Y. Claire Wang is a research associate in the Department of Health Policy and Management. Her research interests surrounds the theme of using mathematical models as the metric to integrate epidemiology and demography to inform policy-making concerning population health. Specifically, she is interested in the distribution of modifiable risk factors (e.g. diet, exercise, and disease screening) and their joint implications on disease burden in the whole or within segments of the population.
In collaboration with researchers of a variety of specific fields, she has applied simulation methods to provide quantitative insights into issues such as antibiotic resistance, disclosure policy of medical injuries, and medication adherence. Her present research focuses on the obesity epidemic in adults and in children.
She is supported by the Robert Wood Johnson foundation to model the environmental determinants of energy balance and how they might be modified to fight obesity in children and adolescents. She is also working with the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to develop life tables by body mass index and smoking to document their trends and impacts on mortality.
In the past five years, she has been on the HSPH team in developing a comprehensive colorectal cancer simulation model as part of the NCI-funded Cancer Intervention and Surveillance NETwork (CISNET). This consortium of modelers investigates the impacts of risk factors, screening dissemination, and treatment on population trends in cancer incidence and mortality. In particular, Dr. Wang analyzes large national surveys such as NHANES and NHIS and develops the methodology to model the correlated trend of body mass index, smoking, diet, and screening behaviors.