Briana Mezuk
· Professor, EpidemiologyUniversity of Michigan · Epidemiology
Active 2007–2025
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About
Briana Mezuk is a Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Michigan School of Public Health and serves as the Director of Masters Studies in Epidemiology. Her research program uses epidemiologic methods to examine the interrelationships between mental and physical health over the lifespan, integrating conceptual and analytical approaches from social science and clinical disciplines to develop a nuanced understanding of health interrelations. Her work aims to inform interventions that adopt an integrative approach to health, with a focus on mental health, aging, chronic disease, diabetes, health equity, and social epidemiology. Dr. Mezuk completed her doctoral training in the Psychiatric Epidemiology Training Program at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and was a fellow with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health and Society Scholars Program at the University of Michigan. Her research includes projects such as the Mood and Immune Regulation in Twins Study, the Richmond Stress and Sugar Study, and the ATLAS Project, which investigates suicide risk during major life transitions. She has contributed to understanding disparities in health related to race and socioeconomic status, stress reactivity, and the psychosocial care needs of patients with diabetes. Her work emphasizes the importance of interdisciplinary approaches to population health and health disparities.
Research topics
- Medicine
- Psychology
- Family medicine
- Psychiatry
- Biology
- Environmental health
- Nursing
- Medical education
- Immunology
- Genetics
Selected publications
Depression and interleukin-6 signaling: A Mendelian Randomization study
Brain Behavior and Immunity · 2021 · 117 citations
Senior authorCorrespondingBACKGROUND: A large body of research has reported associations between depression and elevated interleukin-6 (IL-6), a cytokine with several roles including pro-inflammatory signaling. The nature and directionality of this relationship are not yet clear. In this study we use Mendelian Randomization to examine the possibility of a causal relationship between IL-6 and depressive symptoms, and to explore multiple signaling pathways that could serve as mechanisms for this relationship. METHODS: This…
Pedagogy in Health Promotion · 2020 · 34 citations
1st authorCorrespondingIn the past decade, the number of undergraduate public health programs has increased exponentially. This growth provides a unique opportunity to explore concepts and issues relevant to understanding the determinants of health at a population level using new pedagogical approaches. One of these issues is stigma toward mental disorders. Stigma is a concept that refers to a feature or characteristic that reduces, devalues, and disempowers a person. Given the prevalence of mental and substance use d…
Diabetic Medicine · 2025-01-11 · 6 citations
articleOpen accessDiabetes is an increasingly common, long-term condition, requiring 24/7 self-care and constituting one of the greatest health challenges of our time. As with all ‘wicked problems’, a one-size-fits-all approach to care is doomed to fail. In 2020, we welcomed the first international consensus report on precision diabetes medicine, which included a section on patient-centred mental health and quality of life outcomes.1 This included the recommendation that, ‘in the setting of precision diabetes med…
Healthcare · 2025-06-14 · 3 citations
articleOpen access1st authorCorrespondingBACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Mental disorders and diabetes-related distress (DRD) are under-addressed aspects of person-centered diabetes care. This study examines the burden of depression, anxiety, and DRD among adults with type 1 (T1D), latent autoimmune diabetes in adults (LADA), type 2 (T2D), and gestational diabetes (GD), and explores their experiences and barriers in receiving mental health services. METHODS: This study uses quantitative data from the 2023/24 Diabetes, Distress, and Disparities…
BMJ Open · 2025-02-01 · 2 citations
articleOpen accessSenior authorCorrespondingINTRODUCTION: Efforts to increase engagement with diabetes prevention programmes largely focus on increasing diabetes awareness, with the logic that risk knowledge will motivate behaviour change. However, the salience of perceived risk as it relates to diabetes prevention is contested. The goal of this cross-sectional, embedded mixed-methods study was to examine the relationships between perceived risk, diabetes beliefs and prevention behaviours among adults at elevated risk of type 2 diabetes.…
Recent grants
A public health approach to understanding suicide in long-term care
NIH · $407k · 2017–2020
Michigan Center for Urban African American Aging Research
NIH · $2.8M · 1997–2028
Aging, Major Life Transitions, and Suicide Risk
NIH · $3.9M · 2022–2026
Frequent coauthors
- 59 shared
Liming Dong
- 53 shared
Lynda D. Lisabeth
University of Michigan–Ann Arbor
- 49 shared
Linda S. Williams
Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis
- 46 shared
Viktoryia Kalesnikava
University of Michigan–Ann Arbor
- 40 shared
Sandro Galea
Boston University
- 39 shared
Kenneth Tardiff
Cornell University
- 39 shared
David Vlahov
Yale University
- 38 shared
Marta R. Prescott
Boston University
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