International Handbook of the Demography of Obesity

Ginny Garcia-Alexander, PhD is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Her research specialty areas include social demography, health and reproductive health disparities, and the study of religion’s influence on health status and behaviors. Dr. Garcia’s current research explores socio-demographic disparities in health outcomes and obesity, as well discrimination on the basis of obesity status and other patient factors; denominational variations in infant mortality rates; and studies of the reproductive decision-making process and use of sterilization. She is the co-author of  Social Foundations of Behavior for the Health Sciences  (2017), which examines the importance of social factors in determining health outcomes. She also teaches courses on population, health inequities, and medical sociology.

Dudley L. Poston, Jr. is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. He taught at Texas A&M for 27 years, prior to his retirement in the Spring of 2019. He previously served on the faculties of Cornell University (1988-1992) and the University of Texas at Austin (1970-1988). He has co-authored/edited 21 books and over 350 journal articles, book chapters, and research reports. The 2nd edition of his Handbook of Population was published in 2019. During his tenure at Texas A&M University, he taught graduate and undergraduate courses on Statistics, Demography, and Demographic Methods.