My Research
SUMMARY
Personal Statement

I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Population Health at New York University. I completed my PhD in infectious disease epidemiology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a post-doctoral program in drug dependence at the National Development and Research Institutes, Inc. I completed a longitudinal cohort study among African American men being released from prison incarceration to examine factors driving STI/HIV-related drug use and sexual risk after release and buffering effects of social support from primary committed partners. Informed by cohort study findings, members of my team currently are piloting a novel couples-based STI/HIV prevention intervention adapted for jail/prison that aims to maintain and strengthen ties during incarceration to ensure intact support networks upon community re-entry, a stressful period when STI/HIV-related substance use and sexual risk is heightened. In a second line of work, I have extensive experience conducting secondary data analysis research using large nationally-representative data sources, including the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health). I completed an Add Health study that evaluated the role of adolescent substance use in adolescent and adulthood STI/HIV risk including the degree to which substance use-related criminal justice involvement mediates the association between substance use and STI/HIV risk. I have been funded to extend this Add Health work to look earlier in the life course at an upstream factor—childhood trauma—that may drive adolescent and adulthood substance use, criminal justice involvement, and infection.

Our team has conducted numerous studies on HIV-related drug and sex risk after release from incarceration including studies to establish incarceration as a structural determinant of HIV transmission. Specifically, our team has developed a novel conceptual model hypothesizing that incarceration, by disrupting social and sexual networks, contributes to reduced social cohesion, elevations in mental disorders, and drug and sex risk behaviors that drive HIV infection.

Khan MR, Rosen DL, Epperson M, Goldweber A, Hemberg J, Richardson J, Dyer T. Adolescent criminal justice involvement and adulthood sexually transmitted infection in a nationally-representative US sample. J Urb Health 2012; Aug;90(4):717-28. [PMCID: PMC3732694]
Khan MR, Epperson M, Mateu-Gelabert P, Bolyard M, Sandoval M, Friedman SR. Incarceration, sex with an STI- or HIV-infected partner, and STI or HIV in Bushwick, Brooklyn, NY: A social network perspective. AJPH 2011; Jun;101(6):1110-7. [PMCID: PMC3093283]
Khan MR, Doherty IA, Schoenbach VJ, Taylor EM, Epperson MW, Adimora AA. Incarceration and high-risk sex partnerships among men in the United States. J Urb Health 2009; Jul;86(4):584-601. [PMCID: PMC2704271]
Khan MR, Miller WC, Schoenbach VJ, Weir SS, Kaufman JS, Wohl DA, and Adimora AA. Timing and duration of incarceration and high-risk sexual partnerships among African Americans in North Carolina. Ann Epidemiol 2008; May;18(5):403-10. [PMCID: PMC2877367]