Research Abstract

My research is focused on the health of children and adolescents, particularly households living in poverty and minority populations. The major goal of this research has been to identify modifiable risks for morbidity and mortality in the young, and to both initiate and evaluate interventions to improve these outcomes. I have focused on a broad variety of risks, ranging from sociological concepts such as income poverty, social stress and social networks, to behaviors such as smoking, inactivity (exemplified by television viewing) and diet. Interventions have included work at both the level of national and state policy, programs at the regional, county, school, hospital, clinic and individual level. Research includes collaborative work with research groups at Harvard, in the Boston area, nationally, and internationally. I direct a CDC funded Prevention Research Center focused on improving diet and physical activity among youth and preventing obesity and chronic disease.

- Childhood chronic illness: causes, sequelae, quality of life;

- Childhood obesity: including school and community-based programs to improve diet and physical activity and reduce inactivity (e.g. television viewing);

- Effects of second-hand cigarette smoke on children;

- Socioeconomic and racial disparities in infant mortality;