Postdoctoral Fellow, University of California, San Francisco
Yulin Yang, PhD, is a social epidemiologist and medical sociologist whose research centers on social isolation, pain, and aging. She is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, where she examines how social isolation, loneliness, and social networks shape cognitive aging, pain experiences and management, as well as other downstream outcomes, including functional decline and healthcare use. Drawing on large-scale longitudinal studies such as the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), as well as administrative claims and electronic health records, her work integrates life-course and social determinants frameworks with advanced longitudinal and causal methods. Her ongoing research addresses structural factors that shape social isolation, such as rural–urban disparities, neighborhood context over the life course in shaping late-life living arrangements, and social connectedness. Yulin’s work aims to generate actionable evidence to inform interventions and policies that reduce social isolation and promote equitable, patient-centered care in later life.