Current projects

Colonial mentality and health

UCLA Racial and Social Justice Seed Grant · Principal Investigator · 2024–2025

Grounded in Sikolohiyang Pilipino (Filipino psychology), this study uses qualitative description to understand how the social, cultural, political, and historical meanings of colonial mentality shape Filipino Americans’ healthcare experiences.

Recruitment status: No longer recruiting. Thank you to everyone who took part.

Discrimination and allostatic load

UCLA Hellman Fellowship · Principal Investigator · 2025–2026

This project examines how racial and ethnic discrimination contributes to chronic physiological stress, measured by allostatic load, in people with type 2 diabetes, and whether socioeconomic resilience factors can buffer that association.

Technology-enabled self-management

UCLA School of Nursing Intramural Grant · Principal Investigator · 2025

Explores patient-centered digital health technologies such as wearables for older adults with multiple chronic conditions. The work describes their experiences (a qualitative descriptive study) and investigates habit-forming, positive health behaviors using a national dataset (HINTS).

Associated work

• Paper (in preparation): Tolentino, D. A., Boy, P., & Matsuo, Y. Technology neutrality among older adults with multiple chronic conditions. Applied Clinical Informatics.
• Poster: Tolentino, D. A., Boy, P., & Matsuo, Y. (2026). Wearable use and health outcomes among older adults with chronic conditions. AMIA Amplify Clinical Informatics Conference, Denver, CO.