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:
Sadia Farzana, Andrew Owen, John Meurer, Ronald Ackermann, and Bernard Black. 2026. The Effect of Medicaid Expansion on Diagnosis, Care, Treatment, and Health for Persons with Diabetes: Evidence from Medicaid Expansion in Wisconsin (WP-26-04).
Burton Weisbrod. 2025. Financial Rewards for Health Care Program Outcomes and Why They Can and Do Lead to Undesired Results (WP-25-09).
Charles F. Manski, John Mullahy, and Atheendar Venkataramani. 2025. Prediction with Differential Covariate Classification: Illustrated by Racial/Ethnic Classification in Medical Risk Assessment (WP-25-04).
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
IPR Panel: Evidence into Impact: Research at the Policy Table, Health Policy
Panelists:
Olusimbo (Simbo) Ige, MD, MPH, Commissioner, Chicago Department of Health
Matthew Smith, MPP, Chief Policy Officer, Illinois Department of Public Health
Emma Adam, Edwina S. Tarry Professor of Human Development and Social Policy and IPR Fellow
Moderator:
Thomas McDade, Carlos Montezuma Professor of Anthropology and IPR Fellow and Director of IPR's Cells to Society: The Center on Health Inequalities
Sexual Harassment in Urban India: Prevalence and an Intervention
By Lori Beaman, Professor of Economics and IPR Fellow