The contribution of medical services toward nation’s health, according to the New England Journal of Medicine, was estimated as 11%, in contrast to 64% estimated from lifestyle and environmental risk factors. As a result of ignoring the lifestyle and environmental risk factors, quality of life, years of healthy life lived and health disparity gradually emerged and crept up to a surprisingly large proportion. Knowing the current health status (dietary patterns, risk behaviors and medical costs), their utilization of health care system, and allocation of health care resources is important in designing health policies. This research group aims to:

Understand the current health status, health care utilization, allocation of health resource, and the trends and spatial patterns of the general population;

Understand the features of environment which impact human’s health/risk behaviors, including physical environment (food environment and special design for physical activity), social networks, and access to resources;

Evaluate health policies aspects of promoting health, preventing risks, health care, and allocation health care resources.