Browsing by Subject "Built environment"

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Analysing Urban Air Pollution Using Low-Cost Methods and Community Science
    (2022-12) Heintzelman, Asrah; Filippelli, Gabriel; Moreno-Madriñan, Max J.; Wilson, Jeffrey S.; Wang, Lixin; Druschel, Gregory K.
    Rise in air pollution resulting in negative health externalities for humans has created an urgent need for cities and communities to monitor it regularly. At present we have insufficient ground passive and active monitoring networks in place which presents a huge challenge. Satellite imagery has been used extensively for such analysis, but its resolution and methodology present other challenges in estimating pollution burden. The objective of this study was to propose three low-cost methods to fill in the gaps that exist currently. First, EPA grade sensors were used in 11 cities across the U.S. to examine NO2. This is a simplistic way to assess the burden of air pollution in a region. However, this technique cannot be applied to fine scale analysis, which resulted in the next two components of this research study. Second, a citizen science network was established on the east side of Indianapolis, IN who hosted 32 Ogawa passive sensors to examine NO2 and O3 at a finer scale. These low-cost passive sensors, not requiring power, and very little maintenance, have historically tracked very closely with Federal Reference Monitors. Third, a low-cost PurpleAir PA-II-SD active sensors measuring PM2.5 were housed with the citizen scientists identified above. This data was uploaded via Wi-Fi and available via a crowd sourced site established by PurpleAir. These data sets were analyzed to examine the burden of air pollution. The second and third research studies enabled granular analyses utilizing citizen science, tree canopy data, and traffic data, thus accommodating some of the present limitations. Advancement in low-cost sensor technology, along with ease of use and maintenance, presents an opportunity for not just communities, but cities to take charge of some of these analyses to help them examine health equity impacts on their citizens because of air pollution.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Factorial Invariance of the Abbreviated Neighborhood Environment Walkability Scale among Senior Women in the Nurses’ Health Study Cohort
    (Taylor & Francis (Routledge): SSH Titles, 2019) Starnes, Heather A.; McDonough, Meghan H.; Wilson, Jeffrey S.; Mroczek, Daniel K.; Laden, Francine; Troped, Philip J.; Geography, School of Liberal Arts
    The purpose of this study was to examine the factorial invariance of the Abbreviated Neighborhood Environment Walkability Scale (NEWS-A) across subgroups based on demographic, health-related, behavioral, and environmental characteristics among Nurses’ Health Study participants (N = 2,919; age M = 73.0, SD = 6.9 years) living in California, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania. A series of multi-group confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to evaluate increasingly restrictive hypotheses of factorial invariance. Factorial invariance was supported across age, walking limitations, and neighborhood walking. Only partial scalar invariance was supported across state residence and neighborhood population density. This evidence provides support for using the NEWS-A with older women of different ages, who have different degrees of walking limitations, and who engage in different amounts of neighborhood walking. Partial scalar invariance suggests that researchers should be cautious when using the NEWS-A to compare older adults living in different states and neighborhoods with different levels of population density.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Multilevel Correlates of Healthy BMI Maintenance and Return to a Healthy BMI among Children in Massachusetts
    (Mary Ann Liebert, 2017-04) Fiechtner, Lauren; Cheng, Erika R.; Lopez, Gabriel; Sharifi, Mona; Taveras, Elsie M.; Pediatrics, School of Medicine
    OBJECTIVES: To examine predictors of healthy BMI maintenance (HBM) or return to a healthy BMI (RHB) among children. METHODS: We studied 33,272 children in Massachusetts between 2008 and 2012. We used multinomial logistic regression to examine associations of individual- and neighborhood-level factors with the odds of: (1) HBM: maintenance of a healthy BMI ≥5th to <85th percentile and (2) RHB: transition to a healthy BMI range from an initial BMI ≥85th percentile between two clinic visits spanning an average of 3.5 years. RESULTS: Racial/ethnic minorities had lower odds of HBM and RHB than non-Hispanic white children. Higher neighborhood educational attainment was associated with an increased odds of HBM and RHB. Higher neighborhood median household income, proximity to a supermarket, and access to more open recreational space were associated with a higher odds of HBM. Children of ages 2-5 years at baseline had higher odds of RHB and HBM than children 13 years and older. CONCLUSIONS: Early childhood interventions and efforts to create health-promoting neighborhoods including improving access to supermarkets and open recreational space could have important effects on obesity prevention and management.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    The moderating role of the built environment in prenatal lifestyle interventions
    (Springer Nature, 2021) Phelan, Suzanne; Marquez, Fred; Redman, Leanne M.; Arteaga, Sonia; Clifton, Rebecca; Grice, Brian A.; Haire-Joshu, Debra; Martin, Corby K.; Myers, Candice A.; Pomeroy, Jeremy; Vincent, Eileen; Van Horn, Linda; Peaceman, Alan; Ashby-Thompson, Maxine; Gallagher, Dympna; Pi-Sunyer, Xavier; Boekhoudt, Trisha; Drews, Kimberly; Brown, Greg; LIFE-Moms consortium; Emergency Medicine, School of Medicine
    This study examined whether the neighborhood built environment moderated gestational weight gain (GWG) in LIFE-Moms clinical trials. Participants were 790 pregnant women (13.9 weeks’ gestation) with overweight or obesity randomized within four clinical centers to standard care or lifestyle intervention to reduce GWG. Geographic information system (GIS) was used to map the neighborhood built environment. The intervention relative to standard care significantly reduced GWG (coefficient = 0.05; p = 0.005) and this effect remained significant (p < 0.03) after adjusting for built environment variables. An interaction was observed for presence of fast food restaurants (coefficient=−0.007; p = 0.003). Post hoc tests based on a median split showed that the intervention relative to standard care reduced GWG in participants living in neighborhoods with lower fast food density 0.08 [95% CI, 0.03,0.12] kg/week (p = 0.001) but not in those living in areas with higher fast food density (0.02 [−0.04, 0.08] kg/week; p = 0.55). Interaction effects suggested less intervention efficacy among women living in neighborhoods with more grocery/convenience stores (coefficient = −0.005; p = 0.0001), more walkability (coefficient −0.012; p = 0.007) and less crime (coefficient = 0.001; p = 0.007), but post-hoc tests were not significant. No intervention x environment interaction effects were observed for total number of eating establishments or tree canopy. Lifestyle interventions during pregnancy were effective across diverse physical environments. Living in environments with easy access to fast food restaurants may limit efficacy of prenatal lifestyle interventions, but future research is needed to replicate these findings.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Unequal access: Tobacco Retail in the Indianapolis Metro Area
    (The Polis Center, Indiana University at Indianapolis, 2017-07) Comer, Karen; Davila, Kelly; Hollon, Deb; Nowlin, Matt
    Retail access to various smoking products is an important consideration when discussing community action to improve a community’s health. Studies show that tobacco outlet density and proximity are linked to tobacco use–particularly in poor areas. We used socioeconomic data culled from the SAVI community information system to examine the density and proximity of tobacco outlets relative to vulnerable communities in Marion County. The report serves as a companion piece to the IU Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health’s September 2016 Report on the Tobacco Epidemic in Marion County and Indiana.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Urban Park Development and Pediatric Obesity Rates: A Quasi-Experiment Using Electronic Health Record Data
    (MDPI, 2016-04-08) Goldsby, TaShauna U.; George, Brandon J.; Yeager, Valerie A.; Sen, Bisakha P.; Ferdinand, Alva; Sims, Devon M. T.; Manzella, Bryn; Cockrell Skinner, Ashley; Allison, David B.; Menachemi, Nir; Department of Health Policy and Management, Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health
    INTRODUCTION: Childhood obesity affects ~20% of children in the United States. Environmental influences, such as parks, are linked with increased physical activity (PA). OBJECTIVE: To examine whether changes in Body Mass Index (BMI) z-score were associated with construction of a new park. METHODS: A quasi-experimental design was used to determine whether living in proximity of a park was associated with a reduction in BMI z-score. Children were selected from health clinics within an 11 mile radius of the park. A repeated-measure ANOVA was employed for analysis of the relationship between exposure (new park) and BMI z-score. RESULTS: Participants were 1443 (median age 10.3 range (2-17.9 years), BMI: z-score 0.84 ± 1.09) African American (77.4%) adolescents. Change in BMI z-score was not statistically different for children living at different distances from the park after controlling for age, gender, race, ethnicity, or payer type (p = 0.4482). We did observe a small 0.03 increase in BMI z-score from pre- to post-park (p = 0.0007). There was a significant positive association between child's baseline age and BMI z-score (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: This study found proximity to a park was not associated with reductions in BMI z-score. Additional efforts to understand the complex relationship between park proximity, access, and PA are warranted.