Katarzyna Doniec

Dr Katarzyna Doniec is a sociologist and demographer whose research focuses on the cultural and institutional determinants of population health. She studies how moral values, social norms, and structural inequalities shape health, mortality, and well‑being across societies. She previously held positions at the University of Oxford’s Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science, the European University Institute, and the University of Cambridge. Her research has been published in The Lancet and the International Journal of Epidemiology, and has been covered in international media.

Katarzyna is a sociologist and demographer who studies how cultural values, social institutions, and structural inequalities shape population health. Her PhD research (Cambridge Sociology) examined global links between cultural values—such as religiosity, civic participation, and democratic orientations—and population health, showing that cultural factors can be predictive of health to a degree comparable to economic ones. In later work, she investigated sex differences in excess mortality during the COVID‑19 pandemic across 33 high‑income countries, challenging the assumption of a persistent male disadvantage. She has also analysed long‑term mortality trends in post‑socialist and former Soviet Union countries, identifying distinct regional trajectories in cardiovascular, external, and cancer‑related mortality. Another strand of her work explores the heterogeneity in the relationship between social institutions and population health. For example, how the health advantages associated with marriage have shifted across cohorts, or how immigrants benefit less from marriage and parenthood than native‑born populations. Building on this foundation, her future research will examine how radical value disagreement and political polarisation relates to societal flourishing, population health outcomes, and ethical questions surrounding fairness and the distribution of health. This broader agenda aligns closely with the Ethox Centre’s interest in the ethical and social dimensions of population health.