Research Interests:
Dr. Chang's research integrates perspectives from medicine, sociology, and epidemiology to study relationships between health and various aspects of socio-cultural life. Much of her research has focused on obesity, engaging topics such as historical shifts in the medical conceptualization of obesity; the role of health in class stratification; secular trends in the relationship between obesity and poverty; and the relationship between weight status and key features of the residential environment (e.g., racial segregation, income inequality, and neighborhood disorder). Current work examines the relationship between weight status and SES over the life cycle; how obesity and poverty cycle across generations; and the influence of weight status on the quality of medical care.

Recent Representative Publications:
T.J. Iwashyna, V.W. Chang, J.X. Zhang, and N.A. Christakis. 2002. “The Lack of Effect of Market Structure on Hospice Use.” Health Services Research 37(6):1531-1551.

V.W. Chang and N.A. Christakis. 2002. “Medical Modeling of Obesity: A Transition from Action to Experience in a 20th Century American Medical Textbook.” Sociology of Health and Illness 24(2):151-177.

T.J. Iwashyna and V.W. Chang. 2002. “Racial and Ethnic Differences in Place of Death: United States, 1993.” Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 50(6):1113-1117.

V.W. Chang and N.A. Christakis. 2003. “Self-perception of Weight Appropriateness in the U.S.” American Journal of Preventive Medicine 24(4):332-339.

A. Long, V.W. Chang, S.A. Ibrahim, and D.A. Asch. 2004. "Update on the Health Disparities Literature." Annals of Internal Medicine 141(10):805-812.

V.W. Chang and D.S. Lauderdale. 2005. "Income Disparities in Body Mass Index and Obesity in the United States (1971-2002)." Archives of Internal Medicine 165 (18):2122-2128.

V.W. Chang and N.A. Christakis. 2005. "Income Inequality and Weight Status in U.S. Metropolitan Areas." Social Science & Medicine 61(1):83-96.

V.W. Chang and D.S. Lauderdale. 2005. "Income Disparities in Body Mass Index and Obesity in the United States (1971-2002)." Archives of Internal Medicine 165 (18):2122-2128.

V.W. Chang. 2006. "Racial residential segregation and weight status among U.S. adults." Social Science & Medicine 63(5):1289-1303.

R.A. Miech, S.K. Kumanyika, N. Stettler, B.G. Link, J.C. Phelan, and V.W. Chang. 2006. "Trends in the association of poverty with overweight among U.S. adolescents, 1971-2004." JAMA 295(20):2385-2393.

J.A. Doshi, D. Polsky, and V.W. Chang. 2007. "Prevelence and trends in obesity among aged and disabled U.S. Medicare beneficiaries, 1997-2002." Health Affairs (Millwood) 26, 1111-1117.

Recent Awards
Dr, Chang was selected as one of 15 medical school faculty nationwide to receive a 2007 Physician Faculty Scholars Award from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. She has been awarded $300,000 over a three-year period to devote to her project, Weight Status and Quality of Care among Older Adults in the U.S.

Under the Physician Faculty Scholars Program, talented junior faculty, nominated by their medical schools and selected by the program, will receive support to enhance their skills and productivity through institutional and national mentoring, specific research experience, and protected time. The program will enable these physicians to engage in research which will inform change in health policy and health care.