Our Research

In work funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Craig Evan Pollack is examining the health effects of houing mobility programs that enable families to move from areas of concentrated poverty. At the Center on Housing, Neighborhoods and Communities, a specialty center within the Institute under the direction of Dr. Sandra Newman, current research topics include:

• A study of the equitable treatment of Latino families with children in federally assisted housing and proposed policy changes and safeguards
• A Housing and Children’s Healthy Development Study examining whether parents who receive a housing voucher are able to improve their dwellings, neighborhoods and schools and the impacts on child development

Most recently, researchers found young children whose household received a housing voucher were admitted to the hospital fewer times and incurred lower hospital costs in the subsequent two decades than children whose households did not receive housing vouchers.

The study was published online December 3 in JAMA. 

The findings, which tracked hospitalizations over time after households participated in a voucher program, are potentially relevant for the approximately four million children living in low-income households receiving Housing and Urban Development assistance, the researchers say.

The study found that children age 12 or under whose household received a housing voucher had 27 percent lower spending on hospitalizations—nearly $200 per year—than children whose household did not receive a housing voucher. Children 12 or younger whose family received a housing voucher were hospitalized 18 percent less than children whose family did not during the follow-up period. Moving to a lower-poverty neighborhood was linked with lower health care spending and fewer hospital admissions for younger children. The study did not find comparable savings or fewer hospitalizations in older children or in adults whose households received housing vouchers to move to lower-poverty neighborhoods.  

Read more.

Click here to download the research study policy brief.

For more information, including RA opportunities, contact Craig Evan Pollack, MD, MHS or Sandra Newman, PhD

Institute faculty are working on research projects in collaboration with states interested in pursuing global hospital budgeting and localities interested in using health care data for public health policies and programs.

For more information, including RA opportunities, contact:

• Josh Sharfstein, MD
• Brendan Saloner, PhD

Institute faculty are exploring policy responses to the opioid crisis, such as how Medicaid influences access to treatment and how state policies can curb high-risk opioid prescribing.

For more information, including RA opportunities, contact:

• Brendan Saloner, PhD
• Beth McGinty, PhD

Institute faculty are engaged in multiple studies focused on policy impacting individuals with mental illness, including an evaluation of Maryland’s Medicaid health home waiver for people with serious mental illness. This Affordable Care Act waiver program was used in Maryland to create a “health home” for people with serious mental health conditions such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

For more information, including RA opportunities, contact:

• Beth McGinty, PhD
• Brendan Saloner, PhD

Social inequalities in health are systemic. Poorer classes have fewer resources to nourish themselves appropriately; their work conditions create increased risk; they do not have adequate housing and have less access to quality health care. All these conditions have negative effects on health and increase mortality rates.

Institute faculty are working in collaboration with researchers at the Johns Hopkins University-University Pompeu Fabra Public Policy Center to explore topics that include:

• The impact of financial and economic crises on the wellbeing of populations on both sides of the North Atlantic
• The impact of immigration on the wellbeing of populations
• Comparative health and social policy inequalities by social class on both sides of the North Atlantic

For more information, including RA opportunities, contact Vicente Navarro, MD, DrPH

Transportation influences the health of individuals and communities.  Institute faculty are exploring how transportation policies impact walking and bicycling to improve health as well as issues related to transportation equity.

For more information, including RA opportunities, contact Keshia M. Pollack Porter, PhD, MPH

Institute faculty utilize a variety of methods to advance policies that create safe and healthy environments where people live, work, play and travel. They directly engage with policymakers and practitioners from the housing, transportation, public works, and planning sectors to promote evidence-informed policy decisions at the local, state and federal levels. Researchers are exploring the creation/activation of public spaces to promote safe active play and physical activity in low-income communities and communities of color across the U.S. They are also exploring how the design of the physical structures where we live impacts health and health equity.

For more information, including RA opportunities, contact Keshia M. Pollack Porter, PhD, MPH or Craig Pollack, MD, MHS

Institute faculty are currently researching a number of issues related to the relationship among food practices, policies and health. Many have direct implications for retailers, including the impact of widespread in-store marketing practices on disparities in food and beverage purchases by families with children and an evaluation of the federal menu labeling law.​

For more information, including RA opportunities, contact Alyssa Moran, ScD, MPH

In fall 2020, Alyssa Moran, ScD, MPH, partnered with University of New England faculty Michele Polacsek and Thomas Meuser, University of New Hampshire faculty member Debra Brucker, and first-year JHSPH PhD student Ross Hatton to conduct a food access survey among a sample of Maine residents during the COVID-19 pandemic. Read more about the findings and policy implications. 

Climate change and its impact on human health and wellbeing is a fact, not a prediction. Tackling public health climate adaptation and preparedness in large cities is an urgent challenge.

The Climate Change and Wellbeing Working Group is a joint venture between the Institute and its European affiliate, the Johns Hopkins University-University Pompeu Fabra Public Policy Center. The Group has developed the Climate-Healthy Cities Network to develop the first dedicated public health climate adaptation city learning network.

For more information, including RA opportunities, contact Thomas A. Burke, PhD, MPH

Health equity means that every person has a fair opportunity to be as healthy as possible by removing obstacles to health such as poverty, racism and discrimination. Our health equity research aims to reduce and ultimately eliminate disparities in health and health determinants.

For more information, including RA opportunities, contact:

• Keshia M. Pollack Porter, PhD, MPH
• Alyssa Moran, ScD, MPH
• Craig Evan Pollack, MD, MHS
• Josh Sharfstein, MD

Health in All Policies (HiAP) is a collaborative approach to improving the health of all people by incorporating health considerations into decision making and policymaking across all sectors. Our work in this area includes the use of Health Impact Assessment (HIA) and related tools to advance HiAP.

For more information, including RA opportunities, contact Keshia M. Pollack Porter, PhD, MPH

Our faculty conduct research on how health policy communication strategies influence public perception, behaviors and support for policies.

For more information, including RA opportunities, contact:

• Alyssa Moran, ScD, MPH
• Beth McGinty, PhD