Skip to main content

Social Disparities and Health

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 Social Disparities and Health 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

Thomas McDade headshot
The Center on Social Disparities and Health 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 Child, Adolescent, and Family Studies; Policy, Race, and Inequality; and Education Policy.

Working Papers

Recently published articles and working papers in this program area include:

Sarah Collier Villaume, Aurelie Ouss, Jonathan Guryan, and Emma Adam. 2024. A Meditation on Multidisciplinarity, in the Context of a School-Based Meditation Intervention (WP-24-04).

Therese Bonomo and Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach. 2023. Trends in the School Lunch Program: Changes in Selection, Nutrition & Health (WP-23-18).

Hector Chade, Victoria Marone, Amanda Starc, and Jeroen Swinkels. 2022. Multidimensional Screening and Menu Design in Health Insurance Markets (WP-22-42).

All Papers

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.

View all experts

Events

Apr
08
2024
Can Paid Family Leave Prevent Future Epidemics of Obesity and Chronic Inflammation?

Thomas McDade, Carlos Montezuma Professor of Anthropology, IPR Fellow, and Director of IPR's Cells to Society (C2S): The Center on Social Inequalities and Health

Apr
01
2024
How Can You Advance Your Research with Data Science and AI Support?

By Christina Maimone, Northwestern Research Computing and Data Services

How can you advance your research with data science and AI support? Northwestern IT Research Computing and Data Services provides a range of resources, services, and specialized staff who will work with you to address challenges throughout the research process--from project planning and data collection, to analysis and visualization, to data sharing and archiving.  Areas of support include expertise in data science, statistics, visualization, AI, data management, data workflows, and data analysis, as well as high-performance and high-memory computing resources, data storage, research software, and secure data environments.  This session will discuss recent expansions in support services and staff, and opportunities for research collaborations.

Policy Brief: The Hidden Toll of Success for College Grads of Color

College graduates live healthier and longer lives as compared with those who do not go to college. However, Black and Latinx college graduates are more likely to suffer later in life from cardiometabolic diseases than White graduates. IPR health psychologists Edith Chen and Greg Miller investigate the effects of what it means for young Black and Latinx people to achieve success.

Download the brief