Health Policy Center

The Health Policy Center examines the influences of policies, programs, and other environmental factors on a variety of health behaviors. The center has examined alcohol, tobacco use, illicit drug use, and related outcomes, especially among teens, for more than a decade. Effective interventions to reduce initiation and uptake during adolescence can have a crucial and lasting impact on the significant public health, social and economic consequences caused by these behaviors.

In the past several years, the center has expanded its research to include the study of obesity. Two of three adults and one of three children in the United States are overweight or obese. Identifying policies and environmental factors that impede physical activity and good nutrition will help reverse this epidemic.

HPC is part of the Institute for Health Research and Policy and associated with the College of Business Administration at the University of Illinois at Chicago. As an all-campus unit, it brings together researchers from different disciplines.

With a strong focus on the importance of policy and environmental factors on health, researchers in this center are committed to communicating their research findings to local, state, and federal policymakers and advocacy organizations. The center works with researchers worldwide to conduct its research and collaborates closely with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to communicate its findings. View our list of partners.

Frank Chaloupka, distinguished professor of economics, directs the center.

Researchers in HPC currently aim to:

• Reduce obesity among U.S. youth by examining the relationship between weight and economic and environmental factors, such as food prices and access to food stores, restaurants and places of physical activity, and school policies regarding food, fitness and wellness.
• Decrease tobacco use worldwide by examining the effects of tobacco taxes and policies in developing countries.
• Reduce substance abuse by examining the effect of state policies on the adoption of evidence-based practices by treatment programs.

As part of the University of Illinois at Chicago, the Health Policy Center nurtures the development of new investigators by offering research assistantships and post-doctoral fellowships and by mentoring new investigators in their pursuit and fufillment of career development grants.