On October 3, 2018, the Roundtable on Population Health Improvement of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and the Interdisciplinary Association for Population Health Science convened a joint symposium in Washington, DC to consider the current state of population health science in the United States. At the symposium, speakers and participants reviewed the status of population health in the United States, including current trends in health and mortality, and racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic disparities; explored the complexities of policy implementation with attention to evidence generation and to surfacing and mitigating negative unintended consequences of policies for population health; and shared perspectives on finding common ground to move population health forward. This publication summarizes the presentation and discussion of the workshop.

Contents

• The National Academies of SCIENCES • ENGINEERING • MEDICINE
• PLANNING COMMITTEE FOR POPULATION HEALTH SCIENCE IN THE UNITED STATES: TRENDS, EVIDENCE, AND EFFECTIVE POLICY
• ROUNDTABLE ON POPULATION HEALTH IMPROVEMENT
• Reviewers
• Acronyms and Abbreviations
• 1. Introduction
  • SYMPOSIUM OBJECTIVES
  • ORGANIZATION OF THE SYMPOSIUM AND PROCEEDINGS
• 2. Population Health in the United States
  • RECENT TRENDS IN POPULATION HEALTH
  • RACIAL, ETHNIC, AND SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS DISPARITIES IN HEALTH
  • DISCUSSION
• 3. Policy-Relevant Evidence for Population Health: Promise and Challenges
  • CREATING POLICY-RELEVANT EVIDENCE
  • THE IMPERATIVE TO STAY UPSTREAM
  • POLICY EVALUATION AND THE RISK OF UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES
  • DISCUSSION
• 4. Effective Population Health Policy and Science: Finding Common Ground
  • FINDING COMMON GROUND
  • STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT
  • DATA NEEDS
  • DISCUSSION
• 5. Closing Remarks
• Appendix A. REFERENCES
• Appendix B. Symposium Agenda
• Appendix C. Biosketches of Speakers and Moderators

Suggested citation:

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2022. Population health science in the United States: Trends, evidence, and implications for policy: Proceedings of a joint symposium. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/25631.

Digital Object Identifier: https://doi.org/10.17226/25631

Additional copies of this publication are available from the National Academies Press, 500 Fifth Street, NW, Keck 360, Washington, DC 20001; (800) 624-6242 or (202) 334-3313; http://www.nap.edu.

Printed in the United States of America