Rainier Masa’s research focuses on the economic and social aspects of health in low-resource communities. He conducts research on the intersection of socioeconomic precarity, stigma, and health, particularly HIV prevention and treatment among vulnerable populations. Masa leads GSDI’s research on integrated health and economic strengthening that aims to tackle underlying social and economic determinants of adverse health outcomes in low-resource settings. His research combines formative evaluation, to increase understanding of the interaction of socioeconomic precarity and adverse health, and experimental and quasi-experimental methods, to identify and alter modifiable causal mechanisms that shape health behavior changes among individuals in resource-limited settings.
His current research focuses on the role of HIV stigma and its intersection with other stigmatized identities (sexual minority, racialized minority, poverty) and health conditions (mental health, substance use) in HIV prevention and treatment outcomes. He is leading two NIH-funded studies on developing and evaluating interventions to reduce intersectional stigma and improve HIV prevention among Latino sexual minority men in North Carolina (R21MD016356) and treatment adherence among young adults with HIV in Zambia (R01TW012676). Likewise, he has published extensively on social and economic determinants of HIV prevention and treatment in low-resource communities, assets and positive youth development, stigma, and food security He is committed to research and the development of interventions to improve HIV outcomes, particularly among multiply marginalized populations facing the disproportionate burden of HIV and its social, economic, and health consequences.
Masa’s approach to economic security as a health strategy recognizes an equally important role of tangible and intangible resources or assets, in addition to knowledge and motivation, on health behavior change, particularly among vulnerable and low-income populations. He uses qualitative and quantitative methods to understand the social and economic determinants of health among youth experiencing multiple social and economic adversities. Masa teaches graduate-level courses on social welfare and poverty policies, asset development practice and policy, and research methods in social intervention. His work has been published in various interdisciplinary and social work journals, including African Journal of AIDS Research, AIDS Education & Prevention, AIDS Patient Care & STDs, American Journal of Health Promotion, American Journal of Men’s Health, Children and Youth Services Review, Ecology of Food and Nutrition, Food and Nutrition Bulletin, Food Security, International Journal of Public Health, International Journal of STD & AIDS, Journal of Applied Gerontology, Journal of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care, Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, Journal of Transport and Health, Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research, Lancet HIV, Public Health Nutrition, Stigma and Health, Social Work in Public Health, and Youth & Society.