New Jersey Population Health Cohort Study Planning Grant

New Jersey is the second wealthiest state yet it ranks 40th in income equality and has striking health disparities. To address these gaps and disparities, granular data are required, collected over time, to understand personal, family, community, and environmental factors that determine health outcomes and wellbeing. Under this planning and design grant, led by CSHP (Joel C. Cantor, Sc.D., principal investigator), researchers from across Rutgers are collaborating to design the NJ Population Cohort Study. When fully implemented, the Cohort study will establish a sustainable research infrastructure to evaluate planned interventions, evolving policies, and unanticipated developments on population health and well-being in NJ. The Cohort study will combine data from detailed surveys, biomarkers, actigraphy, and linked and community-level secondary data to support rich, informative population health research. In addition to a statewide representative sample, the Cohort will include special samples of groups of new immigrants and other at-risk populations.