Dr. Grigsby’s research interests span three conceptual domains that share a focus on addressing health disparities and promoting community health in diverse populations:
1) Substance misuse and related negative behaviors. Dr. Grigsby’s primary research interest is in the conceptualization, measurement, and prevention of substance misuse in adolescent and young adult populations. He is also interested in underlying factors that promote concurrent substance misuse and other negative health behaviors (such as violent behavior, risky sexual practices, and behavioral addictions).
2) Health communication. Dr. Grigsby has also been involved in the development and evaluation of fotonovelas to communicate health messages to populations with low health literacy. Comparable to a comic book, a fotonovela is a story told through photos and limited text. The medium, well known among Hispanic/Latino groups, often covers social issues with soap opera-like storylines. He has contributed to several projects covering issues around depression, obesity, breast cancer screening, dementia, and immunizations.
3) Research methodology. Dr. Grigsby has a broad interest in research methodology and statistical methods for analyzing health data. Currently, he is exploring the use of coarsened exact matching as an alternative to propensity score matching to derive causal inference from observational data and the influence of different missing data strategies on the statistical conclusion validity of studies using non-representative sampling procedures.
