Unhealthy behaviors – like tobacco use, physical inactivity, nutritionally poor food choices, and prescription opioid abuse – represent the leading cause of chronic disease and premature death in the U.S., are a major driver behind spiraling health-care costs and are overrepresented among socioeconomically disadvantaged populations. The Vermont Center on Behavior and Health (VCBH) at the University of Vermont hosted its third annual national, interdisciplinary conference October 1 and 2, 2015 in an effort to discuss and share strategies for changing the personal behavior patterns that increase health risks and contribute to health disparity problems.
The 2015 conference opened October 1 with a keynote address, titled “American Health Improvement Depends on Addressing Class Disparities,” by Steven A. Schroeder, M.D., a Distinguished Professor of Health & Health Care Departments of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. Schroeder was president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) from 1990 to 2002, during which time he established and led programs to reduce smoking, enhance end-of-life care, expand health insurance for children, and encourage physical activity. His most influential initiative at RWJF focused on leveraging research, policy, advocacy, and education to reduce tobacco use and drive system-wide changes that created higher tobacco taxes, smoke-free indoor air laws, and better access to addiction treatment.
Conference presenters included scholars from UVM and other leading U.S. universities and medical centers who will share research and expertise on how to apply the concepts and methods of behavioral economics – the consideration of how irrational decision-making impacts the everyday choices we make and can eventually undermine health – and behavioral pharmacology to improve scientific understanding and clinical outcomes with these highly challenging and costly public health problems.
Led by Stephen Higgins, Ph.D., UVM professor of psychiatry and psychology, the VCBH was established with an $11.3 million National Institutes of Health Institutional Development Award Center of Biomedical Research Excellence grant in 2013. Investigators at the center are studying the impact of socioeconomic factors such as poverty and lower education levels on health-related decision-making and applying the principles of behavioral economics to develop targeted interventions for promoting healthier choices in vulnerable populations.
A number of UVM College of Medicine experts affiliated with the VCBH presented at the conference, including Higgins who spoke about “Behavioral Economics and Vulnerability to Tobacco Use in Economically Disadvantaged Women” and “Intersections Among Risk Factors for Cigarette Smoking in a U.S. Nationally Representative Sample.”
Sarah H. Heil, Ph.D., associate professor of psychiatry and psychology, discussed “Behavioral Economics for Reducing Unplanned Pregnancies in U.S. Disadvantaged Populations.” Hugh Garavan, Ph.D., director of the Neuroimaging Research Vermont (NERVE) Lab and professor of psychiatry, spoke about “Predicting Vulnerability to Tobacco Use in Youth in the IMAGEN Europe Study.”
Also featured were speakers from Johns Hopkins University, Brown University, Columbia University, University of Michigan, Georgetown University, Yeshiva University, Harvard University, Yale University and Stanford University, as well as representatives from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National Cancer Institute. Nearly 50 posters were presented during the event.
Link to the conference agenda here.