Paula Strassle, Ph.D., M.S.P.H.

Staff Scientist
Division of Intramural Research
paula.strassle@nih.gov
301-594-5175

Dr. Paula Strassle is a staff scientist in the Division of Intramural Research at the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities. Her research focuses on identifying individual and neighborhood level factors that lead to disparities in health care utilization (including preventative care) and health outcomes. Some of her current work includes identifying the reasons why racial and ethnic minorities have worse outcomes after traumatic injury, assessing the role acculturation plays in flu vaccination rates, and examining the impact of delayed health care during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr. Strassle specializes in leveraging high-dimensional health care data and advanced epidemiologic methods to conduct health services research that can inform clinical practice and reduce health disparities in marginalized populations. She is also interested in exploring the impact of bias in large, observational datasets and making complex epidemiologic methods accessible to junior researchers and clinical audiences.

Dr. Strassle received her M.S.P.H. in epidemiology from Emory University in 2014 and her Ph.D. in epidemiology in 2019 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Prior to joining NIMHD, she was a research assistant professor in the Department of Surgery at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Selected Publications

1. Nápoles A.M., Stewart A.L., Strassle P.D., Quintero S., Bonilla J., Alhomsi A., Santana-Ufret V., Maldonado A.I., & Pérez-Stable E.J. (2021). Racial/ethnic disparities in intent to obtain a COVID-19 vaccine: A nationally representative survey. Preventative Medicine Reports. Epub ahead of print. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pmedr.2021.101653
2. Reid, T.D., Shrestha, R., Stone, L., Gallaher, J., Charles, A.G., & Strassle, P.D. (2021). Socioeconomic disparities in ostomy reversal among older adults with diverticulitis are more substantial among non-Hispanic Black patients. Surgery. 170(4), 1039-1046. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.surg.2021.03.050
3. McGinigle, K.L., Browder, S.E., Strassle, P.D., Shalhub, S., Harris, L.M., & Minc, S.D. (2021). Sex-related disparities in intervention rates and type of intervention in patients with aortic and peripheral arterial diseases in the National Inpatient Sample Database. Journal of Vascular Surgery. 73(6), 2081-2089. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvs.2020.11.034
4. Carter, T.M., Strassle, P.D., Ollila, D.W., Stitzenberg, K.B., Meyers, M.O., & Maduekwe, U.N. (2021). Does acral lentiginous melanoma subtype account for differences in patterns of care in Black patients? The American Journal of Surgery. 221(4), 706-711. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amjsurg.2020.12.040
5. Jackson, B.E., Greenup, R.A., Strassle, P.D., Deal, A.M., Baggett, C.D., Lund, J.L., & Reeder-Hayes, K.E. (2021). Understanding and identifying immortal-time bias in surgical health services research: An example using surgical resection of stage IV breast cancer. Surgical Oncology. 37, 101539. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.suronc.2021.101539
6. Strassle, P.D., Sickbert-Bennett, E.E., Klompas, M., Lund, J.L., Stewart, P.W., Marx, A.H., DiBiase, L.M., & Weber, D.J. (2020). Incidence and risk factors of non-device associated pneumonia in an acute care hospital. Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology. 41(1), 73-79. https://doi.org/10.1017/ice.2019.300

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Page updated October 7, 2022