J. Lawrence Aber, Ph.D.Expertise:
Child Health; Disparities; Mental Health | Dynamics of Economic Disadvantage and Child Health Development
with Mary Clare Lennon, Ph.D.
Award Year: 2002 Show AbstractPoverty takes its toll on health and development during childhood as well as in future life. Mary Clare Lennon, Ph.D. and J. Lawrence Aber, Ph.D. offer a new approach to measuring children's economic circumstances. In their project, Dynamics of Economic Disadvantage and Child Health and Development, the investigators focus on the economic trajectory of a child's family, exploring how the income of poor families changes over time, and how turning points in family life, such as unemployment, cohabitation, divorce, illness, and other events, affect family economics and child development. Drs. Lennon and Aber also examine how such health and social programs as cash assistance, food stamps, unemployment insurance, tax credits, Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program, and others lessen the severity of economic disadvantage. Their work should help identify children at risk due to family circumstances and policies that could reduce risk by helping families withstand economic downturns. |
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Laurie J. Bauman, Ph.D.Expertise:
Child Health; Health Risks | Development of a Typology of Risk for Child Health: The Intersection of Social and Medical Factors
with Ruth E. Stein, M.D.
Award Year: 1999Show Abstract Social and environmental factors have powerful effects on health status, utilization, and costs of care among children. Child health policy in the U.S., however, has focused primarily on biomedical determinants of health, ignoring most social risks. This project augments traditional biological risk factors such as previous access to health services and chronic illness used by policymakers. Drs. Stein and Bauman consider social risk factors, like poverty and parental mental illness, which contribute to child morbidity and the cost of delivering care. Their goal is to improve the ability of policymakers to predict short-term health outcomes (cost and utilization of care) and long-term health outcomes (health status and functioning). They: 1) conceptualize and define social and biomedical risks of children; 2) create independent measures for social and biomedical risk; 3) combine these into a typology that describes the risk experienced by children from the combination of biomedical and social factors; and 4) apply the typology to existing child health data sets. |
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Dalton C. Conley, Ph.D., M.P.P.A.Expertise:
Child Health; Health Care Inequalities; Health Outcomes | Family, Community, and Health
Award Year: 1999Show Abstract Dr. Conley investigates the impact of family background on child health. He compares health, developmental, and behavioral outcomes among children from the same family, extended family, and community of origin. The project examines: 1) which health conditions and behaviors tend to cluster within families and which are more individually specific or community-driven; 2) why health and behavioral outcomes of some siblings, cousins, or childhood neighbors are relatively similar, while others are not; 3) how siblings affect each other's health behaviors and development; 4) how well proxies for socio-economic status explain differences in child outcomes between families; 5) whether extended family and neighborhoods have an influence on household-level effects; and 6) at what ages family environment is most critical to child health and development, and when communities are more important. Resulting information should help policymakers to better target efforts to improve specific health outcomes or behaviors among at-risk children. |
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Steven Gortmaker, Ph.D.Expertise:
Child Health | Changes in Health Status for Children With Chronic Health Conditions: Perspective on the Dynamics of Changing Scientific Knowledge, Services and Policy
with James M. Perrin, M.D.
Award Year: 1997Show Abstract The number of children in the U.S. suffering chronic health conditions more than tripled in the past three decades. However, public policies and programs have lagged behind the growth of new knowledge, limiting access to needed services. Focusing on SSI, Medicaid, Maternal and Child Health, and special education, Drs. Perrin and Gortmaker examine the prevalence and program participation of children with chronic health conditions, paying close attention to children living in poverty. Their model uses a society and health approach that recognizes the importance of both socioeconomic environments in the lives of children and scientific advances. The investigators apply a case-based approach to selected chronic conditions in each of five states, studying how health and welfare policies and programs connect with scientific knowledge. Recommendations will be developed to help align policies more closely with knowledge about effective interventions in children with chronic conditions. |
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Kay A. Johnson, Ed.M., M.P.H.Expertise:
Child Health | Children's Health Policy: Actors, Issues, and Process
with Alice Sardell, Ph.D.
Award Year: 1998Show Abstract This project analyzes how the process of policymaking has shaped children's health policy in the U.S. during the last 20 years. Using analytic models derived from political science literature, it examines and compares the origins, history, and fate of seven major proposals to expand child health services or financing. These include Medicaid expansion, children's health insurance, immunization, school-based clinics, definitions of childhood disability, and home visiting. The major research questions are: 1) how has the process of policymaking shaped policy outcomes in child health? and 2) what are the implications for future policy directions? After better understanding the roles of key actors, their interactions, and the broader political and social environment in which they occurred, the investigators will describe conditions that may help assure the success of future efforts to increase access, and recommend effective advocacy strategies. This work adds crucial political and policy process analysis to the current body of information about financing and delivery of child health services. |
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Mary Clare Lennon, Ph.D.Expertise:
Child Health; Disparities; Gender Issues; Mental Health | Dynamics of Economic Disadvantage and Child Health Development
with J. Lawrence Aber, Ph.D.
Award Year: 2002Show Abstract Poverty takes its toll on health and development during childhood as well as in future life. Mary Clare Lennon, Ph.D. and J. Lawrence Aber, Ph.D. offer a new approach to measuring children's economic circumstances. In their project, Dynamics of Economic Disadvantage and Child Health and Development, the investigators focus on the economic trajectory of a child's family, exploring how the income of poor families changes over time, and how turning points in family life, such as unemployment, cohabitation, divorce, illness, and other events, affect family economics and child development. Drs. Lennon and Aber also examine how such health and social programs as cash assistance, food stamps, unemployment insurance, tax credits, Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program, and others lessen the severity of economic disadvantage. Their work should help identify children at risk due to family circumstances and policies that could reduce risk by helping families withstand economic downturns. |
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Alberto Palloni, Ph.D.Expertise:
AIDS; Child Health; Population Health | Analyzing the Relationship Among Early Childhood Conditions, Reproduction of Socioeconomic Inequalities and Adult Health Disparities
with Carolina Milesi, Ph.D.
Award Year: 2008Show Abstract Despite increased attention to the disturbing problem of disparities, certain groups of Americans remain healthier than others, due largely to differences in race and ethnicity, income, education, residential segregation, and other social factors. Co-PIs Alberto Palloni, Ph.D. and Carolina Milesi, Ph.D. seek to better understand the mechanisms that lead to health gaps by probing the connections between child and adult health. Their project, Early Childhood Conditions, Reproduction of Socioeconomic Inequalities, and the Persistence of Adult Health Disparities, employs innovative methods to study how pathways to fair or poor health in adulthood unfold from early childhood. Drs. Palloni and Milesi analyze a host of factors, including the effects of parents' socioeconomic status, their health and use of tobacco and alcohol, child health outcomes, development of personality traits such as tenacity and perseverance, exposure to stressful environments, and educational attainment. Project findings should help improve the design of strategies aimed at reducing disparities by identifying options for mitigating the consequences of poor health in children. |
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James M. Perrin, M.D.Expertise:
Child Health | Changes in Health Status for Children With Chronic Health Conditions: Perspective on the Dynamics of Changing Scientific Knowledge, Services and Policy
with Steven Gortmaker, Ph.D.
Award Year: 1997Show Abstract The number of children in the U.S. suffering chronic health conditions more than tripled in the past three decades. However, public policies and programs have lagged behind the growth of new knowledge, limiting access to needed services. Focusing on SSI, Medicaid, Maternal and Child Health, and special education, Drs. Perrin and Gortmaker examine the prevalence and program participation of children with chronic health conditions, paying close attention to children living in poverty. Their model uses a society and health approach that recognizes the importance of both socioeconomic environments in the lives of children and scientific advances. The investigators apply a case-based approach to selected chronic conditions in each of five states, studying how health and welfare policies and programs connect with scientific knowledge. Recommendations will be developed to help align policies more closely with knowledge about effective interventions in children with chronic conditions. |
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Alice Sardell, Ph.D.Expertise:
Child Health | Children's Health Policy: Actors, Issues, and Process
with Kay A. Johnson, Ed.M., M.P.H.
Award Year: 1998Show Abstract This project analyzes how the process of policymaking has shaped children's health policy in the U.S. during the last 20 years. Using analytic models derived from political science literature, it examines and compares the origins, history, and fate of seven major proposals to expand child health services or financing. These include Medicaid expansion, children's health insurance, immunization, school-based clinics, definitions of childhood disability, and home visiting. The major research questions are: 1) how has the process of policymaking shaped policy outcomes in child health? and 2) what are the implications for future policy directions? After better understanding the roles of key actors, their interactions, and the broader political and social environment in which they occurred, the investigators will describe conditions that may help assure the success of future efforts to increase access, and recommend effective advocacy strategies. This work adds crucial political and policy process analysis to the current body of information about financing and delivery of child health services. |
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Ruth E. Stein, M.D.Expertise:
Child Health; Health Risks | Development of a Typology of Risk for Child Health: The Intersection of Social and Medical Factors
with Laurie J. Bauman, Ph.D.
Award Year: 1999Show Abstract Social and environmental factors have powerful effects on health status, utilization, and costs of care among children. Child health policy in the U.S., however, has focused primarily on biomedical determinants of health, ignoring most social risks. This project augments traditional biological risk factors such as previous access to health services and chronic illness used by policymakers. Drs. Stein and Bauman consider social risk factors, like poverty and parental mental illness, which contribute to child morbidity and the cost of delivering care. Their goal is to improve the ability of policymakers to predict short-term health outcomes (cost and utilization of care) and long-term health outcomes (health status and functioning). They: 1) conceptualize and define social and biomedical risks of children; 2) create independent measures for social and biomedical risk; 3) combine these into a typology that describes the risk experienced by children from the combination of biomedical and social factors; and 4) apply the typology to existing child health data sets. |
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