Anton Kunst examines how people's living conditions (where they grow up, work and live) affect their chances of falling victim to disease. He also studies the uneven distribution of those same chances based on people's socio-economic position, ethnicity or place of residence. Kunst's research focuses in particular on behavioural factors such as smoking, drinking and physical exercise: how is this behaviour influenced by the environment, and how do these influences account for established social inequalities with respect to behaviour and disease? Finally, he evaluates how policy aimed at improving living conditions (e.g. neighbourhood improvement programmes or new regulations) may help improve public health and reduce the health gap. Kunst is a prolific author in this field, with around 300 published articles in international scientific journals. 

Kunst has been at the AMC-UvA since 2009. He previously worked at Rotterdam's Erasmus MC. He leads a number of research projects that receive EU funding, including a study into inequalities in smoking and research into mortality among migrants. Kunst sits on the advisory committee of Statistics Netherlands (CBS) as well as on the editorial boards of the scientific journals Health Metrics and BMC Public Health.