Arden S. Handler

Arden S. Handler, DrPH
Professor, Community Health Sciences
Co-Director, Maternal and Child Health Progam

Current Research Interests

My research career reflects my long-standing commitment to improving the health of women, children and families. Within this broad framework, my specific interests are the exploration of factors that increase the risk for adverse pregnancy outcomes and examination of the ways in which the healthcare delivery system, particularly prenatal care, can ameliorate these risks. As my interest in issues related to the delivery of prenatal care has primarily focused on low-income women, I also have a specific interest in the structure and functioning of the public health delivery system, particularly state and local public health agencies.

Currently, I am involved in evaluation research with a number of projects focused on improving the health of women and infants on the West and South Sides of Chicago in Illinois. These projects include Closing the Gap (study of the quality of prenatal care in four Chicago communities), Healthy Births for Healthy Communities (an infant mortality reduction project with outreach and interconceptional care foci in two Chicago communities), and an evaluation of Illinois Healthy Women (Illinois’ Medicaid family planning waiver). In addition, I am the UIC PI for the National Children’s Study (Cook, DuPage and Will counties), a longitudinal cohort study of the effects of environmental influences on 100,000 children nationwide; their mothers will be recruited prior to pregnancy and they will be followed from birth through early adulthood. UIC is partnering with Northwestern University (Lead PI) and the University of Chicago in this effort.

Prior to these activities, I completed two projects (PI- funded by Maternal and Child Health Bureau, co-PI funded by Robert Wood Johnson) examining the effect of welfare reform on low-income women’s insurance status and prenatal care utilization using Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) data from eight states. These analyses indicated that welfare reform had a significant impact on low-income women’s pre-pregnancy insurance status and entry into prenatal care. I also completed a study funded by the Maternal and Child Health Bureau (Handler, PI) to investigate the relationship between prenatal care characteristics, satisfaction with the prenatal care experience, and the utilization of prenatal care among African-American women (Medicaid and non-Medicaid) who received prenatal care through a large managed care organization. This project was a follow-up to two studies, one qualitative and one quantitative, which examined the characteristics of prenatal care and satisfaction among women from diverse ethnic backgrounds. Through this prior effort, a prenatal care satisfaction scale was developed and validated.

 

Teaching

I am co-Director and PI of the Maternal and Child Health Training Program and the Director of the MCH Epidemiology Program offered in both CHS and Epidemiology. My teaching efforts reflect my background in both epidemiology as well as policy and advocacy in Maternal and Child Health. I currently teach or co-teach: Maternal and Child Health Policy and Advocacy, Reproductive and Perinatal Health, Readings in Reproductive and Perinatal Epidemiology, and Maternal and Child Health Systems. I am also actively involved in the implementation of the leadership DrPH program at UIC.

 

Service

I am actively involved in the MCH community on the local, state and national levels. I am a founding and continuing Board member of the Illinois Maternal and Child Health Coalition and serve on a number of local, state and national committees. These include the Illinois PRAMS Steering Committee, the Maternal and Child Health Information Resource Center, Graduate Student Internship Program Steering Committee, and the National MCH Epidemiology Awards selection committee. 

 

Selected Publications

• Simon, K. and Handler, A. Welfare Reform and Insurance Coverage during the Pregnancy Period: Implications for Preconception and Interconception Care. Women’s Health Issues, 2008; 18S: S97-S106.
• Handler, A. , Rosenberg, D., Rankin, K., Zimbeck, M. and Adams, K. The Effect of Welfare Reform on the Pre-Pregnancy Insurance Status of Public Aid Recipients: Women in the Medicaid GAP. In press. Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved. 2006; 17(1): 162-179.
• Rosenberg, D. Handler, A., Rankin, K., Zimbeck, M. and Adams, K.  Prenatal Care Utilization among Very Low-Income Women in the Aftermath of Welfare Reform: Does Pre-Pregnancy Medicaid Coverage Make a Difference?  Maternal and Child Health Journal. 2007; 11(1): 11-17.
• Wall, S., Handler, A., Park, C. Hospital factors and nontransfer of small babies: a marker of deregionalized perinatal care? Journal of Perinatology. 2004; 24: 351-359.
• Handler, A. Rosenberg, D., Raube, K. and Lyons, S. Satisfaction and Use of Prenatal Care: Their Relationship Among African-American Women in a Large Managed Care Organization. Birth, 2003; 30 (1): 23-30.
• Handler, A. Rosenberg, D., Raube, K. and Lyons, S. Prenatal Care Characteristics and African-American Women’s Satisfaction with Care in a Managed Care Organization. Women’s Health Issues, 2003; 13:93-103.
• Handler, A., Issel, M. and Turnock, B. A conceptual framework for measuring public health system performance. American Journal of Public Health, 2001; 91: 1235-1239.