Jeff Wilson

Permanent URI for this collection

https://hdl.handle.net/1805/6824

Jeff Wilson, Department of Geography in the IU School of Liberal Arts, focuses his translational work in environmental planning and management at both the state and local levels. The Greenways research project provides data regarding the use of public trails using infared monitors in the most comprehensive trail monitoring system in the United States. Using models to estimate traffic on proposed trails, practitioners can design cost effective trails and estimate safety improvements such as additional stop lights.

This research has also provided data indicating property values on or near trails actually increases contradicting a publicly held belief that trails are bad for local neighborhoods. This translational research effort has received national attention from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation which is interested in the correlation between obesity, public health and urban design.

The Greenway project is another example of how IUPUI's faculty are TRANSLATING their RESEARCH INTO PRACTICE.

Browse

Now showing 1 - 10 of 34

Valuing the Benefits of the Urban Forest: A Spatial Hedonic Approach
(2008-11) Payton, Seth; Lindsey, Greg; Wilson, Jeffrey S.; Ottensmann, John R.; Man, Joyce
This paper measures the benefits of the urban forest by examining its effect on housing prices. A Geographic Information System is used to develop a measure of the urban forest, the Normalised Difference Vegetation Index, from satellite imagery and to construct other variables from a variety of sources. Spatial hedonic housing price models for the Indianapolis/Marion County area are estimated. The models indicate that greener vegetation around a property has a positive, significant effect on housing price, holding everything else constant. This effect is dominated by measures at the neighborhood level. These findings indicate that property owners value the urban forest, at least in part, by the premium they pay to live in neighborhoods with greener, denser vegetation. These findings also indicate that public action to maintain and enhance the urban forest may be warranted. Planners and urban foresters can use these findings to inform public and policy debates over urban forestry programs and proposals.
Using GPS-enabled cell phones to track the travel patterns of adolescents
(2009-05) Wiehe, Sarah E.; Carroll, Aaron E.; Liu, Gilbert C.; Haberkorn, Kelly L.; Hoch, Shawn C.; Wilson, Jeffrey S.; Fortenberry, J. Dennis
Background Few tools exist to directly measure the microsocial and physical environments of adolescents in circumstances where participatory observation is not practical or ethical. Yet measuring these environments is important as they are significantly associated with adolescent health-risk. For example, health-related behaviors such as cigarette smoking often occur in specific places where smoking may be relatively surreptitious. Results We assessed the feasibility of using GPS-enabled cell phones to track adolescent travel patterns and gather daily diary data. We enrolled 15 adolescent women from a clinic-based setting and asked them to carry the phones for 1 week. We found that these phones can accurately and reliably track participant locations, as well as record diary information on adolescent behaviors. Participants had variable paths extending beyond their immediate neighborhoods, and denied that GPS-tracking influenced their activity. Conclusion GPS-enabled cell phones offer a feasible and, in many ways, ideal modality of monitoring the location and travel patterns of adolescents. In addition, cell phones allow space- and time-specific interaction, probing, and intervention which significantly extends both research and health promotion beyond a clinical setting. Future studies can employ GPS-enabled cell phones to better understand adolescent environments, how they are associated with health-risk behaviors, and perhaps intervene to change health behavior.
Socioeconomic indicators of heat-related health risk supplemented with remotely sensed data
(2009-10-16) Johnson, Daniel P.; Wilson, Jeffrey S.; Luber, George C.
Background: Extreme heat events are the number one cause of weather-related fatalities in the United States. The current system of alert for extreme heat events does not take into account intra-urban spatial variation in risk. The purpose of this study is to evaluate a potential method to improve spatial delineation of risk from extreme heat events in urban environments by integrating sociodemographic risk factors with estimates of land surface temperature derived from thermal remote sensing data. Results: Comparison of logistic regression models indicates that supplementing known sociodemographic risk factors with remote sensing estimates of land surface temperature improves the delineation of intra-urban variations in risk from extreme heat events. Conclusion: Thermal remote sensing data can be utilized to improve understanding of intra-urban variations in risk from extreme heat. The refinement of current risk assessment systems could increase the likelihood of survival during extreme heat events and assist emergency personnel in the delivery of vital resources during such disasters.
IUPUI Center for Health Geographics
(Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, 2010-04-09) Bodenhamer, David J.; Wilson, Jeffrey S.; Comer, Karen Frederickson
The IUPUI Center for Health Geographics develops and supports research innovation through integration of geographic information science, medical informatics, community informatics, and public health. Our areas of research emphasis include geospatial technologies and standards for health surveillance, spatial and temporal contexts of health behaviors and health outcomes, and space-time models for investigating disease and mortality trends. Our poster highlights our collaborations, which include interdisciplinary partnerships with investigators in the fields of geographic information science, social science, clinical epidemiology, medical informatics, and health services research.
The Institute for Research on Social Issues
(Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, 2010-04-09) Ford, David A.; Bell, David; Johnson, Daniel P.; Bao, Wan-Ning; Dickerson-Putman, Jeanette; Morrison, Wendy; Parrish-Sprowl, John; Wilson, Jeffrey S.; Wolf, James
The Institute for Research on Social Issues (IRSI) is a collection of collaborating centers and workgroups meant to foster funded research in support of faculty and students who can benefit from its research infrastructure. The poster highlights the activities of IRSI Centers and Workgroups. It features two major funded research projects. “Networks of Heterosexual Risk and HIV” examines the motivations for risk-reducing behaviors between HIV-positive individuals and their HIV-negative partners. Study findings will inform interventions for preventing HIV among partners at risk of infection. “Decision Support through Earth Science Research Results” seeks to augment the current Heat Watch/Warning System (HWWS) with NASA instruments and models used in conjunction with socioeconomic and heat-related mortality data. This activity will enable the production of a more spatially specific warning for areas of risk within the cities, a current limitation of the HWWS.
Identifying risk factors for healthcare-associated infections from electronic medical record home address data
(BMC, 2010-09-17) Wilson, Jeffrey S.; Shepherd, David C.; Rosenman, Marc B.; Kho, Abel N.; Geography, School of Liberal Arts
Background Residential address is a common element in patient electronic medical records. Guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention specify that residence in a nursing home, skilled nursing facility, or hospice within a year prior to a positive culture date is among the criteria for differentiating healthcare-acquired from community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections. Residential addresses may be useful for identifying patients residing in healthcare-associated settings, but methods for categorizing residence type based on electronic medical records have not been widely documented. The aim of this study was to develop a process to assist in differentiating healthcare-associated from community-associated MRSA infections by analyzing patient addresses to determine if residence reported at the time of positive culture was associated with a healthcare facility or other institutional location. Results We identified 1,232 of the patients (8.24% of the sample) with positive cultures as probable cases of healthcare-associated MRSA based on residential addresses contained in electronic medical records. Combining manual review with linking to institutional address databases improved geocoding rates from 11,870 records (79.37%) to 12,549 records (83.91%). Standardization of patient home address through geocoding increased the number of matches to institutional facilities from 545 (3.64%) to 1,379 (9.22%). Conclusions Linking patient home address data from electronic medical records to institutional residential databases provides useful information for epidemiologic researchers, infection control practitioners, and clinicians. This information, coupled with other clinical and laboratory data, can be used to inform differentiation of healthcare-acquired from community-acquired infections. The process presented should be extensible with little or no added data costs.
Spatial Integration of Community Data with Clinical Data in Support of Community Health Research and Practice
(Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, 2011-04-08) Frederickson Comer, Karen; Wiehe, Sarah E.; Wilson, Jeffrey S.; Dixon, Brian E.; Grannis, Shaun
This poster will describe the recent integration of one of the nation’s largest health information exchanges, the Indiana Network for Patient Care developed by the Regenstrief Institute, with one of the nation’s most comprehensive community information system, the SAVI CIS developed by The Polis Center at IUPUI. Integrating community data that quantifies the social and physical environment with clinical data has great potential for supporting and advancing community health research and practice. Multi-sector collaboration on the development and evaluation of associated uses cases informed system integration is allowing spatially-aware research and practice to be more quickly realized.
ACCESS TO SERVICES FOR THE HOMELESS
(Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, 2012-04-13) Bozzo, Anthony; Wilson, Jeffrey S.
My project is based on research done in the anthropology and geography departments by myself, Dr. Zimmerman and Courtney Singleton pertaining to homeless encampments in Indianapolis. This poster presentation illustrates locations of selected encampments and their access to service providers. Geographic information system (GIS) technologies were used to conduct a network analysis that visually shows access to services and quantifies travel time and network distance to selected service locations. The analysis presented is based on data collected by my colleagues from subjects in one specific camp describing preferred travel routes, distances traveled and services needed- prescription medication for example. I plan to apply this analytical method to other encampments to create a model of hypothetical routes based upon tow paths, walking trails and street networks.
Method of modeling the socio-spatial dynamics of extreme urban heat events
(United States Patent Office, 2013-10-22) Johnson, Daniel P.; Wilson, Jeffrey S.
A method of coupling surface urban heat island measures with socio-economic indicators of vulnerability to create improved spatially specific models to assist public health professionals in predicting extreme heat events mortality in urban environments. The method includes utilizing landsat TM imagery for the measuring of the urban heat island intensity levels and a spatial analysis of the variables in question.
Adolescent Health-Risk Behavior and Community Disorder
(2013-11) Wiehe, Sarah E.; Kwan, Mei-Po; Wilson, Jeffrey S.; Fortenberry, J. Dennis
Background Various forms of community disorder are associated with health outcomes but little is known about how dynamic context where an adolescent spends time relates to her health-related behaviors. Objective Assess whether exposure to contexts associated with crime (as a marker of community disorder) correlates with self-reported health-related behaviors among adolescent girls. Methods Girls (N = 52), aged 14–17, were recruited from a single geographic urban area and monitored for 1 week using a GPS-enabled cell phone. Adolescents completed an audio computer-assisted self-administered interview survey on substance use (cigarette, alcohol, or marijuana use) and sexual intercourse in the last 30 days. In addition to recorded home and school address, phones transmitted location data every 5 minutes (path points). Using ArcGIS, we defined community disorder as aggregated point-level Unified Crime Report data within a 200-meter Euclidian buffer from home, school and each path point. Using Stata, we analyzed how exposures to areas of higher crime prevalence differed among girls who reported each behavior or not. Results Participants lived and spent time in areas with variable crime prevalence within 200 meters of their home, school and path points. Significant differences in exposure occurred based on home location among girls who reported any substance use or not (p 0.04) and sexual intercourse or not (p 0.01). Differences in exposure by school and path points were only significant among girls reporting any substance use or not (p 0.03 and 0.02, respectively). Exposure also varied by school/non-school day as well as time of day. Conclusions Adolescent travel patterns are not random. Furthermore, the crime context where an adolescent spends time relates to her health-related behavior. These data may guide policy relating to crime control and inform time- and space-specific interventions to improve adolescent health.

Browse

Browsing Jeff Wilson by Issue Date

Results Per Page

Sort Options