Professor of Public HealthEmail: chiaching_chen@nymc.edu
Telephone: (914) 594-2824
Address:
Department of Public Health, Skyline #2N-C20
New York Medical College- School of Health Sciences & Practice
40 Sunshine Cottage Road
Valhalla, NY 10595
Biography: Dr. Chia-Ching Chen is a Professor in the Department of Public Health, School of Health Sciences and Practice, New York Medical College. Dr. Chen received M.A., M.S., and Ed.D. degrees at Columbia University and is a Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES) credentialed by the National Commission for Health Education. Dr. Chen started her academic career as a health behavioral scientist whose goals were to advocate community-based, cross-cultural research with an eye towards applying it for public health issues for individuals, families, and communities. Gradually, she expanded her focus to encompass developing and implementing participatory evidenced based practice interventions that are founded in theory-based knowledge and skills to address public health issues among needy, underserved, and vulnerable populations.
Most of Dr. Chen’s research was conducted through an interdisciplinary collaboration. As a behavioral scientist who was trained in health promotion and health education, she strive to identify strategies to advocate for a better quality of life through health promotion and disease prevention, improved accessibility to healthcare services, and to eliminate health disparities among different socioeconomics groups. In a world filled with distractions, it is vital and necessary to keep my focus on the continuing advancement and dissemination of new and life-changing information and protocols to create a better quality of life. One example of her recent publication that was published in Frontier in Public Health in 2015 is to demonstrate how health education and income differentials affect health status, which creates a health disparity. Using a rigorous research design, the result of the study shows that the educational variable supports the hypothesis that formal and informal health education will lead to a more healthy population in the long run. However, in the short run, government led preventive care is a viable option that should be explored. The study results further identified that health education can mitigate this disparity. Her interest in this topic was the motivation for another empirical study that was published in International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health in 2015. This study investigated the delayed and unmet healthcare needs for the elderly by applying a theoretical and experimental approach using a large survey from a community tracking study. The implications of this study confirmed that preventive services are especially important for older adults.
Another focus of her research that she has found intriguing is teen pregnancy prevention. Teen pregnancy continues to affect youth of color disproportionately, especially for those who reside in low income and underserved communities. In order to identify effective ways to educate youth, it is necessary to investigate their knowledge and attitudinal belief toward risky sexual behavior. She was determined to find out the methods to empower youth’s self-efficacy and negotiating skills when encountering risky sexual situations, and the ways to avoid unintended pregnancy and STDs. Thus, several community-based sex education intervention studies were conducted. For example, the study that was published in Journal of Children and Poverty in 2011 was to identify the impact of a school-based sexual health intervention on teen pregnancy prevention, as well as to estimate if the intervention was cost-effective in the short and long-term by controlling for various influential factors. This study led to another publication (Mindshare International Journal of Research and Development, 2012) that utilized a similar analytical approach to examine the effectiveness of a school-based intervention that was conducted at a different geographic area (in the Bronx) with a different population. The results were in favor of her hypothesis that abstinence education for youth could delay the early onset of sexual behavior, which alternatively avoided unintended pregnancy. Following this study, she continued to engage in a community-based intervention, in which she adopted a train-the-trainer approach to replicate an evidenced-based sex education intervention in Yonkers, NY. This led to another publication (Journal of Adolescent Health, 2014), which involved a process evaluation that discussed the methods for improving the replication success of evidence-based interventions during a pre-implementation phase.
Research: Dr. Chen’s another broader research has focused on accessibility, disparities, and psychosocial determinants associated with individual level outcomes. The publications include an empirical study that assesses children’s needs for healthcare services among the variations of State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) in the USA (Health Policy, 2010); a community-based study that investigated the psychosocial determinants of participating in colonoscopy testing and their implication for health education among the elderly (Journal of Cancer Education, 2010); a study that employs GIS spatial analysis to identify area where to establish new grocery stores in counties within New Jersey, USA as a solution to address the structural inequalities that disproportionately promote obesity among the underserved and disadvantaged populations (International Journal of Health and Nutrition, 2010); a community-based study that survey on 15,302 elderly people 65 years and older in seven municipalities in 2006 in Japan that reveals clear-cut evidence of barriers to necessary care (International Journal of Environmental Research in Public Health, 2010); an empirical study that examined the waste tire resources recovery program and environmental health policy in Taiwan (International Journal of Environmental Research in Public Health, 2009); an empirical study that examined how the decision to purchase private health insurance and hospitalization is made based on household income and socio-demographic factors under Japan’s national health insurance (Open Economics Journal, 2009); an empirical study that systematically examined the actual use of outpatient services by children as the theoretical-base of realized access (i.e. use of health services) by controlling for influential factors (Applied Economics, 2008); a study that examined children with special healthcare needs and unmet healthcare needs under the State Children Health Insurance Program (The Journal of Insurance and Risk Management, 2007); a community-based study that examined behavioral choices among elderly formal and informal home and nursing home care (Geneva Papers on Risk & Insurance - Issues & Practice, 2006); and an article documenting the importance of education, counseling services from health care providers, mental health agency services, and detoxification treatments on preventing relapse behaviors for substance users (Advances in Health Economics and Health Services Research,2005).
Education Profile:
Graduate Degree: M.A., M.S., Ed.D.
Graduate Degree Institution: Columbia University
Undergraduate Institution: Chinese Culture University, Taiwan
Selected Bibliography:
Mwaria, M., Chen, C. C., Coppola, C., & Phifer, C. (2016). A culturally responsive approach to improving replication of a youth sexual health program. Health Promotion & Practice, forthcoming.
Mihajlo, B.J., Mira, V., Chen, C. C., Mirjana, A., Viktorija, D.S., Radmila, V.R., Dasari, B. N.S., & Yamada, T. (2016). Do health reforms impact cost consciousness of health care professionals? Results from a nation-wide survey in the Balkans. Balkan Medical Journal, 33(1), 8-17.
Yamada, T., Chen, C. C., Naddeo, J. J., & Harris, J. R. (2015). Changing healthcare policies: implications for income, education, and health disparities. Frontier in Public Health. 3(1), 195.
Mihajlo, B.J., Yamada, T., Chen, C. C., Dejan, S. S., Mirjana, R.J., Katarina, D.N.D., Nemanja, K.R., Dejana, M.S., Nenad, M.B., Goran, S.M., & Slobodan, M.J. (2015). Cost-effectiveness of depressive episode pharmacological treatment. Hospital Pharmacology- International Multidisciplinary Journal, 2(1), 235-245.
Yamada, T., Chen, C. C., Murata, C., Hirai, H., Ojima, T., Kondo, K., & Harris, J,R. 3rd (2015). Access disparity and health inequality of the elderly: Unmet needs and delayed healthcare. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 12(2): 1745-72.
Walker, E., Mwaria, M, Coppola, N., & Chen, C. C. (2014). Improving the replication success of evidence-based interventions: why a pre-implementation phase matters. Journal of Adolescent Health, 54(3 Suppl): S24-8.
Chen, C. C., Yamada, T., & Smith, J. (2014). An Evaluation of Healthcare Information on the Internet: The Case of Colorectal Cancer Prevention. International Journal of Environmental Research in Public Health, 11(1), 1058–1075.
Yamada, T., Yamada, T., Chen, C. C., Zeng, W. (2014). Determinants of Health Insurance and Hospitalization. Cogent Economics & Finance, 2(1), 1-27. DOI: 10.1080/23322039.2014.920271.
Yamada, T., Chen, C. C., Chiu, I. M., & Rizvi, S. W. (2013). Non-communicable diseases in developing countries: Causes and health policy/program assessments. Journal of Tropical Diseases, 1:117.
Yamada, T., Yamada, T., Chen, C. C., & Zeng, W. (2013). Overwork and adverse effect on health. Journal of Global Economics, 2: 106.
Chen, C. C., Chiu, I. M., Yamada, T., & Smith, J. (2013). Too smart to be Selfish? Measures of cognitive ability, social preferences, and consistency. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 90, 112-122.
Yamada, T., Chen, C. C., Smith, J., & Finkelstein, M. J. (2012). Behavioral risk reduction and health intervention for adolescents. Mindshare International Journal of Research and Development, 3(1), 1-12.
Yamada, T., Chen, C.C., & Smith, J. (2012). Health disparities and health integration. Health Behavior and Public Health, 2(1), 21-37.
Chiu, I. M., Yamada, T., & Chen, C. C. (2011).Health and income variation: A panel data study on the developed and less developed economies. International Economic Journal, 25(2), 305-318.
Chen, C. C., Yamada, T. & Walker, E. (2011). Estimating the cost effectiveness of a classroom-based abstinence & pregnancy prevention program on preadolescent sexual risk behaviors. Journal of Children & Poverty, 17(1), 87-109.
Chen, C. C., Yamada, T., Smith, J, & Chiu, I. M. (2011). Improving Children's Healthcare through State Health Insurance Programs: An emerging need. Health Policy, 99(1), 72-82.
Chiu, I. M., Yamada, T., & Chen, C. C. (2010). Health and income variation: A panel data study on the developed and less developed economies. International Economic Journal, in press.
Groomes Jr, K. R, Yamada, T., & Chen, C. C. (2010). Addressing Childhood Obesity: Identifying Potential Grocery Store Locations in New Jersey, US. International Journal of Health and Nutrition, 1(1), 13-30.
Chen, C. C., Yamada, T., Smith, J., & Chiu, I. M. (2010). Improving children's healthcare through state health insurance programs: An emerging need. Health Policy. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 20705355.
Yamada, T., Chen, C. C., Yamada, T., Chiu, I. M., & Worrall, J. D. (2010). Pharmaceutical price policy, pharmaceutical innovation, and health durability. The Open Pharmacoeconomics & Health Economics Journal, 2, 34-46.
Chen, C. C., Basch, C. E., & Yamada, T. (2010). An evaluation of colonoscopy use: Implications for health education. Journal of Cancer Education, 25(2),160-165.
Murata, C., Yamada, T., Chen, C. C., Ojima, T., Hirai, H., & Kondo, K. (2010). Barriers to care among the elderly in Japan. International Journal of Environmental Research in Public Health, 7(3), 1330-1341.
Yamada, T., Chen, C. C., Yamada, T., Noguchi, H., & Miller, M. (2009). Private health insurance and hospitalization under Japanese national health insurance. Open Economics Journal, 2, 61-70.
Yamada, T., Chen, C. C., Yamada, T., Chiu, I. M., & Smith, J. (2009). Accessibility of healthcare services in the USA. Applied Economics, 41(4), 437-450.
Chen, C. C., Yamada, T., Chiu, I. M., & Liu, Y. K. (2009). Evaluation of waste tire resources recovery program and environmental health policy in Taiwan. International Journal of Environmental Research in Public Health, 6(3), 1075-1094.
Yamada, T., & Chen, C. C. (2007). Children with special healthcare needs and unmet healthcare needs under the State Children Health Insurance Program. Pravartak - The Journal of Insurance and Risk Management, 3(1), 22-46.
Yamada, T., Chen, C. C., Yamada, T., Fahs, M. C., & Fukawa, T. (2006). Behavioral analysis of community-based formal home care, informal care, and nursing home care in Japan. The Geneva Papers on Risk & Insurance - Issues & Practice, 31(4), 600-632.
Yamada, T., Chen, C. C., & Yamada, T. (2005). Economic evaluation for relapse prevention of substance users: Treatment settings with healthcare policy. Advances in Health Economics and Health Services Research, 16, 431-450.
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