UCLA Center for Health Policy Research: Shaping Health Policy Through Evidence-Based Research
The UCLA Center for Health Policy Research (CHPR) stands as a pivotal institution dedicated to enhancing public health through rigorous research and data-driven insights. Founded in 1994, the Center's mission is to improve the public’s health through high-quality, objective, and evidence-based research and data that informs effective policymaking. By focusing on policy analysis, policy-relevant research, public service, community partnership, media relations, and education, CHPR plays a crucial role in shaping health policies that impact millions of Californians.
Foundational Mission and Impact
Since its inception, the UCLA CHPR has been committed to providing high-quality, objective, and evidence-based research and data that have informed effective policymaking and improved the lives of millions of Californians. The CHPR is the premier source of data on the health and health insurance status of California's broad population and it has made a huge impact on efforts to improve the health of all Californians, particularly those who are underserved. More than any other organization in the California, the Center has made it possible for health issues and challenges to be looked at, understood and addressed based on sound, credible data.
Key Developments and Milestones
The Center has achieved several noteworthy developments and milestones, demonstrating its commitment to advancing health policy through comprehensive research and data analysis. These achievements underscore the Center's role as a leading authority in health policy research.
California Health Interview Survey (CHIS)
The CHPR houses the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS), the nation's largest state health survey and a unique source of data on many groups that are broadly representative but not otherwise available in other surveys. CHIS provides credible and comprehensive data on the health of Californians, which is essential for policymakers, researchers, health experts, and the media.
Innovative Prediction Tools
In addition to housing CHIS, the Center has also developed innovative prediction tools that help policymakers such as AskCHIS Neighborhood Edition (NE), which gives users the ability to look at health data at the neighborhood level. The CalSIM microsimulation model, developed in collaboration with the UC Berkeley Labor Center, helped both the California Department of Health Care Services as well as Covered California understand how many people were likely to seek coverage as the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was being implemented in 2014. The predicted estimates were proven accurate as the program unfolded.
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Informing Policymakers
The Center’s research and analysis informs and educates state legislators and policymakers from the smallest counties in the north to sprawling San Diego County in the south on topics ranging from the link between soda and obesity to the effect of food insecurity on vulnerable groups to the inadequacy of federal measures of poverty for senior citizens.
Community Empowerment
The CHPR has partnered with numerous collaborators including The California Endowment, The California Wellness Foundation and others to train thousands of people in community and advocacy groups to empower themselves by understanding and using health data in their work.
Dissemination Modalities
In addition to the research and policy analysis capacity, the CHPR disseminates data and research findings across multiple channels to enable a wide range of users to access and utilize its work. These modalities ensure that the Center's findings reach a broad audience, including policymakers, health professionals, and the general public.
Publishing
The Center’s Communications department offers a full-service publishing program, enabling researchers to produce high-quality publications in both PDF and printed form. The Center also conducts a significant outreach program, in which its publications and data are disseminated at more than a dozen major health conferences each year.
E-Newsletter
The Center’s e-newsletter reaches a growing audience of 14,000+ subscribers, including the health policy point people within the legislative and executive offices at the local, state, and national level.
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Media
The Center’s Communications Department writes and disseminates press releases on select publications to hundreds of health reporters and key policy media across California and nationally. The Center also releases select press releases through UCLA’s main media relations unit, enabling even wider dissemination to national and international media. Communications will also schedule media interviews with researchers as appropriate. As a result of these and other efforts, UCLA experts and publications are cited in hundreds of media outlets each year, ranging from NBC, CBS and Fox News, to The New York Times and Los Angeles Times, to regional media such as KPCC, KPBS, La Opinion and The Sacramento Bee.
Infrastructure and Resources
CHPR is located in 17,500 square feet of off-campus research space near the School of Public Health. The Center supports its research and public service programs with a strong administrative support unit. The Center is connected to the UCLA IT backbone and all workstations are securely connected to center-level resources that are highly secure.
California Health Interview Survey (CHIS)
The Center is the home of the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS), the nation's largest state health survey and one of the largest health surveys in the United States. Policymakers, researchers, health experts, members of the media, and others depend on CHIS for credible and comprehensive data on the health of Californians.
Recent Research and Findings
A new UCLA Center for Health Policy Research (CHPR) study shows how likely Californians of different races, ethnicities, sexual and gender identities, and different disability status, and housing status are to experience a hate act. “Hate is not felt equally among people in California,” said Alex Bates, PhD, MD, MPH, CHIS senior data analyst and lead author of the study, which, in addition to using people’s reported experiences, also used predictive modeling to describe how experiences of hate can vary across populations and regions.
Health Disparities and Inequities
BlackHistoryMonth: Racial inequities in health care persist. Data from our 2024 California Health Interview Survey revealed that more than 1 in 4 Black or African American adults in California experienced unfair treatment getting medical care due to their race or ethnicity. #BlackHistoryMonth: Understanding health disparities is key to advancing health equity. Our California Health Interview Survey data shed light on chronic health conditions among Black and African American Californians.
Mental Health Awareness
BlackHistoryMonth: Mental health is a critical part of overall health. Understanding the unique mental health experiences and needs of Black and African American Californians is key to improving health outcomes.
Data Accessibility and Utilization
Did you know? The California Health Interview Survey has 24 million+ different estimates on 608 variables/topics that can be explored in AskCHIS. The top query in 2025 was serious psychological distress.
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Food Insecurity in California
Join us on Wednesday, March 4, for a webinar examining food insecurity in California. UCLA CHPR staff will share findings from the California Health Interview Survey, including who is most affected and how these patterns intersect with broader social and health conditions, and demonstrate how to use our free online health query tools to search for food insecurity data across demographic groups and regions.
Experiences of Hate
CHIS the season! Nearly a third of the 3.1 million Californians ages 12 and older who experienced a hate act did not receive the support they needed after the most severe hate act they experienced, according to a new UCLA CHPR study using CHIS data.
Cost of Living
Millions of Californians struggle with costs of housing and health care, according to 2024 data from the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS).
Vision and Values
The UCLA Center for Health Policy Research improves the public’s health through high-quality, objective, and evidence-based research and data that informs effective policymaking. Our vision is a health policy process driven by credible and comprehensive evidence, leading to equitable, impactful, and cost-effective laws, policies, and programs. We also believe data should be democratized and put into the hands of the public in ways that inform, educate, and result in grassroots-driven policy change. UCLA CHPR improves the public's health by advancing health policy through research, public service, community partnership, and education.
Expert Perspectives
The work of CHPR - and especially CHIS - has been instrumental to our work and mission. Like so many, we rely on CHIS to help us understand the health care experiences of California’s diverse communities, Medi-Cal members, and those who are uninsured. CHPR and the CHIS help us track in access and barriers to care, disparities between Medi-Cal members and other insured Californians, and disparities within the Medi-Cal population. I think it's fair to say that the work that the Center has done on health insurance alone made a substantial contribution to the passage of the Affordable Care Act. The Center has made major contributions to our understanding of the link between soda and childhood obesity. The Center has made major contributions to our understanding of the barriers to care in vulnerable populations and vulnerable communities. And the Center has made extraordinary contributions to our understanding of the powerful link between poverty and health status.
Research Areas
The UCLA Center for Health Policy Research conducts research and provides insight and data to a wide range of public and private health organizations, policymakers, community advocates, partners, and media. The main research areas include: Data disaggregation, health disparities and inequities, survey methodology, and health economics.
Sharing Research and Insights
UCLA CHPR shares its research in a number of ways - reports, policy briefs, fact sheets, journal articles, newsletters, online tools, workshops, and conferences, to name a few. Researchers regularly support policymakers and advocates through policy analysis, including assessments and program evaluations.
Recognition
Election to the National Academy of Medicine is one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine. NAM recognized Ponce for “building the California Health Interview Survey as the model for state efforts to understand access to care and racial and ethnic inequities in health and health care.
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