Scott D. Landes

• 2025 Fall
  • SOC 800 Selected Topics - Sociology of Disability
  • SOC 355 Sociology-of Health and Illness
• 2025 Spring
  • DSP/SOC 440 Sociology of Disability
  • SOC/WGS 355 Sociology-of Health and Illness
• 2024 Spring
  • DSP/SOC 440 Sociology of Disability
  • SOC 655 Sociology of Health and Illness

Scott Landes is a professor of sociology and faculty associate in the Aging Studies Institute. He received a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Florida in 2014.

Informed by his interest in medical sociology, aging and the life course, and disability theory, the majority of his research focuses on health and mortality trends across the life course for disabled people, and for veterans. His other primary research focus addresses the intersections of disability and social theory.

"Center for Aging and Policy Studies", Sponsored by National Institutes of Health.

"Erroneous Coding of Developmental Disabilities as Underlying Cause of Death", Sponsored by National Institutes of Health.

• Journal Articles
  • Landes, S. D., Swenor, B. K., Hall, J. P. and Forber-Pratt, A. J., "Disability data: a case study in research limitation transparency." Health Affairs Scholar, 2025.
  • Landes, S. D., Mueller, K., "Differences in Religious Attendance Among Disabled and Nondisabled Early and Early Midlife Adults." Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 2025.
  • Landes, S. D., Swenor, B. K., Hall, J. P., Forber-Pratt, A. J., Vaitsiakhovich, N., Caldwell, K., Kakara, M., Lefkowitz, D., Myers, A., Popkin, S. J., Reed, N. S., Rothman, E. F. and Salinger, M., "The disability mismatch: the case for a comprehensive disability status measure." Health Affairs Scholar, 2025.
  • Landes, S. D., Hall, J. P., Swenor, B. K. and Vaitsiakhovich, N., "Comparative performance of disability measures." Ye, P. (ed.) PLOS ONE, 2025.
  • Vaitsiakhovich, N., Landes, S. D. and Monnat, S. M., "The role of perceived social support in subjective wellbeing among working-age U.S. adults with and without limitations in activities of daily living." Disability and Health Journal, 2025.
  • Diaz, K. O., Landes, S. D. and Monnat, S. M., "Differences in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) between U.S. Civilians and Military Veterans in the Gulf War and Post-9/11 War Eligibility Cohorts: A Research Note." Journal of Armed Forces & Society, 2024.
  • Landes, S. D., Swenor, B. K. and Hall, J. P., "Performance of the Washington Group questions in measuring blindness and deafness." Health Affairs Scholar, 2024.
  • Cerilli, C., Varadaraj, V., Choi, J., Sweeney, F., Castro, F., Landes, S. D. and Swenor, B. K., "Disability inclusion in national surveys." Health Affairs Scholar, 2024.
  • Landes, S. D., "Disability Mortality Disparity: Risk Of Mortality For Disabled Adults Nearly Twice That For Nondisabled Adults, 2008–19." Health Affairs, 2024.
  • Formica, M. K., Cox, R., Christiana, J., Turk, M. A. and Landes, S. D., "Covid-19 patterns among adults with intellectual and developmental disability and the general population in New York state during the first year of the pandemic." Disability and Health Journal, 2024.
  • Finan, J. M., Landes, S. D., "Educational Attainment and Perceived Need for Future ADL Assistance." Journal of Applied Gerontology, 2024.
  • Landes, S. D., Swenor, B. K. and Vaitsiakhovich, N., "Counting disability in the National Health Interview Survey and its consequence: Comparing the American Community Survey to the Washington Group disability measures." Disability and Health Journal, 2024.
  • Landes, S. D., Turk, M. A., "Health equity for people with intellectual and developmental disability requires vast improvements to data collection: Lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic." Disability and Health Journal, 2024.
  • Vaitsiakhovich, N., Landes, S. D., "The association between the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and healthcare affordability among US adults with intellectual disability.." Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2023.
  • Landes, S. D., Piazza, J. R., "Age differences in long‐term mortality among male nonveterans, noncombat veterans, and combat veterans." Journal of Traumatic Stress, 2023.
  • Landes, S. D., Finan, J. M. and Turk, M. A., "Reporting Down syndrome on the death certificate for Alzheimer disease/unspecified dementia deaths." Potier, M. (ed.) PLOS ONE, 2023.
  • Landes, S. D., Wilmoth, J. M., London, A. S. and Landes, A. T., "Risk Factors Explaining Military Deaths From Suicide, 2008-2017:A Latent Class Analysis.." Armed forces and society, 2023.
  • Landes, S. D., Stevens, J. D. and Turk, M. A., "Postmortem Diagnostic Overshadowing: Reporting Cerebral Palsy on Death Certificates." Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 2022.
  • Landes, S. D., Turk, M. A. and Finan, J. M., "Factors Associated with the Reporting of Down Syndrome as the Underlying Cause of Death on US Death Certificates." Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, 2022.
  • Landes, S. D., Finan, J. M. and Turk, M. A., "COVID-19 mortality burden and comorbidity patterns among decedents with and without intellectual and developmental disability in the US." Disability and Health Journal, 2022.
  • Stevens, J., Turk, M. A. and Landes, S. D., "Cause of death trends among adults with and without cerebral palsy in the United States, 2013–2017." Annals of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine, 2022.
  • Wong, A. W., Landes, S. D., "Expanding Understanding of Racial-Ethnic Differences in ADHD Prevalence Rates among Children to Include Asians and Alaskan Natives/American Indians." Journal of Attention Disorders, 2022.
  • Landes, S. D., Wilmoth, J. M., McDonald, K. E. and Smith, A. N., "Racial-ethnic inequities in age at death among adults with/without intellectual and developmental disability in the United States." Preventive Medicine, 2022.
  • Piazza, J. R., Landes, S. D. and Stawski, R. S., "Age differences in allostatic load among veterans: The importance of combat exposure." Journal of Traumatic Stress, 2022.
  • London, A. S., Landes, S. D., "Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and the age pattern of adult mortality." Biodemography and Social Biology, 2022.
  • Landes, S. D., Stevens, J. D. and Turk, M. A., "Cause of death in adults with intellectual disability in the United States." Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, 2021.
  • Bisesti, E., Landes, S. D., "Racial-Ethnic Differences in Educational Trajectories for Individuals with Intellectual Disability." Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, 2021.
  • Landes, S. D., Turk, M. A. and Ervin, D. A., "COVID-19 case-fatality disparities among people with intellectual and developmental disabilities: Evidence from 12 US jurisdictions." Disability and Health Journal, 2021.
  • Landes, S. D., London, A. S. and Wilmoth, J. M., "Service-Connected Disability and the Veteran Mortality Disadvantage." Armed Forces & Society, 2021.
  • Landes, S. D., Turk, M. A., Damiani, M. R., Proctor, P. and Baier, S., "Risk Factors Associated With COVID-19 Outcomes Among People With Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Receiving Residential Services." JAMA Network Open, 2021.
  • Landes, S. D., McDonald, K. E., Wilmoth, J. M. and Carter Grosso, E., "Evidence of continued reduction in the age‐at‐death disparity between adults with and without intellectual and/or developmental disabilities." Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities, 2021.
  • London, A. S., Landes, S. D., "Cohort Change in the Prevalence of ADHD Among U.S. Adults: Evidence of a Gender-Specific Historical Period Effect." Journal of Attention Disorders, 2021.
  • Landes, S. D., Turk, M. A. and Wong, A. W., "COVID-19 outcomes among people with intellectual and developmental disability in California: The importance of type of residence and skilled nursing care needs." Disability and Health Journal, 2021.
  • Stevens, J. D., Landes, S. D., "Assessing state level variation in signature authority and cause of death accuracy, 2005–2017." Preventive Medicine Reports, 2021.
  • Landes, S. D., London, A. S., "Self-Reported ADHD and Adult Health in the United States." Journal of Attention Disorders, 2021.
  • Landes, S. D., Turk, M. A. and Bisesti, E., "Uncertainty and the reporting of intellectual disability on death certificates: a cross-sectional study of US mortality data from 2005 to 2017." BMJ Open, 2021.
• Book Chapters
  • Latham-Mintus, K., Landes, S. D., "Integrating the Social and Political Dimensions of Disability Into Life Course Theory." In Research in Social Science and Disability. Emerald Publishing Limited, 2023.
  • London, A. S., Landes, S. D. and Wilmoth, J. M., "Service-Connected Disability and Poverty among Us Veterans." In The Oxfored Handbook of the Sociology of Disability. Oxford, 2022.
  • London, A. S., Landes, S. D. and Wilmoth, J. M., "Service-Connected Disability and Poverty Among US Veterans." In The Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of Disability. Oxford University Press, 2022.
  • Landes, S. D., Ardelt, M. and Landes, A. T., "Exploring the Veteran Mortality Differential: The Influence of War Era and Smoking Behavior." In Long-Term Outcomes of Military Service: The Health and Well-Being of Aging Veterans. APA, 2018.
  • Wilmoth, J. M., Landes, S. D., London, A. S. and MacLean, A., "Online Appendix A: Recommendations for Defining Periods of Military Service and Corresponding Age-18 Cohorts." In Long-Term Outcomes of Military Service: The Health and Well-Being of Aging Veterans. Spiro, A., Settersten, R. A. and Aldwin, C. M. (eds.) APA, 2018.
  • Ardelt, M., Landes, S. D., Gerlach, K. R. and Fox, L. P., "Rediscovering Internal Strengths of the Aged: The Beneficial Impact of Wisdom, Mastery, Purpose in Life, and Spirituality on Aging Well." In Positive Psychology: Advances in Understanding Adult Motivation. Sinnott, J. D. (ed.) Springer, 2013.
• Commentaries
  • Landes, S. D., Swenor, B. K., Hall, J. P. and Forber-Pratt, A. J., "Disability data: a case study in research limitation transparency." Health Affairs Scholar, 2025.
  • Landes, S. D., Swenor, B. K., Hall, J. P. and Forber-Pratt, A. J., "In Measuring Disability, Do Not Abandon Established US Standards." Health Affairs Forefront, 2025.
  • Landes, S. D., Swenor, B. K., "A year of disability health equity milestones: Why disability data is still needed." Disability and Health Journal, 2025.
  • Landes, S. D., Swenor, B. K., Clark, M. A., Goddard, K. S., Hall, J. P., Hermans, A., Ipsen, C., Karpman, M., Kurth, N. K., Myers, A., Popkin, S. J., Salinger, M. R. and Vaitsiakhovich, N., "A Research Roadmap Toward Improved Measures of Disability." Health Affairs Forefront, 2024.
  • Swenor, B. K., Landes, S. D. and Hall, J. P., "Millions of people are missing from U.S. disability data." In STAT News. , 2024.
  • Swenor, B., Landes, S. D., "The next Census could undercount the number of disabled Americans by 20 million." STAT First Opinion, 2023.
• Editorial
  • Landes, S. D., Swenor, B. K., Hall, J. P. and Forber-Pratt, A. J., "Reply to the Letter to the Editor by Mitra on Disability data: a case study in research limitation transparency." Health Affairs Scholar, 2025.
• Research Briefs
  • Vaitsiakhovich, N., Landes, S. D. and Monnat, S. M., "Differences in Happiness and Perceived Meaning in Life between Us Working-Age Adults with Versus without a Self-Care Disability." In Population Health Research Brief Series. Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion, 2024.
  • Landes, S. D., Swenor, B. K. and Hall, J. P., "It Is Time to Stop Using the Washington Group Questions to Measure Disability in Us Federal Surveys." In Population Health Research Brief Series. Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion, 2024.
  • Landes, S. D., Turk, M. A., "A Call to Eliminate Postmortem Diagnostic Overshadowing for People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities." Health Affairs Forefront, 2022.
  • Landes, S. D., Mehri, N. and Wilmoth, J. M., "Introducing the Intellectual and Developmental Disability (IDD) Age-at-Death Tracker." Population Health Research Briefs Series. Syracuse, NY: Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion, Syracuse University, 2021.
  • Bisesti, E., Landes, S. D., "More uncertainty leads to less accuracy on death certificates for adults with intellectual disability." Population Health Research Briefs Series. Syracuse, NY: Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion, Syracuse University, 2021.
  • Wong, A. W., Landes, S. D., "COVID-19 risk for individuals with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities varies by type of residential setting." Population Health Research Briefs Series. Syracuse, NY: Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion, Syracuse University, 2021.
  • Landes, S. D., "Progress in Closing the Age-at-Death Disparity for Adults with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities." Population Health Research Briefs Series. Syracuse, NY: Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion, Syracuse University, 2020.

Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics Health Forum Speaker Series, Stanford University, "Covid-19 outcomes among people with intellectual and developmental disabilities" (2023 - 2023)

Annual Meeting, American Sociological Association, "How can aging and life course research better include disabled researchers" (2023 - 2023)

Critical Disability Studies Speaker Series, University of Calgary, "Covid-19 outcomes among people with intellectual and developmental disabilities" (2022 - 2022)

Landes, S. D., Piazza, J., Gerontological Society of America, "Mortality risk among older veterans and nonveterans: The importance of combat status" (2022)

Panel of the Disability in Society Section, American Sociological Association, "Postmortem diagnostic overshadowing and Covid-19: Data inequities" (2022 - 2022)

Forum on Aging, Disability, and Independence Webinar, National Academies on Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), "COVID-19 case-fatality among people with intellectual and developmental disabilities" (2021 - 2021)

Population Association of America, "COVID-19 outcomes among people with intellectual and developmental disabilities" (2021)

InterAgency Council NYC, "Covid-19 outcomes among people with intellectual and developmental disabilities" (2021 - 2021)

ARC New York Self-Advocates Meeting, "Covid-19 outcomes among people with intellectual and developmental disabilities" (2021 - 2021)

Georgia Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities (GaLEND) Speaker Series, Center for Leadership in Disability, Georgia State University, "Covid-19 outcomes among people with intellectual and developmental disabilities" (2021 - 2021)

Lurie Institute Brandeis for Disability Policy Seminar, Brandeis University, "Covid-19 outcomes among people with intellectual and developmental disabilities" (2021 - 2021)

Speaker Series, American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AAIDD), "Covid-19 outcomes among people with intellectual and developmental disabilities" (2021 - 2021)

Included: The Disability Equity Podcast, Johns Hopkins University Disability Health Research Center, "Disability Data" (2021 - 2021)

Access CNY, "Intellectual and developmental disability Covid-19 trends" (2021 - 2021)

Annual Conference, CP Upstate, "Intellectual and developmental disability COVID-19 trends" (2021 - 2021)

Center for Excellence in Disabilities Speaker Series, West Virginia University, "Mortality trends among adults with intellectual and/or developmental disability" (2021 - 2021)

Annual Meeting, NY ARC, "New York's experience: People with I/DD and Covid-19" (2021 - 2021)

Population Association of America, "Predictors of inaccurate reporting of Down syndrome on the death certificate" (2021)

Faculty Award, Center for Disability Resources (2025)

IPUMS Excellence in Research Award, IPUMS (2025)

Public Impact Award, Section on Aging and the Life Course, American Sociological Association (2025)

2025 Excellence in Graduate Education Faculty Recognition Award, Graduate School, Syracuse University (April, 2025)