Infectious Diseases,Technology and Mortality Convergence

Stanford University, Stanford CA

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

? DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The Lancet Commission on Investing in Health has focused the world's attention on eliminating global health disparities as reflected in their title, Global health 2035: a world converging within a generation (Jamison et al., 2013). Although health technologies (especially safe water, antibiotics and vaccinations) are thought responsible for average gains in life expectancy over the last half century; research on the role of such technologies on reducing health disparities across population sub-groups is much more limited. Important unanswered questions in the literature include: which specific technologies are most important for reducing health disparities/promoting mortality convergence? How do technologies interact in the production of health? What explains the low rate of technology adoption among some population sub-groups? This K01 Career Development application will combine demographic methods with rigorous micro-econometric analyses 1) to assess the role of technology on infant and child mortality convergence by constructing novel data sets using demographic techniques 2) to analyze the independent and combined impact of four health technologies (sewerage and waters infrastructure, immunization and antibiotics) on infant and child mortality convergence using quasirandom variation from natural experiments and 3) to examine the relative importance of socioeconomic, environmental and cultural factors on the adoption of efficacious health technologies across sub-groups using econometric techniques. The Candidate, Marcella Alsan, is an infectious-disease trained physician-economist and an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Stanford Medical School. She will benefit from the mentorship of investigators with extensive expertise in demographic methods, economics and health policy. The Candidate will gain experience in indirect methods of mortality analysis, population projection and demographic approaches to measuring health inequalities through coursework at Stanford University and University of California, Berkeley. The proposed training and research experience will provide the foundation for her career as an independent investigator.