG, Trinacty C, Hubley S, Simon GE. Treatment initiation for new episodes of depression in primary care settings. J Gen Intern Med. 2018 Feb 8. doi: 10.1007/s11606-017-4297-2. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 29423624.
- Young DR, Fischer H, Arterburn D, Bessesen D, Cromwell L, Daley MF, Desai J, Ferrara A, Fitzpatrick SL, Horberg MA, Koebnick C, Nau CL, Oshiro C, Waitzfelder B, Yamamoto A. Associations of overweight/obesity and socioeconomic status with hypertension prevalence across racial and ethnic groups. J Clin Hypertens (Greenwich). 2018 Mar;20(3):532-540. doi: 10.1111/jch.13217. Epub 2018 Feb 12. PubMed PMID: 29432662.
- Ahmedani BK, Peterson EL, Hu Y, Rossom RC, Lynch F, Lu CY, Waitzfelder BE, Owen-Smith AA, Hubley S, Prabhakar D, Williams LK, Zeld N, Mutter E, Beck A, Tolsma D, Simon GE. Major physical health conditions and risk of suicide. Am J Prev Med. 2017 Sep;53(3):308-315. doi: 10.1016/j.amepre.2017.04.001. Epub 2017 Jun 12. PubMed PMID: 28619532; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5598765.
- Simon GE, Johnson E, Stewart C, Rossom RC, Beck A, Coleman KJ, Waitzfelder B, Penfold R, Operskalski BH, Shortreed SM. Does patient adherence to antidepressant medication actually vary between physicians? J Clin Psychiatry. 2017 Oct 24. pii:16m11324. doi: 10.4088/JCP.16m11324. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 29068611.
- Zeber JE, Coleman KJ, Fischer H, Yoon TK, Ahmedani BK, Beck A, Hubley S, Imel ZE, Rossom RC, Shortreed SM, Stewart C, Waitzfelder BE, Simon GE. The impact of race and ethnicity on rates of return to psychotherapy for depression. Depress Anxiety. 2017 Dec;34(12):1157-1163. doi: 10.1002/da.22696. Epub 2017 Nov 2. PubMed PMID: 29095538; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5718939.
- Coleman KJ, Stewart C, Waitzfelder BE, Zeber JE, Morales LS, Ahmed AT, Ahmedani BK, Beck A, Copeland LA, Cummings JR, Hunkeler EM, Lindberg NM, Lynch F, Lu CY, Owen-Smith AA, Trinacty CM, Whitebird RR, Simon GE. Racial-ethnic differences in psychiatric diagnoses and treatment across 11 health care systems in the mental health research network. Psychiatr Serv. 2016 Jul 1;67(7):749-57.doi: 10.1176/appi.ps.201500217. Epub 2016 Apr 15. PubMed PMID: 27079987; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4930394.
- Ahmedani BK, Stewart C, Simon GE, Lynch F, Lu CY, Waitzfelder BE, Solberg LI, Owen-Smith AA, Beck A, Copeland LA, Hunkeler EM, Rossom RC, Williams K. Racial/ethnic differences in health care visits made before suicide attempt across the United States. Med Care. 2015 May;53(5):430-5. PMCID: PMC4397662
- Waitzfelder B, Pihoker C, Klingensmith G, Case D, Anderson A, Bell RA, Lawrence JM, Mayer-Davis EJ, Imperatore G, Standiford D, Rodriguez BL, Dabelea D, Seid M; SEARCH for Diabetes in Youth Study Group. Adherence to guidelines for youths with diabetes mellitus. Pediatrics. 2011 Sep;128(3):531-8.
- Waitzfelder B, Gerzoff RB, Karter AJ, Crystal S, Bair MJ, Ettner SL, Brown AF, Subramanian U, Lu SE, Marrero D, Herman WH, Selby JV, Dudley RA. Correlates of depression among people with diabetes: The Translating Research Into Action for Diabetes (TRIAD) study. Prim Care Diabetes. 2010 Dec;4(4):215-22. PMCID: PMC2743318
- Selby JV, Swain BE, Gerzoff RB, Karter AJ, Waitzfelder BE, Brown AF, Ackermann RT, Duru OK, Ferrara A, Herman W, Marrero DG, Caputo D, Narayan KM; TRIAD Study Group. Understanding the gap between good processes of diabetes care and poor intermediate outcomes: Translating Research into Action for Diabetes (TRIAD). Med Care. 2007 Dec;45(12):1144-53.
- Duru OK, Mangione CM, Steers NW, Herman WH, Karter AJ, Kountz D, Marrero DG, Safford MM, Waitzfelder B, Gerzoff RB, Huh S, Brown AF; TRIAD Study Group. The association between clinical care strategies and the attenuation of racial/ethnic disparities in diabetes care: The Translating Research Into Action for Diabetes (TRIAD) Study. Med Care. 2006 Dec;44(12):1121-8.
- Waitzfelder BE, Engel Jr CC, Gilbert Jr FI. Substance Abuse in Hawaii: Perspectives of key local human service organizations. Subst Abus. 1998 Mar;19(1):7-22.