Ashley Wendell Kranjac is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology. She earned her PhD in Sociology from the State University of New York, Buffalo. She then completed her postdoctoral training in the Sociology Department and Kinder Institute Urban Health Program at Rice University. Her research focuses on health inequities and population studies. She investigates the role of familial, social, economic, and environmental contexts that lead to disparate health outcomes. Her research has been published in leading health, sociology, and demography journals. She is Director of the Earl Babbie Research Center and Co-Director of the Health in Populations and Places (HiPP) Research Collaborative that examines the social and contextual determinants of physical and psychological health. She teaches courses in sociology of health and illness and quantitative methods.
Recent Publications
Kranjac, AW, Dinko Kranjac. 2026. “Updated Prevalence Estimates of Obesity Among American Adults, 2005–2018” BMC Research Notes. 19: 2. [DOI:10.1186/s13104-025-07591-8]
Kranjac, AW, D Kranjac. 2025. “Life course and cohort patterns in screen time among American school-aged children” Journal of Pediatrics: Clinical Practice. 18: 200183. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jpedcp.2025.200183]
Kranjac, AW, Dinko Kranjac, Valentine Chung*. 2025. “Temporal and Generational Changes in Depression Among Young American Adults” Journal of Affective Disorders Reports 21: 100949. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jadr.2025.100949]
Kranjac, Dinko and Ashley W Kranjac. 2025. “Adult Cigarette Smoking in the United States, 1971–2020: Age–Period–Cohort Analysis.” Scientific Reports 15: 14341. [DOI: 10.1038/s41598-025-98843-x]
Kranjac, AW, Dinko Kranjac, and Roxanne Aguilera*. 2024. “Pediatric Obesity in the United States: Age—Period—Cohort Analysis.” Heliyon 10(12): e32603. [DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e32603]
Kranjac, AW, Zeev Kain, Louis Ehwerhemuepha, Michael Weiss, and Brooke Jenkins. 2024. “Neighborhood Socioeconomic Context Predicts Asthma Exacerbation.” Clinical Pediatrics [DOI: 10.1177/00099228241262997]
Kranjac, AW, Dinko Kranjac, Zeev Kain, Louis Ehwerhemuepha, Candice Donaldson, and Brooke Jenkins. 2024. “Obesity Heterogeneity by Neighborhood Context in a Largely Latinx Sample.” Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities 11: 980-991.[DOI: 10.1007/s40615-023-01578-6]
Kranjac, AW, Dinko Kranjac, Zeev Kain, Louis Ehwerhemuepha, Candice Donaldson, and Brooke Jenkins. 2023. “Neighborhood disadvantage and pediatric inpatient opioid prescription patterns.” Journal of Pediatric Nursing 72: e145-e151.[DOI: 10.1016/j.pedn.2023.06.021]
Kranjac, AW, Dinko Kranjac. 2023. “Explaining adult obesity, extreme obesity, and BMI: Five decades of change.” Heliyon 9(5): e16210 [DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e16210]
Kranjac AW, Robert L. Wagmiller. 2022. “Attitudinal Change, Cohort Replacement, and the Liberalization of Attitudes about Same-Sex Relationships, 1973-2018.” Sociological Perspectives 65(2): 262-277. [DOI: 10.1177/0731121421994858]
Kranjac AW, Dinko Kranjac, and Olivia Lounsbury*. 2022. “Deconstructing sex differences in C-reactive protein over time.” American Journal of Human Biology 34(5): E23705. [DOI: 10.1002/ajhb.23705]
Kranjac AW, Dinko Kranjac. 2021. “County-level factors that influenced the trajectory of Covid-19 incidence in the New York City Area.” Health Security 19(S1): 1-7 [DOI: 10.1089/hs.2020.0236]
Kranjac AW, Catherine Boyd, Rachel T. Kimbro, Brady S. Moffett, and Keila N. Lopez. 2021. “Neighborhoods matter; but for whom? Heterogeneity of neighborhood disadvantage on child obesity by sex.” Health and Place 68:102534. [DOI: 10.1016/j.healthplace.2021.102534]
Kranjac AW, Dinko Kranjac, Michelle A. Fortier, Pat Patton, Brad Giafaglione, and Zeev Kain. 2021. “Surgical patients’ hospital experience scores: neighborhood context conceptual framework.” Annals of Surgery 2(1): e037-040 [DOI: 10.1097/AS9.0000000000000037]
Kranjac AW & Dinko Kranjac. 2021. “Childhood obesity moderates the effect of poverty on academic Achievement.” Psychology in the Schools 58(7): 1266-1283 [DOI: 10.1002/PITS.22497]
Kranjac AW & Dinko Kranjac. 2020. “Decomposing differences in Covid-19-related case-fatality rates across seventeen nations.” Pathogens and Global Health 115(2): 100-107. [DOI: 10.1080/20477724.2020.1868824]
Kranjac AW, Justin T. Denney, Rachel T. Kimbro, et al. 2019. “Child obesity and the interaction of family and neighborhood socioeconomic context.” Population Research & Policy Review 38(3): 347-369. [DOI: 10.1007/s11113-018-9504-2]
Kranjac AW, Robert L. Wagmiller. 2019. “Decomposing trends in child obesity.” Population Research & Policy Review 39: 375-388. [DOI: 10.1007/s11113-019-09544-z]
Kranjac AW. 2018. “School-level normative body mass index environment shapes children’s weight trajectories.” Journal of School Health 88: 917-927. [DOI: 10.1111/josh.12701]
Kranjac AW, Justin T. Denney, Rachel T. Kimbro, et al. 2018. “Neighborhood and social environmental influences on child chronic disease prevalence.” Population & Environment 40(2): 93-114. [DOI: 10.1007/s11111-018-0303-9]
Kranjac AW, Rachel T. Kimbro, Justin T. Denney, et al. 2017. “Comprehensive neighborhood portraits of child asthma disparities.” Maternal and Child Health 21(7): 1552–1562. [DOI: 10.1007/s10995-017-2286-z]
Kranjac AW, Jing Nie, Maurizio Trevisan, and Jo L. Freudenheim. 2017. “Depression and body mass index, differences by education: Evidence from a population-based study of adult women in the U.S. Buffalo-Niagara region.” Obesity Research & Clinical Practice 11: 63–71. [DOI: 10.1016/j.orcp.2016.03.002]
Kranjac AW, Robert L. Wagmiller. 2016. “Decomposing trends in adult body mass index, obesity, and morbid obesity, 1971–2012.” Social Science & Medicine 167: 37-44 [DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2016.08.026]
Kranjac AW, Robert L. Wagmiller. 2016. “The association between age and obesity over time.” Pediatrics 137(5): 1–12. [DOI: 10.1542/peds.2015-2096]
Kranjac AW. 2015. “The moderating effect of self-efficacy on normal-weight, overweight, and obese children’s math achievement: A longitudinal analysis.” Social Science & Medicine 128: 168–177. [DOI:10.1016/j.socscimed.2015.01.007]
Kranjac AW. Review of Global Activism in Food Politics: Powershift by Alana Mann. Mobilization: An International Quarterly 2015; 20(1): 125-126.
Georges, A., S. Gabbard, AW Kranjac. 2015. First report of the national evaluation of RSVP Volunteers. North Bethesda, MD: JBS International, Inc.
Kranjac AW. 2014. “McDonaldizing Croatia.” Contexts: The Food Issue 13(3): 4–11.
*Undergraduate research assistant
