Public policy plays an important role in improving population health and reducing social disparities in declining birth rates, and other health issues. According to a study by Paula Lantz, a James B. Hudak Professor of Health Policy at the University of Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, and Director of the Ford School’s BA program, the same social factors that drive population health outcomes, such as life expectancy, injury or mortality, also drive birth rates within a population. Currently in the U.S we are seeing dramatically low birth rates in comparison to what is needed in order for a population to retain its size. Lantz focuses on the role that public policy plays in bringing about change and rearranging patterns to raise population health.
