Grant: Foundation Grant

There is abundant evidence that social conditions impact health. However, our ability to improve population health and reduce health inequalities is limited: we do not yet understand well enough how public policies and programs can be used to influence these social determinants of health. Rigorously assessing the impact of interventions, from national policies to smaller-scale programs, has become an active area of inquiry in social sciences such as economics, but less so in epidemiology. This research program will fill this gap by systematically identifying and evaluating evidence-based interventions that can improve population health and promote health equity in a global context. Countries are constantly designing and implementing policies and programs. By systematically grouping countries together and carefully analyzing comparable similarities or differences in implementation and outcomes, we can achieve a far better understanding of what public policies and programs really make a difference to the health of individuals. As the world moves towards the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015, there is as a new set of targets to meet that will improve health and reduce health inequality worldwide, and an outstanding window of opportunity to generate new evidence to meet them. This program focuses particularly on policies related to socioeconomic status, health services, public health, and the environment, and identifies the effects on the health-related SDGs of different policy variations across nations (Aim 1); within nations that have substantial policy variation at the provincial or state level (Aim 2); and in terms of their cost-effectiveness (Aim 3). The program will develop partnerships with policymakers, non-governmental organizations, and intergovernmental institutions to develop relevant research questions and ensure that research results inform the development of effective policies and programs on the ground.