Section outline

  • Lecture: Multi-level etiologies of health in diverse populations, Part 5: Social policy

    Many policies regulating areas such as housing, income security, education, criminal justice, environmental safety, or discrimination strongly influence health and health disparities, even though health was not the primary or original focus of these policies.  In other words, the most important policies affecting health may not be health policies at all, but rather policies that shape the multilevel determinants of health. Health researchers with multilevel frameworks are rapidly focusing research attention to formally evaluate how these policies influence health and health inequalities and provide evidence to policymakers about unanticipated health consequences of diverse policies. In this class we will discuss examples of such policies and approaches to rigorously evaluating the health impacts of policies.


    Faculty: Rita Hamad


    Location:      Mission Hall 1400

    • Session Slides:

    • rhamad - Epi 222 social policies lecture, 20 Feb 2018 File

    • Session Audio/Video Recording (Access restricted to registered students):

    • Required Reading:

    • Ludwig NbhdsObesityDiabetes File
      Not available unless: Your ID number contains 02
    • Adler et al JAMA brief of NAM report File
      Not available unless: Your ID number contains 02
    • Hamad 2018 - Short-term effects of EITC on child health File
      Not available unless: Your ID number contains 02
    • Liu 2012 - Segregation and teen fertility File
      Not available unless: Your ID number contains 02

    • Optional Readings:

    • Osypuk Policies File
      Not available unless: Your ID number contains 02

    • Assignment:

      Please post to the forum by 1pm on the day of class

      · Identify a policy that is not usually intended to be a health policy but that you think may have important health implications.

      · Describe why an evaluation of that policy is informative (e.g., determining effects of the policy, or primarily a test of hypothesized mediators).

      · Specify the outcomes and populations you think most affected or least affected by the policy.

      · Propose a study design to evaluate the policy.

      · Describe biggest challenge to implementing and drawing inferences about the impact of the policy on health.