Research

Interests

My research program sits at the intersection of statistical methodology and applied public-health research. Three overlapping strands:

Cancer disparities & early-onset colorectal cancer. A line of work I’ve been building since my EVMS days, extending through several intramural and extramural grants. I look at how neighborhood characteristics, environmental exposures, and structural barriers shape stage-at-diagnosis and treatment patterns — with particular attention to young-onset cases in underserved populations.

Machine learning in health outcomes. Over the past several years I’ve been applying machine-learning approaches to problems where classical regression struggles: high-dimensional predictors, complex interactions, and data quality issues typical of registry-based and population-based studies. Recent work applies these methods to colorectal cancer outcomes, breast cancer recurrence, and cancer risk prediction across socioeconomic gradients.

Methods for confounding & propensity scores. My doctoral work on propensity-score methods when association is measured by AUC remains active — in subsequent publications I’ve shown that naive propensity-score adjustment can bias the conditional AUC, a subtle but consequential finding for diagnostic-accuracy studies in observational data.

By the numbers: 20 peer-reviewed journal articles, 19 published abstracts, 54 conference presentations, 8 invited talks. Principal Investigator on 9 awarded grants in cancer, machine-learning, and health-disparities research.

Selected Publications

• Navigating new normals: Student perceptions, experiences, and mental health service utilization in post-pandemic academia

  Galadima, H., Dumadag, A., & Tonn, C. (2024)

  Education Sciences, 14(2), 125

  Examines student mental-health service utilization patterns during the return-to-campus transition, identifying barriers to care for graduate public-health cohorts.

  #pedagogy#mental-health#covid

• Machine learning as a tool for early detection: A focus on late-stage colorectal cancer across socioeconomic spectrums

  Galadima, H., Anson-Dwamena, R., Johnson, A., Bello, G., Adunlin, G., & Blando, J. (2024)

  Cancers, 16(3), 540

  Applies machine-learning classifiers to population-level registry data to identify socioeconomic factors associated with late-stage colorectal cancer diagnosis, with specific attention to disparities across income and neighborhood tiers.

  #cancer#machine-learning#SDOH#colorectal

• Experiences with COVID-19 stress among Hispanic/Latino farmworkers

  Berumen-Flucker, B., Galadima, H., Shangani, S., Kekeh, M., & Akpinar-Elci, M. (2023)

  Journal of Agricultural Safety and Health, 29(3), 159–172

  Mixed-methods characterization of pandemic-era stressors on Hispanic/Latino farmworkers in the Eastern US, informing occupational and public-health response frameworks.

  #SDOH#covid#occupational-health

• Pregnancy intention and breastfeeding behaviors in Virginia: A secondary analysis of PRAMS data

  Carter, M., Galadima, H., & Akpinar-Elci, M. (2023)

  Clinical Lactation, 14(2), 63–71

  Secondary analysis of Virginia PRAMS data linking pregnancy intention to postpartum breastfeeding initiation and duration.

  #maternal-health#SDOH

• Politics, preparedness, or resources: Examining state responsiveness to the COVID-19 pandemic

  Lucero, L., Diaz-Kope, L., & Galadima, H. (2022)

  Politics and the Life Sciences, 1–13

  Cross-state analysis of early-pandemic responsiveness, disentangling the roles of political leadership, preparedness infrastructure, and resource availability.

  #covid#health-policy

• Is age of menarche directly related to vitamin D levels?

  Al-Taiar, A., Al-Sabah, R., Shaban, L., Sharaf Alddin, R., Durgampudi, P. K., & Galadima, H. (2022)

  American Journal of Human Biology, e23731

  Tests whether serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels predict age at menarche after adjusting for BMI, adiposity, and dietary intake in a pediatric cohort.

  #maternal-health

• Observations of delayed changes in respiratory function among allergy clinic patients exposed to wildfire smoke

  Blando, J., Allen, M., Galadima, H., Tolson, T., Akpinar-Elci, M., & Szklo-Coxe, M. (2022)

  International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(3), 1241

  Documents delayed-onset respiratory function decline in allergy-clinic patients following wildfire smoke exposure, supporting longer observation windows in post-exposure screening.

  #environmental-health

• Racial disparities and treatment trends among young-onset colorectal cancer patients: An analysis of a hospital cancer registry

  Galadima, H. I., Adunlin, G., Hughes, M. S., Cropp, C. D., Lucero, L., & Akpinar-Elci, M. (2021)

  Cancer Epidemiology, 72, 101911

  Characterizes racial disparities in treatment patterns and clinical presentation among early-onset colorectal cancer patients, drawing on an 8-year Virginia hospital registry.

  #cancer#SDOH#colorectal

• Predictive modeling and estimation of the doubling time of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Niger

  Sidi Zakari, I., & Galadima, H. (2020)

  Annales de l'Université Abdou Moumouni de Niamey, XXVII(1–2), 89–103

  Predictive modeling of COVID-19 case doubling time in Niger during the early-pandemic period, developed as a consulting collaboration for UNICEF.

  #covid#methods

• Predictors of biologic use and satisfaction among patients with psoriasis: An analysis and geographic visualization of the 2016 and 2017 National Psoriasis Foundation annual surveys

  Enos, C. W., Galadima, H., Saini, A. D., Bell, S., Siegel, M., & Van Voorhees, A. S. (2020)

  Journal of Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis, 5(3), 100–108

  Geographic and sociodemographic analysis of biologic therapy uptake among psoriasis patients in the US, combining two NPF survey waves.

  #health-services

• Postmortem dental records identification by dental hygiene students: A pilot study

  Bradshaw, B. T., Bruhn, A. M., Newcomb, T. L., & Galadima, H. (2020)

  Journal of Dental Hygiene, 94(4), 39–46

  Pilot study evaluating dental hygiene students’ ability to perform forensic identification from postmortem dental records.

  #pedagogy#health-services

• Controlling for confounding via propensity score methods can result in biased estimation of the conditional AUC: A simulation study

  Galadima, H. I., & McClish, D. K. (2019)

  Pharmaceutical Statistics, 18(5), 568–582

  Demonstrates through a large simulation study that naive propensity-score adjustment biases the conditional AUC in diagnostic-accuracy studies, with implications for risk-prediction research in observational data.

  #methods#propensity-scores

• Fetal myocardial performance index in the third trimester of pregnancy: Feasibility and reproducibility of conventional spectral Doppler versus spectral tissue Doppler technique

  Porche, L. M., Sinkovskaya, E., Seaman, R. D., Galadima, H., Romary, L., Philips, J., & Abuhamad, A. (2019)

  American Journal of Perinatology

  Methodological comparison of two Doppler techniques for measuring fetal myocardial performance in the third trimester, assessing reproducibility and clinical feasibility.

  #maternal-health#methods

• Injuries associated with hoverboard use: A review of the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System

  McIlvain, C., Galadima, H., Tzavaras, T. J., & Weingart, G. S. (2019)

  American Journal of Emergency Medicine, 37(3), 472–477

  NEISS-based surveillance analysis characterizing hoverboard-associated injury patterns by age, body region, and disposition, supporting product-safety policy discussion.

  #injury-epi

• Macrophages but not astrocytes harbor HIV DNA in the brains of HIV-1–infected aviremic individuals on suppressive antiretroviral therapy

  Ko, A., Kang, G., Hattler, J. B., Galadima, H. I., Zhang, J., Li, Q., & Kim, W.-K. (2018)

  Journal of Neuroimmune Pharmacology, 14(1), 110–119

  Single-cell analysis localizing HIV DNA reservoirs to brain macrophages in aviremic individuals on suppressive antiretroviral therapy, with implications for HIV cure strategies.

  #hiv#basic-science

• Moderate sedation or monitored anesthesia care for colonoscopies: Is there a difference?

  Ng, M., Dhanani, R., Galadima, H., & Burgess, J. (2018)

  The American Surgeon, 84(8), 1284–1287

  Comparative-effectiveness analysis of sedation strategies for screening colonoscopy, assessing patient-reported outcomes and procedural efficiency.

  #health-services

• Relationship between cavum septi pellucidi measurements and fetal hypoplastic left heart syndrome or dextro-transposition of the great arteries

  Saadeh, M., Zhao, Y., Galadima, H., Chaoui, R., Sinkovskaya, E., & Abuhamad, A. (2018)

  Journal of Ultrasound in Medicine, 37(7), 1673–1680

  Evaluates fetal cavum septi pellucidi measurements as a prenatal ultrasound marker for major congenital heart defects.

  #maternal-health#methods

• Structural barriers to comprehensive, coordinated HIV care: Geographic accessibility in the US South

  Kimmel, A. D., Masiano, S. P., Bono, R. S., Martin, E. G., Belgrave, F. Z., Adimora, A. A., Galadima, H., & Sabik, L. M. (2018)

  AIDS Care, 30(11), 1459–1468

  Geographic-accessibility analysis of comprehensive HIV care in the US South, quantifying structural barriers across rural and urban contexts.

  #hiv#SDOH#health-services

• The role of neighborhood characteristics in late-stage melanoma diagnosis among Hispanic men in California, Texas, and Florida, 1996–2012

  Harvey, V. M., Enos, C. W., Chen, J. T., Galadima, H., & Eschbach, K. (2017)

  Journal of Cancer Epidemiology, 2017, 8418904

  Multi-state spatial analysis showing that neighborhood-level characteristics modulate late-stage melanoma diagnosis among Hispanic men over a 17-year window.

  #cancer#SDOH

• Clinical outcomes of HIV care delivery models in the US: A systematic review

  Kimmel, A. D., Martin, E. G., Galadima, H., Bono, R. S., Tehrani, A. B., Cyrus, J. W., & Krist, A. H. (2016)

  AIDS Care, 28(10), 1215–1222

  Systematic review synthesizing evidence on HIV care-delivery models in the US, mapping clinical outcomes to structural characteristics.

  #hiv#health-services#systematic-review

Selected grants

• Knowledge, Attitude, and Perceived Barriers towards Breast Cancer Screening among Female African Immigrants — Johns Hopkins University (2025–2026).
• Predicting Health Outcomes Among Cancer Patients in Virginia: A Population-Based Machine Learning Approach — ODU School of Public Health Initiatives Intramural Grant (2023–2024).
• Examining the Role of Neighborhood Characteristics on Geographic Variation in Colorectal Cancer: Spatial Analysis, Hierarchical Modeling, and Machine Learning Approaches — ODU SPH Intramural Grant (2022).
• Assessing the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on U.S. Hispanic/Latino Farmworkers — Johns Hopkins University (2021–2023).
• Understanding the Implications of Environmental Exposures in Colorectal Cancer Mortality in Virginia — Mary Louise Andrews Award for Cancer Research, Virginia Academy of Science (2019–2020).
• Individual and Neighborhood Predictors of Late-Stage Colorectal Cancer and Mortality, Virginia 2008–2016 — EVMS Sentara Healthcare Analytics and Delivery Science Institute (2017–2018).

Current projects

• Breast cancer recurrence prediction (ongoing): machine-learning approaches to population-based surveillance strategies. Presented at APHA 2025.
• Racial and ethnic disparities in breast cancer recurrence (ongoing): population-based cohort analysis, Virginia. Presented at APHA 2025.

Dissertation committee chair

Chairing dissertation committees in the PhD in Health Services Research program at ODU:

• Rexford Anson-Dwamena (2023–present)
• Mya Achike — Occupational Stress and Coping During a Public Health Emergency (defended 2024)
• Anne Dumadag — Mental Health Among the Asian American Population (2022–2024)
• Brenda Berumen-Flucker — Acculturative Stressors and Cultural Factors in Health and Safety of Hispanic/Latino Farmworkers (defended 2022)

Looking for the calculator? The open tools I built for teaching live at ztchi.hgaladima.com — free, no signup, no tracking, work shown.