Health Inequalities
A pressing policy problem in the United States and other countries is the extraordinary pattern of inequality in the health of children and adults. These health disparities are widespread and not easily explained. Faculty in IPR’s Cells to Society (C2S): The Center on Health Inequalities are forging new paths to create better understanding of, and improvement in, human health and social outcomes. They recognize that such an effort requires complex modeling of the interplay between biological processes and environmental influences. To this end, they coalesce around the Center’s mission to:
- bring together the social, life, and biomedical sciences to understand the origins, consequences, and policy solutions for contemporary health inequalities in the United States; and
- examine how broad social, race/ethnic, and economic disparities "get under the skin" and affect human development and physical health.
A Message from Thomas McDade, Program Chair and C2S Director
The Center on Health Inequalities continues to expand its scope of activities to understand how social, economic, and cultural contexts affect physical and mental health, as well as cognitive achievement, at the population level. Faculty research overlaps with other IPR program areas including Education and Human Development and Race, Policy, and Inequality.
Working Papers
Recently published articles and working papers in this program area include:
Lauren Bauer, Krista Ruffini, and Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach. 2024. The Effects of Lump-Sum Food Benefits During the COVID-19 Pandemic on Spending, Hardship, and Health (WP-24-35).
Aslihan Asil, Paulo Ramos, Amanda Starc, and Thomas Wollmann. 2024. Painful Bargaining: Evidence from Anesthesia Rollups (WP-24-34).
Thomas McDade, Jessica Polos, Kiarri Kershaw, Taylor Hargrove, and Stephanie Koning. 2024. Duration of Breastfeeding in Infancy and Levels of Central Adiposity and Systemic Inflammation in Early Middle Adulthood (WP-24-33).
Faculty Experts
Faculty come from the fields of anthropology, sociology, psychology, biomedical sciences, pediatrics, and preventive medicine, in addition to other social science and medical fields.
Events
Recent Pregnancy and Birth Outcomes Research
By Joe Feinglass, research professor of medicine and IPR associate
Using Computational Approaches to Understand the Social and Structural Drivers of Health
By Michelle Birkett, Associate Professor of Medical Social Sciences (Determinants of Health) and Preventive Medicine and IPR Faculty Associate