Research

Social Capital

Community social capital (CSC) can be broadly defined as the density of trust, networks, or cooperation within a given community. The Center has developed a unique measurement of CSC: the Petris Social Capital Index (PSCI) which has been validated as part of the "Social Capital and Cardiovascular Health in California" project, supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Center for Family & Community Health, and the Petris Center. The main finding of this research,recently published in Social Science & Medicine, is that there is a negative relationship between the level of CSC and the recurrence of acute coronary syndrome among individuals who live in low-income areas. Additional work from this project, also recently published in Social Science & Medicine, shows that there is a negative relationship between the PSCI and non-specific psychological distress among low-income individuals. In 2005, the Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program, part of the University of California Office of the President, funded a two-year study in which the Petris Center is exploring the relationship between PSCI and smoking: Effects of Social Capital on Smoking: Elasticity and Pathways. In 2006, Petris Center researchers published a paper in Health Economics on the relationship between the PCSI and the demand for cigarettes.

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California's Hospitals

The Petris Center, in work also supported by the California Health Care Foundation, studied how the availability of services in California general hospitals has changed between 1995 and 2000, finding that while twenty-eight hospitals closed obstetrics units. There was no evidence that these changes affected delivery complications or the rate of cesarean births (Kirby et al., 2005).

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California's Health Care Market

In 2004, the Center put on a conference, "Antitrust and Health Care: Assessing Issues for California and the United States", that brought together academic, government, and private industry experts. Petris researchers also published a paper in Business Economics, "Consumer Driven Health Plans: The Road Ahead" (Scheffler & Felton, 2006).

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Oral Health Care in California

In 2005, Petris researchers did an economic analysis of the supply and demand for dental auxiliaries in California, funded by the California Dental Association Foundation. The Center's report is, "An Economic Analysis of the Labor Market for Dental Hygienists and Dental Assistants in California: 1997–2005". An expanded version of this report was published in the Journal of the American Dental Association in January 2007. The California Dental Association Foundation has also funded two additional projects, one examining oral health and access to care among adults in California, and the other examining oral health and access to care among the elderly in California. In addition, the Petris Center is also completing a project entitled, "Improving Access to Care for Adult Immigrants in California and their Children" funded by the California Program on Access to Care.

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