Population, Health, and Environment

How do features of the natural, economic, and policy environments impact the health of a population? And how do the dynamics of population change affect the environment? Researchers at CPC explore these and other questions using a variety of tools and methods, from qualitative data collection and in-depth one-on-one interviews to combining machine learning with high resolution satellite imagery to develop fine-grained measures of the contexts in which individuals and families operate. This work helps us understand how and why population change goes hand in hand with environmental change, each affecting the health of the other.

Associated Projects

Project	Principal Investigator	Description	Tags	Countries
Add Health Epigenome Resource: Life course stressors and epigenomic modifications in adulthood	Kathleen Mullan Harris	The overall goals of this project are to investigate the influence of life course psychosocial stressors on DNA methylation and gene expression that may influence cardiometabolic health and depression in a US representative study of young adults.	Biomarkers, Longitudinal/Life-Course, Multi-level Approaches, Race/Gender/Age/SES	United States of America
Add Health GWAS Data: User Support and Research Tools to Enable Widespread Access	Kathleen Mullan Harris	This project is developing tools to enable widespread access to and use of genome-wide association study (GWAS) data among respondents in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health).	Biomarkers, Longitudinal/Life-Course	United States of America
Add Health Parent Study: Phase I	Kathleen Mullan Harris	The Add Health Parent Study (2015-2017), gathered social, behavioral, and health survey data in 2015-2017 on a probability sample of the Add Health parents who were originally interviewed in 1995.	Demography, Longitudinal/Life-Course, Race/Gender/Age/SES	United States of America
Black-White Differences in Life Course Exposure to Death: Consequences for Health	Robert Hummer	The first population-based analysis of race/ethnic differences in exposure to the death of multiple family members over the life course.	Longitudinal/Life-Course, Race/Gender/Age/SES	United States of America
Cardiovascular Health of Sexual and Gender Minorities in the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos	Tonia Poteat; Krista M. Perreira	The goal of this study is to examine relationships between sexual/gender minority stress, coping, social support, and heart disease - a leading cause of morbidity and mortality among Hispanic/Latinos in the U.S.		United States of America
Cebu Longitudinal Health and Nutrition Survey	Linda S. Adair	A longitudinal study following new mothers and their infants over 30+ years of life course development.	Biomarkers, Interventions and Evaluation, Longitudinal/Life-Course, Multi-level Approaches, Race/Gender/Age/SES	Philippines
Center for Galapagos Studies	Stephen J. Walsh	The Center for Galapagos Studies (CGS) is the coordinating unit for UNC's Galapagos Initiative, which marshals Carolina's research strengths to address the complex human and environmental pressures in the Galapagos archipelago, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and birthplace of evolutionary science.		Galapagos Islands
China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS)	Barry M. Popkin; Penny Gordon-Larsen	CHNS examines how the social and economic development of Chinese society is affecting the health of its population.	Biomarkers, Longitudinal/Life-Course, Multi-level Approaches, Race/Gender/Age/SES	China
CON/Health Policy Analysis and Mapping	Paul Delamater	This research project focuses on mapping and analyzing health care access and utilization in Michigan, within the framework of the state's Certificate of Need (CON) program as administered by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS).
Data for Impact (D4I)	Siân L. Curtis	We strengthen the technical and organizational capacity of local partners to collect, analyze, and use data to support their move to self-reliance.	Data Science, Interventions and Evaluation, Race/Gender/Age/SES	Bangladesh, Botswana, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Malawi, Zimbabwe
Drivers and Consequences of Climate-Induced Migration in Africa	Clark Gray	This project will provide new insight into climate-induced migration in Sub-Saharan Africa with a focus on how this process varies over space and how destination areas are affected.	Longitudinal/Life-Course, Multi-level Approaches, Race/Gender/Age/SES
Dynamics of Extreme Events, People, and Places (DEEPP)	Elizabeth Frankenberg	Understanding the environmental, economic, social, and psychological impacts of hurricanes and flooding in coastal Carolina communities.	Human-Environment Interactions	United States of America
Ecuador Projects	Stephen J. Walsh; Richard E. Bilsborrow	This program investigates the social, economic, and demographic effects on land use change among colonist and indigenous communities in the northern Ecuadorian Amazon.	Biomarkers, Longitudinal/Life-Course, Multi-level Approaches, Race/Gender/Age/SES	Ecuador
Energy Poverty PIRE in Southern Africa (EPPSA)	Pamela Jagger	This project seeks to understand the impact of strategies to improve access to modern energy services in Southern Africa, a region lagging far behind the rest of the world in energy access.	Interventions and Evaluation, Multi-level Approaches, Race/Gender/Age/SES	Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe
Energy Transitions and Environmental Change in East and Southern Africa's Coupled Human, Terrestrial, and Atmospheric Systems.	Jason West	The East and Southern Africa region is experiencing unprecedented environmental change (citations), with untold consequences for human well-being and sustainability.	Longitudinal/Life-Course, Multi-level Approaches
Engaging Latinx community members in nutrition education and obesity prevention research	Lindsey Smith Taillie	Gaining insight on our research strategy, from pilot design to grant proposal development, from El Centro Hispano, a North Carolina-based Latino community organization serving parents and children.		United States of America
Evaluating the impact of SSB and nonessential food taxes in Mexico	Barry M. Popkin; Lindsey Smith Taillie	This project looks at both customer and industry response to a 10% sugar-sweetened beverage tax in Mexico.	Biomarkers, Interventions and Evaluation, Longitudinal/Life-Course, Multi-level Approaches, Race/Gender/Age/SES	Mexico
Evaluation of the Chilean Law of Food Advertising and Labeling on food purchases and children's diets	Lindsey Smith Taillie	Evaluating the effect of Chile’s front-of-package warning label and marketing restrictions		Chile
Evolution of Well-Being among Older Adults	Elizabeth Frankenberg	Looking at longer-term consequences of large-scale disasters on the health and well-being of older adults.	Biomarkers, Longitudinal/Life-Course, Multi-level Approaches, Race/Gender/Age/SES	Indonesia
Exome Variants Underlying Weight Gain from Adolescence to Adulthood	Penny Gordon-Larsen	The objective of the research is to investigate how genetic variants influence temporal changes in body mass index and downstream cardiometabolic risk factors at a vulnerable lifecycle period for weight gain, with differential risk across race/ethnic groups. Our findings will contribute to the understanding of risk in the transition from adolescence into adulthood, a period of rapid weight gain when precursors of adult disease are developing, in order to inform efforts to mitigate early development of disease risk.	Biomarkers, Biostatistics, Data Science, Longitudinal/Life-Course, Multi-level Approaches, Race/Gender/Age/SES	United States of America
Extreme Events as Transformative Factors in Pastoral Social-Ecological Systems	Paul W. Leslie	This research focuses on the response of Maasai communities in northern Tanzania to the devastating drought of 2008-2009.	Longitudinal/Life-Course, Multi-level Approaches	United Republic of Tanzania
From Biological to Social Processes: Interdisciplinary Training in Life Course Research	Robert Hummer; Allison Aiello	A scientific training program for both predoctoral and postdoctoral trainees which integrates both social and biological/health sciences research approaches for improving the understanding of health and well-being across the life course.	Biomarkers, Longitudinal/Life-Course, Multi-level Approaches, Race/Gender/Age/SES	North Carolina, United States of America
Geography of Health Inequalities: Contextual Data Merge for Wave V of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health	Taylor Hargrove	Summarizing the demographic, socioeconomic, health, and mobility characteristics of the environments in which participants from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) were living at the time of their Wave V interviews		United States of America
Global Food Research Program	Barry M. Popkin	We provide the academic community, policymakers, and the food industry with rigorous and innovative methods to measure the factory-to-fork dynamics and trends in the food supply in various countries across the globe.	Interventions and Evaluation, Multi-level Approaches	Barbados, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Jamaica, Mexico, Peru, South Africa
Health and Poverty Effects of a Large-scale Cookstove Initiative in Rwanda	Sudhanshu (Ashu) Handa	This project will evaluate the impact of a private sector cookstove and fuel distribution intervention on exposure to airborne pollutants, health and poverty.	Longitudinal/Life-Course, Multi-level Approaches	Rwanda
Health Disparities: Inflammatory Response, Immune Function, and Environmental(In)Congruence	Taylor Hargrove	Examining the biological and social mechanisms underlying the relationship between socioeconomic mobility and poorer physiological health outcomes.	Biomarkers, Longitudinal/Life-Course, Multi-level Approaches, Race/Gender/Age/SES	United States of America
Impact of Eliminating Nonmedical exemptions in California.	Paul Delamater	We will evaluate the impact of eliminating nonmedical exemptions for vaccines in California to develop an evidence base for implementation of immunization legislation.		United States of America
Impacts of Environment, Host Genetics and Antigen Diversity on Malaria Vaccine Efficacy	Michael E. Emch	This multi-site study in Africa is the first major attempt at understanding the impact of spatial ecology on malaria vaccine efficacy and the first integration of molecular data into an ecological vaccine trial analysis.	Biomarkers, Multi-level Approaches
Life Course Process of Alzheimer's Disease: Sex Difference and Biosocial Mechanisms	Y. Claire Yang	Examining the process of age change in cognitive function in relation to risk of Alzheimer's disease (AD) throughout the adult life span and how such process is different for men and women.	Biomarkers, Longitudinal/Life-Course, Race/Gender/Age/SES
Life Course Studies	Glen H. Elder, Jr.	The five key principles of life course theory: life-span development, human agency, historical time and geographic place, timing of transitions, and linked lives.	Longitudinal/Life-Course
Longer Term Effects of a Natural Disaster on Health and Socio-Economic Status	Elizabeth Frankenberg	This project will collect and analyze data from Sumatra, Indonesia, on how children and prime-age adults are affected by and respond to a large-scale natural disaster, the Indian Ocean Tsunami of 2004, which killed an estimated 160,000. The Study of the Tsunami Aftermath and Recovery (STAR) is a longitudinal survey of individuals, households, communities, and facilities in the provinces of Aceh and North Sumatra, Indonesia.	Biomarkers, Longitudinal/Life-Course, Multi-level Approaches, Race/Gender/Age/SES	Indonesia
MEASURE Evaluation	James Thomas	MEASURE Evaluation’s mission is to contribute to better health for people living in low-income countries by assisting governments and health institutions to generate and use information to change what doesn’t work and to scale up what does.	Data Science, Interventions and Evaluation, Multi-level Approaches	Angola, Armenia, Bangladesh, Barbados, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Myanmar, Burundi, Côte d'Ivoire, Cameroon, China, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Dominican Republic, Eastern Caribbean, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guatemala, Guinea, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, India, Jamaica, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mexico, Republic of Moldova, Mozambique, Namibia, Nepal, Nigeria, Russian Federation, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, United Republic of Tanzania, Thailand, Uganda, Ukraine, Viet Nam, Zambia, Zimbabwe
Measurement, Learning and Evaluation (MLE) the BMGF Family Planning Country Action Portfolio	Siân L. Curtis	The Urban Reproductive Health Initiative links country-level consortia with evaluation experts on the Measurement, Learning & Evaluation (MLE) Project who will identify the most effective country-level approaches, facilitate knowledge sharing, and build a robust evidence base to shape future urban family planning, reproductive health, and integrated maternal and newborn health programs.	Interventions and Evaluation
Monitoring Social Change: Dynamics Of Aging And Cognitive Function	Barry M. Popkin; Penny Gordon-Larsen	To increase understanding of the modifiable social, behavioral and environmental factors that prevent or reduce the burden of age-related dementias.		China
Monitoring Social Change: Health, Reproduction, Aging	Barry M. Popkin	Adding a follow-up survey to collect and analyze biomarker data from participants in the China Health Nutrition Study.	Biomarkers, Longitudinal/Life-Course, Multi-level Approaches, Race/Gender/Age/SES	China
Multilevel mechanisms of HIV acquisition in young South African women	Audrey E. Pettifor	Identifying social determinants and their pathways of effect that shape HIV risk among young women in sub-Saharan Africa, a population that bears an enormous burden of disease.	Biomarkers, Longitudinal/Life-Course, Multi-level Approaches, Race/Gender/Age/SES	South Africa
Nang Rong Projects	Stephen J. Walsh; Ronald R. Rindfuss; Barbara Entwisle	A team collected information from more than 50,000 individuals as well as from administrative records, meteorological data, satellite images, and many other sources over a span of 20 years in the Nang Rong district in northeast Thailand.	Biomarkers, Longitudinal/Life-Course, Multi-level Approaches, Race/Gender/Age/SES	Thailand
National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health	Kathleen Mullan Harris	The Add Health Wave V Program Project will add new data to the existing longitudinal multilevel social, behavioral, biological, and genetic data to create an unparalleled scientific resource for investigating the developmental origins of health and disease.	Biomarkers, Interventions and Evaluation, Longitudinal/Life-Course, Multi-level Approaches, Race/Gender/Age/SES	United States of America
Network on Life Course Dynamics and Disparities in 21st Century America	Robert Hummer	A research network investigating how and why the United States is increasingly falling behind virtually all comparably developed/wealthy nations		United States of America
Nutrition Transition Program	Barry M. Popkin	A set of research projects that study the rapid increases in inactivity and obesity, and the associated rise in noncommunicable diseases, that have occurred along with other rapid social and economic changes in the developing world.	Biomarkers, Longitudinal/Life-Course, Multi-level Approaches, Race/Gender/Age/SES
ONEdata - Obesity & Neighborhood Environment Database	Penny Gordon-Larsen	The Obesity and Neighborhood Environment database is a unique collection of variables derived using spatial analysis techniques within a large scale Geographic Information System (GIS) that links community-level data to individual Add Health respondent residential locations in both space and time.	Longitudinal/Life-Course, Multi-level Approaches
Policies to reduce red and processed meat intake as a strategy to mitigate climate change and improve health	Lindsey Smith Taillie	Heavy consumption of meat, especially red and processed meat, is a major contributor to both greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) and non-communicable diseases (NCDs) including cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and cancer. This proposal will examine current patterns of meat consumption in the US and test policies to reduce purchases of red and processed meat.	Interventions and Evaluation, Race/Gender/Age/SES	Mexico, Canada, United States of America
Positive, Negative, and Unintended Consequences of Nutrition-related Policies on Food Purchases: Pushing Nutrition Policy Forward	Shu Wen Ng	Studying the consequences of nutrition-related policies on food purchases.	Interventions and Evaluation	United States of America
Program and Policy Options for Preventing Obesity in the Low, Middle, and Transitional Income Countries: background research and program evaluation	Barry M. Popkin; Lindsey Smith Taillie	We are looking at taxation, advertising restrictions, and front-of-package labels, and their effects on food purchases and dietary intake in four countries -- South Africa, Turkey, Brazil, and Colombia.	Interventions and Evaluation	Brazil, Colombia, South Africa, Turkey
Reducing racial-ethnic disparities in sugar-sweetened beverage intake: the impact of nutrition claims on fruit drink purchases among parents of young children	Lindsey Smith Taillie	This project will inform policies to reduce sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) intake among children ages 1-5 years, with a long-term goal of reducing racial-ethnic disparities in childhood obesity.	Race/Gender/Age/SES
Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey of HSE (RLMS-HSE)	Barry M. Popkin	The RLMS is a household-based longitudinal survey designed to measure the effects of Russian reforms on the economic well-being of households and individuals.	Biomarkers, Longitudinal/Life-Course, Multi-level Approaches, Race/Gender/Age/SES	Russian Federation
Searching for Clean Air and Sustainable Energy Transitions in Yangon	Pamela Jagger	An estimated 10-15% of Yangon's 5 million residents are considered 'unofficial', residing in high density, peri-urban, and often informal settlements.	Biomarkers, Longitudinal/Life-Course
Social Context, the Life Course, and Genetic Transcription in Add Health	Kathleen Mullan Harris	The collection and dissemination of genome-wide mRNA expression profiles among Add Health respondents.	Biomarkers, Longitudinal/Life-Course, Multi-level Approaches, Race/Gender/Age/SES	United States of America
Socioeconomic and Racial Gaps in Schools: Implications for Health and Employment	Kathleen Mullan Harris	For lower SES and racial minority children, school experiences are often characterized by inequalities in which they are disadvantaged relative to higher SES and White children.	Multi-level Approaches	United States of America
Spatial Health Research Group	Michael E. Emch	Research activities of the SHRG focus on exploring spatio-temporal patterns of disease, primarily infectious diseases of the developing world.
Study of the Tsunami Aftermath and Recovery	Elizabeth Frankenberg	The Study of the Tsunami Aftermath and Recovery (STAR) provides data and analyses regarding the long-term impact of exposure to an extreme event, the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, on population health and well-being.	Biomarkers, Data Science, Demography, Longitudinal/Life-Course, Race/Gender/Age/SES	Indonesia
TB Data, Impact Assessment and Communications Hub (TB DIAH)	James Thomas	TB DIAH works to improve and harness existing data on tuberculosis (TB) and expand knowledge sharing regarding TB worldwide.
Transfer Project	Sudhanshu (Ashu) Handa	The Transfer Project is a multi-country cash transfer research initiative.	Biomarkers, Interventions and Evaluation, Longitudinal/Life-Course, Multi-level Approaches, Race/Gender/Age/SES
Transition to a Western diet and cardiometabolic risk: Biomarkers derived from the microbiome	Penny Gordon-Larsen	This project investigates how long-term and short-term changes in diet, gut microbiota, gut microbiota-related plasma metabolites and microbiota-influenced markers of cardiometabolic disease interrelate in order to inform efforts to mitigate early development of disease risk across the globe.	Biomarkers, Longitudinal/Life-Course, Multi-level Approaches, Race/Gender/Age/SES	China
Understanding the relationship between herd immunity and geographic scale to improve estimates of localized infectious disease outbreak risk		Despite its importance, a number of aspects of herd immunity remain under- or unexamined, thereby limiting its usefulness in applied epidemiological or public health settings. This K01 Award proposal focuses on herd immunity and its relationship with infectious disease outbreak risk at local geographic scales.		United States of America
Understanding the risk profile of young women's male partners in rural South Africa.	Audrey E. Pettifor	Assessing the empirical data on the male partners of young women in sub-Saharan African who are at very high risk of HIV infection.		South Africa