Philippa Clarke

Philippa J Clarke

Professor of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Faculty Associate, Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research and Research Professor, Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research

BIO

Dr. Clarke received her Ph.D. in Epidemiology/Social Science and Health from the University of Toronto in 2000. Her research interests are in social epidemiology, social gerontology, life course perspectives, models of disability, and population health. She is primarily interested in the social determinants of health at both the micro and macro levels of social reality and at the intersection of these levels as well.

Her current work examines the role of the built environment on mobility disability, cognitive function, and social participation (with data from the Chicago Community Adult Health Survey); the effect of the urban environment on disability trajectories over time (with national data from the Americans’ Changing Lives Study); the health and social factors influencing the use of assistive devices (with data from the Canadian Study of Health and Aging); and cross-national disparities in disability and psychosocial resources (comparing data from the US Health and Retirement Study and the English Longitudinal Study on Ageing). She is currently funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) through a career development (K01) award to use geographic information systems (GIS) to examine the relationship between the built environment and disability progression, and to identify whether older adults living in less accessible neighborhoods are more likely to be admitted to a nursing home over time.

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