Randall Kuhn

Dr. Randall Kuhn (Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania, 1999) is a demographer and sociologist focused on the social determinants of health among vulnerable populations. He is an expert in survey design, longitudinal analysis and counterfactual research design. In the field of migration and health, Dr. Kuhn has designed new approaches to estimating the impact of migration on health. In global health, Dr. Kuhn leads a 35-year longitudinal study of the impact of health and development programs in Bangladesh. In the area of homelessness, Dr. Kuhn conducted some of the earliest quantitative research on health and substance use risks among chronically homeless adults. He led recent studies of COVID-19 mortality by homelessness status and race/ethnicity, unsheltered homelessness and health; and COVID-19 vaccination among unhoused populations. He currently leads the Periodic Assessment of Trajectories of Housing, Homelessness and Health Survey (PATHS), a representative, monthly survey of Los Angeles County's unhoused population. To learn more, visit: https://www.paths.la/

Dr. Kuhn is a fellow of the California Center for Population Research, where he serves as Chair of the Executive Committee. He also serves on the advisory boards of the UCLA Center for the Study of International Migration and the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment. Kuhn previously chaired the Population Sciences Subcommittee of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. For 10 years Dr. Kuhn was Director of the Global Health Affairs Program at the University of Denver, where he developed an innovative curriculum, tripled enrollments, and built a programmatic emphasis on the health and human rights of disabled, LGBTQ, indigenous, and migrant populations as an essential component of achieving global health justice and equity. Dr. Kuhn founded the Goal 18 campaign for inclusive UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Areas of Interest

• Homelessness
• Global health
• Migration and immigrant health
• Social determinants of health
• Program planning and evaluation
• Longitudinal research design
• Survey design
• Administrative data analysis
• International development

Selected Publications

• Byrne T, Doran KM, Kuhn R, et al. Persistence of a Birth Cohort Effect in the US Among the Adult Homeless Population. JAMA Network Open. 2024;7(12):e2452163. http://dx.doi.org//10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.52163
• Padwa H, Chien J, Henwood BF, Cousins SJ, Zakher E, Kuhn R. Homelessness, discrimination, and violent victimization in Los Angeles County. American journal of preventive medicine. 2024 Nov 1;67(5):666-75. https://www.ajpmonline.org/article/S0749-3797(24)00212-5/fulltext
• Delgado Garcia, M.A., Chinchilla, M., Henwood, B., Chien, J., Kwack, S. and Kuhn, R., 2024. Latino-Hispanic Unsheltered Homelessness Before and After COVID-19. American journal of public health, 114(S6): .S510-S514. https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/full/10.2105/AJPH.2024.307717
• Chien, J., Henwood, B.F., Clair, P.S., Kwack, S. and Kuhn, R., 2024. Predicting hotspots of unsheltered homelessness using geospatial administrative data and volunteered geographic information. Health & Place, 88,: 103267. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1353829224000959
• West, H., Khan, A., Razzaque, A. and Kuhn, R., 2024. Migration, gender, and families: The effects of spousal migration on women’s empowerment. Demography, 61(3): 769. https://doi.org/10.1215/00703370-11370243
• Barham T, Kuhn R, Turner PS. No place like home: Long-run impacts of early child health and family planning on labor and migration outcomes. Journal of Human Resources. 2023 Dec 11. https://jhr.uwpress.org/content/early/2023/12/01/jhr.0322-12209R2
• Porter NA, Brosnan HK, Chang AH, Henwood BF, Kuhn R. Race and ethnicity and sex variation in COVID-19 mortality risks among adults experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles County, California. JAMA Network Open. 2022 Dec 1;5(12):e2245263. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2799217
• Jessica Richards, Randall Kuhn. 2022. Unsheltered homelessness and health: A literature review. AJPM Focus: 100043. https://www.ajpmfocus.org/article/S2773-0654(22)00041-4/fulltext
• Kuhn R, B Henwood, A Lawton, M Kleva, K Murali, C King, L Gelberg. 2021.COVID-19 vaccine access and attitudes among people experiencing homelessness from pilot mobile phone survey in Los Angeles, CA. PLoS One 16(7): e0255246.
• Barham T, B Champion, A Foster, J Hamadani, C Jochem^, G Kagy,R Kuhn, J Menken, A Razzaque, ED Root, P Turner.2021.Thirty-five years later: Long-term effects of the Matlab maternal and child health / family planning program on older women’s well-being. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,118 (28) e2101160118.
• Galemba R, RKuhn. 2021.“No Place for Old Men”: Immigrant Duration, Wage theft and Economic Mobility among Day Laborers in Denver, Colorado. International Migration Review, doi:10.1177/01979183211001370.
• Haro A,R Kuhn, M Rodriguez, N Theodore, E Melendez, A Valenzuela. 2020.Beyond Occupational Hazards: Abuse of Day Laborers and Health. Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health 22: 1172-1183.
• Kuhn R, T Barham, A Razzaque, P Turner. 2020.Health and wellbeing of male international migrants and non-migrants in Bangladesh: a cross-sectional follow-up study. PLoS Medicine, 17(3): e1003081.
• Riosmena F, R Kuhn, C Jochem. 2017. Explaining the immigrant health advantage: self-selection and protection among five major national-origin immigrant groups in the United States. Demography 54(1): 175-200.
• R Kuhn, D Rothman, et al. 2016 Beyond Attributable Burden: A scenario-based dynamic forecast of the avoidable burden of disease associated with household air pollution. PLoS One 11(3): e0149669.
• AM Mobarak, R Kuhn, C Peters 2013.Consanguinity and other Marriage Market Effects of a Wealth Shock in Bangladesh. Demography 50: 1845-1871.
• R Kuhn 2012.On the Role of Human Development in the Arab Spring. Population and Development Review 38(4): 649-683.
• R Beall, R Kuhn 2012.Trends in International Compulsory Licensing of Pharmaceuticals since the Doha Declaration: A Database Analysis. PLoS Medicine 9(1): 1-9.B
• Hughes, R Kuhn, C Peterson, D Rothman, J Solorzano 2011. Improving Global Health: Forecasting the Next 50 years. Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers and New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
• R Kuhn, B Everett, R Silvey 2011.The Effects of Children’s Migration on Elderly Kin’s Health: A Counterfactual Approach. Demography 48(1): 183-209.
• R Kuhn 2010.Routes to Low Mortality in Poor Countries Revisited, Population and Development Review 36(4): 655-692.
• R Kuhn 2006.The Effects of Fathers’ and Siblings’ Migration on Children’s Pace of Schooling in a Migrant-Sending Region of Bangladesh, Asian Population Studies 2(1): 69-92.