areas > HEALTH

Picture
​Using state-of-the-art methodology, we try to establish a long-term research agenda to promote evidence based-interventions and policies fostering public health by​

  • Conducting rigorous impact evaluations to promote the dissemination of programs that are shown to be effective
  • Producing the knowledge base through identifying factors leading to risky or protective health related behaviors
  • Conducting systematic reviews to create a catalog of effective programs that can be adapted and transported to different contexts or regions
  • Examining which program components work which don’t to ensure outcome- and cost-effective interventions
  • identifying the best implementation strategies and effective delivery systems to meet the needs of diverse populations. 

Some examples of health programs that can benefit from process and impact evaluation studies are:
  • Multi-component drug use prevention programs in high schools
  • Mental health prevention and early intervention programs
  • Conditional cash transfer programs to increase healthy nutrition
  • Taxing strategies to reduce smoking
  • Workplace wellness programs
  • Home care programs for beneficiaries with chronic conditions
  • Hospital patient care programs
  • Adaptive treatment strategies in medication research ​

Education

Health

Child and Youth

Social Policy

​Workforce Development
Picture
Drug Prevention Program Evaluation: ​Unpacking the Mechanisms of Change
​
​In this book chapter, we describe the use of a methodological tool (i.e. mediation analysis) to identify the causal mechanisms of prevention programs targeting drug use, smoking, and alcohol misuse. The chapter gives examples of evidence- based drug prevention interventions and describes how they achieved their effects. ​
More...
Tackling Adolescent Obesity
​
This study evaluated the relationship between dietary behaviors – binge eating and consumption of sweetened beverages and snacks – and behavioral control processes among 198 adolescents, ages 14 to 17 using neurocognitive measures. The study aims to inform obesity and eating disorder interventions for adolescents. ​​
​More...
Picture
How to Develop Innovative Solutions to Disrupt Unhealthy Eating?
 
Using intensive data coming from ecological momentary assessment of 158 low-SES adolescents, we examined after being exposed to which factors (such as food cues, location, social environment) students engaged in unhealthy eating. The findings identified important environmental and intrapersonal cues to poor eating choices that may be applied to interventions designed to disrupt these behaviors. ​
​More...
How Counseling Works in Workplace Health Promotion?

Motivational interviewing is a highly used counseling technique to promote healthy behavior. In this study, we investigated how the behaviors of counselors mediate the efficacy of a workplace health promotion intervention. 
​More...​
What Predicts Workplace Injury?

Using data from Promoting Healthy Lifestyles: Alternative Models’ Effects study intervention, this paper finds that the odds of filing a worker’s compensation claim is 3 times higher for firefighters with a body mass index of more than 30 kg/m2 than firefighters with a normal BMI. 
​More...​