I am a social demographer whose research centers on social causation of health and mortality. I am particularly interested in the consequences of the post-communist social change on the health status of populations in East Central Europe and the former Soviet republics. Japan, my second region of study, provides another valuable case for the assessment of theories linking social environments and health. My research on these topics has appeared in Social Forces, Population and Development Review, the Journals of Gerontology, and Social Science & Medicine - Population Health, among others.