Robert C. Bailey is an American epidemiologist and professor of

epidemiology Epidemiology is the study and analysis of the distribution (who, when, and where), patterns and Risk factor (epidemiology), determinants of health and disease conditions in a defined population, and application of this knowledge to prevent dise ...

at the

University of Illinois at Chicago The University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) is a public research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its campus is in the Near West Side community area, adjacent to the Chicago Loop. The second campus established under the Universi ...

(UIC) School of Public Health. He is also an adjunct professor in UIC's Department of

Anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, society, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behav ...

, a research associate at

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

Field Museum The Field Museum of Natural History (FMNH), also known as The Field Museum, is a natural history museum in Chicago, Illinois, and is one of the largest such museums in the world. The museum is popular for the size and quality of its educationa ...

, and a visiting lecturer at the

University of Nairobi The University of Nairobi (uonbi or UoN; ) is a college, collegiate research university based in Nairobi and is the largest List of universities and colleges in Kenya, university in Kenya. Although its history as an educational institution dat ...

Education

After receiving his Ph.D. in

biological anthropology Biological anthropology, also known as physical anthropology, is a natural science discipline concerned with the biological and behavioral aspects of human beings, their extinct hominin ancestors, and related non-human primates, particularly fro ...

from

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

, Bailey received his MPH from

Emory University Emory University is a private university, private research university in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It was founded in 1836 as Emory College by the Methodist Episcopal Church and named in honor of Methodist bishop John Emory. Its main campu ...

's Rollins School of Public Health in 1997.

Research

Bailey is known for researching the ability of circumcision to prevent HIV transmission. In particular, he is known for serving as the principal investigator for a

randomized controlled trial A randomized controlled trial (or randomized control trial; RCT) is a form of scientific experiment used to control factors not under direct experimental control. Examples of RCTs are clinical trials that compare the effects of drugs, surgical ...

circumcision Circumcision is a procedure that removes the foreskin from the human penis. In the most common form of the operation, the foreskin is extended with forceps, then a circumcision device may be placed, after which the foreskin is excised. T ...

to prevent the transmission of HIV in

Kisumu Kisumu ( ) is the third-largest city in Kenya located in the Lake Victoria area in the former Nyanza Province. It is the second-largest city after Kampala in the Lake Victoria Basin. The city has a population of slightly over 600,000. The ...

Kenya Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...

. The trial was stopped early in December 2006, because its results showed that circumcision significantly reduced the risk of HIV infection. He subsequently helped design Kenya's circumcision program as an HIV/AIDS prevention strategy.

Potential adverse effects of circumcision

Bailey has also researched risk compensation among circumcised men in Kenya, finding no evidence that it is occurring there, and some evidence that the opposite may be happening. His work has also indicated that complication rates for circumcision are much lower (18%) when performed in medical settings than when performed traditionally (35%).

Awards

In 2008, Bailey was named one of UIC's Researchers of the Year. In 2010, he received the Distinguished Achievement Award from the RSPH Alumni Association.

References

External links

Faculty page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bailey, Robert Living people American epidemiologists University of Illinois Chicago faculty Rollins School of Public Health alumni Academic staff of the University of Nairobi 21st-century American anthropologists HIV/AIDS researchers Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Year of birth missing (living people)