Department of Sociology

David Russell, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Appalachian State University. He earned his PhD in sociology from Florida State University and completed a National Institute of Mental Health Postdoctoral Fellowship in Mental Health Services and Systems at the Institute for Health, Health Care Policy, and Aging Research at Rutgers University. His teaching and research interests include medical sociology, aging, stress and mental health. Some of the courses he has recently taught include Senior Capstone, Social Statistics & Data Analysis, and Medical Sociology. His current research explores the social organization and outcomes of health care services. Some of the projects he is currently involved with include (1) an exploration of the illness experiences of people with Long COVID and their use of online communities, (2) an examination of family caregivers of people with Alzheimer's disease and dementia in rural Appalachia and factors which influence their use of home and community-based services, (3) a descriptive study of perspectives towards COVID-19 vaccination among home health aides, and (4) a quantitative study identifying associations between measures of state capacity and COVID-19 vaccination uptake across phases of the pandemic.

 Courses Taught

• Senior Capstone
• Social Statistics and Data Analysis
• Medical Sociology
• The Sociological Perspective

Research Interests

• Medical Sociology
• Aging & the Life Course
• Sociology of Stress and Mental Health 
• Quantitative and Qualitative Research Methods

Recent Publications

Liu, L. G., Russell, D., Turchioe, M. R., Myers, A. C., Baker, C. M., Pathak, J., & Creber, R. M. M. (2022). Faces Scales for Anxiety and Anger Faces: A National Study of Measurement Properties. The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 83(5), Published Online Ahead-of-Print.

Fong, M. C., Russell, D., Gao, O., & Franzosa, E. (2022). Contextual forces shaping home-based healthcare services between 2010 and 2020: Insights from the social-ecological model and organizational theory. The Gerontologist. Published Online Ahead-of-Print

Liu, L. G., Russell, D., Turchioe, M. R., Myers, A. C., Vawdrey, D. K., & Creber, R. M. M. (2022). Effect of Expansion of Abbreviations and Acronyms on Patient Comprehension of Their Health Records: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Network Open, Published Online Ahead-of-Print.

Reckrey, J. M., Perez, S., Watman, D., Ornstein, K. A., Russell, D., & Franzosa, E. (2022). The Need for Stability in Paid Dementia Care: Family Caregiver Perspectives. Journal of Applied Gerontology, Published Online Ahead-of-Print.

Russell, D., Burgdorf, J. G., Kramer, C., & Chase, J. A. D. (2021). Family Caregivers' Conceptions of Trust in Home Health Care Providers. Research in Gerontological Nursing, 14(4), 200-210.

Weissman, J. D., Lim, S., Durr, M., El Shahawy, O., & Russell, D. (2021). The current social environment and its association with serious psychological distress among adults who identify as lesbian, gay, and bisexual: findings from the National Health Interview Survey (2013–2018). Journal of Public Health, 1-9.

Widmar, M., Keskin, M., Strombom, P., Gennarelli, R. L., Szeglin, B. C., Smith, J. J., Nash, G.M., Weiser, M.R., Paty, P.B., Russell, D. & Garcia-Aguilar, J. (2021). Evaluating the Validity of the Clavien-Dindo Classification in Colectomy Studies: A 90-Day Cost of Care Analysis. Diseases of the Colon & Rectum.

Luth, E. A., Russell, D. J., Xu, J. C., Lauder, B., Ryvicker, M. B., Dignam, R. R., ... & Prigerson, H. G. Survival in hospice patients with dementia: the effect of home hospice and nurse visits. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, Published Ahead-of-Print.

Russell, D., Dowding, D., Trifilio, M., McDonald, M. V., Song, J., Adams, V., ... & Shang, J. (2021) Individual, social, and environmental factors for infection risk among home healthcare patients: A multi‐method study. Health & Social Care in the Community, Published Ahead-of-Print. 

Dowding, D., Russell, D., McDonald, M. V., Trifilio, M., Song, J., Brickner, C., & Shang, J. (2021). “A catalyst for action”: Factors for implementing clinical risk prediction models of infection in home care settings. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 28(2), 334-341.

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