Population Health and Health Systems

MPC population health research is at the forefront of addressing research questions about the shape of health disparities; the interplay between human population dynamics, social context, and disease etiology; and interventions designed to promote health and mitigate health inequities. We have a thriving research collaborative representing faculty and staff from the fields of economics, epidemiology, medicine, population studies, public health, public policy, and sociology. Our strength in research on health care access and health disparities, together with our leadership in developing powerful new health-related datasets, uniquely position us to make breakthroughs in three key areas of population health research.

First, a robust cluster of MPC investigators is focused on measuring trajectories in health disparities and evaluating interventions designed to ameliorate them. Members of our health demography group apply cutting-edge methodologies using population-based data to understand relationships between population composition and spatio-temporal patterns in health that give rise to disparities, including the impact of racial segregation on health disparities. We are also conducting novel health equity research to document disparities along understudied axes—for example, by nativity/immigration status, by sexual minority status, and by disability status. We are pioneering the linkage of census and survey data, and these new data resources will enable innovative research on health disparities across the life course.

Second, MPC population health research is uncovering the relationships between health systems, environmental and social contexts, and disease etiology. We are examining how factors like the built environment, environmental shocks, food access, social networks, and family caregiving affect immunity, infectious disease transmission, the prevalence of chronic disease, and mortality. MPC population health researchers are combining population microdata with other data sources in innovative ways--for example, with climate data to understand the impacts of climate change and famine on health and mortality (Dorélien). New technology developed by the TerraPop Project will accelerate this research by enabling interoperability of thousands of raster-format environmental datasets with microdata from IPUMS-International, the world’s largest repository of census microdata. Similarly, contextual variables added to the integrated Demographic and Health Surveys and consistent geographic identifiers linking the DHS and global census data will add new dimensions to studies of women’s and children’s health in low resource countries. These various data resources created at MPC underpin a growing research foci on global health and cross-national comparative research on health.

The third key focus of the MPC population health research agenda is the study of health policy, health insurance, and health care delivery. Some of the most important research questions for the next five years lie at the intersection of health disparities and health systems research. The federal Affordable Care Act and its state-level implementation have created new opportunities to understand health disparities and to assess strategies to mitigate their impact. MPC researchers are investigating how shifts in provider and insurance markets affect health care delivery by capitalizing on linked and integrated datasets developed by MPC, including those covering the National Health Interview Survey, the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, and the Current Population Survey. Using restricted administrative and survey data in the Minnesota Research Data Center, and through the work of members associated with the State Health Access Data Assistance Center (SHADAC), we are assessing consequences of health insurance benefit design and health care regulations.

Conveners: Julia Drew and Theresa Osypuk