Topics

Shifting weather patterns and extreme weather events, exacerbated by climate change, can have pervasive impacts on health and well-being, particularly for vulnerable populations. Current E4A funded research on climate focuses on the effectiveness of interventions designed to mitigate the adverse health effects of climate change through enhancing the built environment, improving household and neighborhood resilience, and adjusting environmental policies and regulations.

Funded Projects:

• Health Benefits of Low-Income Weatherization: Evidence for Action
• Impact of Greening on Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) in Low-Income Miami Neighborhoods
• Overlooked Health Implications of Water Policy during Drought and Extreme Temperature Events
• Physical Activity and Redesigned Community Spaces (PARCS) Youth Cohort

From policing to sentencing to probation, criminal justice policies and practices can affect the health of individuals, families, and communities. E4A funded research related to this topic focuses on understanding the health impacts of interventions designed to reform the criminal justice system.

Funded Projects:

• Denver Pay for Success Initiative: Supportive Housing and Health Outcomes
• The Intergenerational Effects of the Criminal Justice System on Children’s Health

Financial security and the ability to meaningfully participate in the economy are key drivers of individual and population health and well-being. Economic opportunity is shaped by a variety of systems and practices related to how people build wealth, including but not limited to wages and employment policies. E4A funded research related to this topic focuses on determining the causal links between initiatives designed to “level the economic playing field” and health outcomes.

Funded Projects:

• The EARN-Health Trial: Intervening on Economic Determinants of Health
• Exploring the Effects of Wage on the Culture of Health in Early Childhood Education Centers
• Health at a Living Wage: Evidence from Natural Experiments
• Health Impacts of Social Policies to Expand Economic Opportunity in Underserved Populations
• Impact of Family Development Services on Family Health
• Volatility, Agency, and Health: A City-Led Guaranteed Income Experiment

Understanding the mechanisms by which educators, school environments, peer and social networks, and community and family groups impact the health and development of children and adolescents is key to building a Culture of Health. In this area, E4A funded researchers are evaluating how interventions designed to enhance the educational experience and environment impact health and development outcomes of students.

Funded Projects:

• Awake and Ready to Learn? A Comprehensive Analysis of School Start Times
• Changing School Start Times: Impact on Student, Family, Teacher, and Community Health
• Community Colleges and Adult Health
• Early-Life Education and Late-Life Health: Exposure to Pre-School 1943-46 and Well-Being After Age 50
• Evidence-Based Strategies to Increase General Public and State Legislator Support for Policies to Fund and Enhance Early Childhood Development
• Investigating a Positive Youth Development Approach to Improving Health and Educational Outcomes Among Adolescents 
• Leveraging School Environments to Shape Social Networks and Improve Adolescent Health-A Randomized Trial of a Social Networks Intervention
• Using Litigation to Increase PE Policy Compliance in California: Impact and Unintended Consequences
• Action Civics to Promote Health: Testing the Causal Effects of a Civic Engagement Intervention on Health and Wellbeing Among Disadvantaged Youth
• Effects of School-Based Mental Health Services on Mental Health and Human Capital

Evidence examining the relationship between gun culture and social norms around firearm ownership can inform policy development and enforcement and reframe the national debate on gun violence. Current E4A funded research related to firearms focuses on analyzing state and federal policy effectiveness and understanding the relationship between these policies and population health outcomes.

Funded Projects:

• Building a Culture of Health around Firearms - The Relationship between Social Gun Culture, Gun Ownership, Firearm Policy, and Firearm Violence
• Identifying Shared Values to Support an Inclusive Culture of Health around Firearms: What Communication Messages Work?

Decision-making around nutrition and access to healthy foods has an undeniable impact on health and well-being. E4A funded research in this area currently centers around evaluating the effectiveness of interventions aimed at changing food systems, nutrition programs, and consumer behavior.

Funded Projects:

• Evaluating the Food is Medicine Approach on Health
• Geisinger Fresh Food Farmacy
• Harnessing Healthy Stress Eating to Reduce Disparities
• The Impact of Childhood Nutrition Assistance on Child Health and Well-Being: Lessons from WIC
• The Impact of Waiting Periods on Food Choice Decisions
• A Multisector Solution to Build a Culture of Health Among Food Insecure Populations in Dallas County

Policies and practices around health care delivery and payment models impact which individuals and populations are able to access and afford high-quality care. E4A funded researchers are investigating the health and utilization outcomes of interventions designed to improve health care delivery and finance systems by educating patients, adjusting payment processes, and improving access to and quality of care.

Funded Projects:

• Breaking Down Barriers to Preventive Care: The Impact of Prenatal Care Expansion to Immigrant Women in Oregon
• Immigration Enforcement and Birth Outcomes: Evidence from North Carolina
• The Impact of State Immigration Enforcement and Public Health Insurance Policies on the Health Outcomes of Children of Immigrants
• The Medicaid Fee Bump: Increased Reimbursements to Primary Care Providers and Health Care Utilization Among Dual-Eligibles with Chronic Conditions
• Providing Legal and Social Services to Address the Needs of Health Care Super-Utilizers: Thinking Outside the Box
• This Is How Much It Saves You: Building a Culture of Health Through Price Disclosure
• Parenthood and Health: Measuring the Effects of Maternity Leave, Paternity Leave, and Child Care

Access to safe and stable housing and neighborhoods promotes positive social connections and participation in a vibrant economy support health and well-being. E4A funded research projects are evaluating the health and well-being impacts of interventions designed to stabilize and enhance housing and neighborhood conditions.

Funded Projects:

• Building a Culture of Health Through the Built Environment: Adaptable Solutions to Community Well-Being
• Denver Pay for Success Initiative: Supportive Housing and Health Outcomes
• Health Benefits of Low-Income Weatherization: Evidence for Action
• Impact of Greening on Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) in Low-Income Miami Neighborhoods
• Seattle's Yesler Terrace Redevelopment: Addressing the Impact of Multi-Sector Strategies on Redevelopment Plans and Community Health
• Tenant-Based v. Project-based Housing Assistance: Evidence from a Housing Assistance Lottery
• Physical Activity and Redesigned Community Spaces (PARCS) Youth Cohort

Immigration policies and enforcement practices impact the health and well-being of children and families, often regardless of their immigration status and outside of the direct realm of immigration policy. E4A funded research in this area focuses on evaluating direct and spillover effects of policies and interventions designed to improve the health of immigrant families.

Funded Projects:

• Breaking Down Barriers to Preventive Care: The Impact of Prenatal Care Expansion to Immigrant Women in Oregon
• Health Impacts of Social Policies to Expand Economic Opportunity in Underserved Populations
• Immigration Enforcement and Birth Outcomes: Evidence from North Carolina
• The Impact of State Immigration Enforcement and Public Health Insurance Policies on the Health Outcomes of Children of Immigrants

Making health a shared value is the cornerstone of RWJF’s vision for building a Culture of Health. Shared values are conceptualized as a reflection of civic engagement, sense of community, and population-level mindsets and expectations, or social norms. Research we fund in this area focuses on how to shift and align social values in ways that prioritize health and well-being for everyone. 

Funded Projects:

• Building a Culture of Health Through the Built Environment: Adaptable Solutions to Community Well-Being
• Evidence-Based Strategies to Increase General Public and State Legislator Support for Policies to Fund and Enhance Early Childhood Development
• Identifying Shared Values to Support an Inclusive Culture of Health around Firearms: What Communication Messages Work?
• Making Health A shared Value Of Youth CulturE (The HAVOYCE Project)

Messaging has the power to influence when and how we talk about health, as well as who participates in the conversation; individual, organizational, and governmental decision-making around health and health care; behavior changes; and the framing of the national conversation around how and which programs and policies are implemented. E4A is funding research in this area that focuses on techniques for shifting mindsets, values, and norms around individual, family, and population health and well-being.

• Evidence-Based Strategies to Increase General Public and State Legislator Support for Policies to Fund and Enhance Early Childhood Development
• Identifying Shared Values to Support an Inclusive Culture of Health around Firearms: What Communication Messages Work?
• Making Health A shared Value Of Youth CulturE (The HAVOYCE Project)
• This Is How Much It Saves You: Building a Culture of Health Through Price Disclosure

It is important to understand the effectiveness of interventions targeting use or misuse of tobacco products, recreational drugs, opioids, alcohol, and similar substances, as well as the health and equity implications for diverse populations and age groups. E4A research projects are currently evaluating how state and federal policies, health care and practitioner efforts, and supportive social networks influence substance use in a variety of populations.

Funded Projects:

• A Community Data-Driven Policy Analysis Framework to Promote Tobacco 21 in the United States
• A Comprehensive Approach to Tobacco Policy in the Age of E-Cigarettes
• Helping Smokers Quit: Crossing Boundaries Across Medicaid, Public Health, and Other Sectors

Workplace policies and programs have far-reaching impacts on the day to day lives of employees and their families. Employers also have the potential to create conditions and implement programs that promote improved health and well-being. E4A grantees are evaluating the impacts of working conditions, employee health programs, employment policies, and wage and labor practices on the health and well-being of the workforce, particularly low-wage workers, and their families.

Funded Projects: 

• Exploring the Effects of Wage on the Culture of Health in Early Childhood Education Centers
• Stable Schedules Study to Promote Low-Income Worker Health and Well-Being
• Worksite Health Interventions in Public Schools, Teacher Health, and Student Academic Performance
• Worksite Wellness: A Field Experiment on Participation Incentives & Selection into Wellness Programs
• Worker's Health On the Line: A Digital Intervention to Address the Fundamental Causes of Disease in the Low-Wage Retail Sector