Built Environment
Environmental Noise Exposure and Mental Health: Evidence From a Population-Based Longitudinal Study
Exposure to environmental noise from within homes has been associated with poor mental health. Existing evidence rests on cross-sectional studies prone to residual confounding, reverse causation, and small sample sizes, failing to adequately consider the causal nature of this relationship. Furthermore, few studies have examined the sociodemographic distribution of noise exposure at a country level.Neighborhood Environment and Metabolic Risk in Hispanics/Latinos From the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos
This study examines the associations of neighborhood environments with BMI, HbA1c, and diabetes across 6 years in Hispanic/Latino adults.The Relationship Between Environmental Exposures and Post-Stroke Physical Activity
Post-stroke physical activity has widespread health benefits. Environmental exposures may shape post-stroke physical activity behavior. This study investigates the relationships between environmental exposures and post-stroke physical activity.Neighborhood Green Land Cover and Neighborhood-Based Walking in U.S. Older Adults
Greenspace exposure has been associated with physical activity, but few studies have investigated its association with physical activity in the residential neighborhood. This study investigates whether greater amounts of neighborhood open space and forest are associated with neighborhood-based walking in older adults.Subway Ridership, Crowding, or Population Density: Determinants of COVID-19 Infection Rates in New York City
This study aims to determine whether subway ridership and built environmental factors, such as population density and points of interests, are linked to the per capita COVID-19 infection rate in New York City ZIP codes, after controlling for racial and socioeconomic characteristics.Long-Term Air Pollution and Blood Pressure in an African American Cohort: the Jackson Heart Study
African Americans are disproportionately affected by high blood pressure, which may be associated with exposure to air pollutants, such as fine particulate matter and ozone.Income Segregation and Access to Healthy Food
Differences in diet quality across socioeconomic groups are a key contributor to health gradient. An agent-based model was developed to explore how income segregation affects food access for poor households under idealized circumstances where the poor have the same knowledge of and preferences for healthy food as the nonpoor.Poor Health and Violent Crime Hot Spots: Mitigating the Undesirable Co-Occurrence Through Focused Place-Based Interventions
The geographic overlap of violence and poor health is a major public health concern. To understand whether and how place-based interventions targeting micro-geographic places can reduce this undesirable co-occurrence, the study addresses 2 important questions. First, to what extent are deteriorated health conditions associated with living at violent crime hot spots? Second, through what mechanisms can focused place-based interventions break the association between living with violence and deteriorated health?Drop-And-Spin Virtual Neighborhood Auditing: Assessing Built Environment for Linkage to Health Studies
Various built environment factors might influence certain health behaviors and outcomes. Reliable, resource-efficient methods that are feasible for assessing built environment characteristics across large geographies are needed for larger, more robust studies. This paper reports the item response prevalence, reliability, and rating time of a new virtual neighborhood audit protocol, drop-and-spin auditing, developed for assessment of walkability and physical disorder characteristics across large geographic areas.Physical Activity and Social Behaviors of Urban Children in Green Playgrounds
Nature exposure is associated with many wellbeing benefits. However, the influence of green space on the physical activity and social behaviors of children is not completely understood. The purpose of the study was to complete a stepwise impact evaluation of a large-scale playground greening project at a Title 1 elementary school in Los Angeles, California.Disparities in Preventable Hospitalizations Among Public Housing Developments
This study assesses preventable hospitalization rates among New York City residents living in public housing developments compared with all New York City residents and residents in low-income areas. Additionally, preventable hospitalization rates by development (one or multiple buildings in close proximity and served by the same management office) were determined.Geographic and Urban–Rural Differences in Walking for Leisure and Transportation
Walking can serve many purposes, such as transportation (to get some place) or leisure (for fun, relaxation, or exercise); therefore, it provides many opportunities for people to be physically active. This study examines geographic and urban–rural differences in walking in the U.S.Automated Vehicles and Pedestrian Safety: Exploring the Promise and Limits of Pedestrian Detection
U.S. pedestrian fatalities have risen recently, even as vehicles are equipped with increasingly sophisticated safety and crash avoidance technology. Many experts expect that advances in automated vehicle technology will reduce pedestrian fatalities substantially through eliminating crashes caused by human error. This paper investigates automated vehicles’ potential for reducing pedestrian fatalities by analyzing nearly 5,000 pedestrian fatalities recorded in 2015 in the Fatality Analysis Reporting System, virtually reconstructing them under a hypothetical scenario that replaces involved vehicles with automated versions equipped with state-of-the-art (as of December 2017) sensor technology.Reassessing Urban Health Interventions: Back to the Future with Google Street View Time Machine
Validity of research linking built environments to health relies on the availability and reliability of data used to measure exposures. As cities transform, it is important to track when and where urban changes occur, to provide detailed information for urban health intervention research. This paper presents an online observation method of the implementation of traffic-calming features using Google Street View Time Machine. The method is used to validate an existing administrative database detailing the implementation of curb extensions and speed bumps.Transportation and Leisure Walking Among U.S. Adults: Trends in Reported Prevalence and Volume, National Health Interview Survey 2005–2015
Promotion of walking is a promising strategy for increasing physical activity levels in the U.S. The proportion of adults who report walking for either transportation or leisure has increased in recent years, but evidence on trends in walking for specific purposes is limited.Policy Pathways to Address Provider Workforce Barriers to Buprenorphine Treatment
At least 2.3 million people in the U.S. have an opioid use disorder, less than 40% of whom receive evidence-based treatment. Buprenorphine used as part of medication-assisted treatment has high potential to address this gap because of its approval for use in non-specialty outpatient settings, effectiveness at promoting abstinence, and cost effectiveness. However, less than 4% of licensed physicians are approved to prescribe buprenorphine for opioid use disorder, and approximately 47% of counties lack a buprenorphine-waivered physician.Social Work Student and Practitioner Roles in Integrated Care Settings
Social workers are increasingly being deployed in integrated medical and behavioral healthcare settings but information about the roles they fill in these settings is not well understood. This study sought to identify the functions that social workers perform in integrated settings and identify where they acquired the necessary skills to perform them.Peer Workers in the Behavioral and Integrated Health Workforce: Opportunities and Future Directions
The growth of the peer workforce in behavioral health services is bringing opportunities to organizations and institutions that serve people living with mental and substance use disorders and their families. Peer workers are defined as people in recovery from mental illness or substance use disorders or both that possess specific peer support competencies. Similar roles are identified for families of people in recovery. Peer support has been implemented in a vast range of behavioral health services, including in the relatively new use of peer support in criminal justice and emergency service environments.Physical Activity, Sedentary Behavior, and Retirement: The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis
Physical activity and sedentary behavior are major risk factors for chronic disease. These behaviors may change at retirement, with implications for health in later life. The study objective was to describe longitudinal patterns of moderate to vigorous and domain-specific physical activity and TV watching by retirement status.Neighborhood Environments and Physical Activity: A Longitudinal Study of Adolescents in a Natural Experiment
Experimental and quasi-experimental evidence on the relationship between adolescents’ physical activity and their physical activity environments is scarce. This study provides natural experimental evidence using within-person longitudinal variation in physical activity environments resulting from the compulsory re-assignment of military families to new installations, termed permanent changes of station.Violent Crime and Park Use in Low-Income Urban Neighborhoods
Crime and safety are often cited as potential hurdles to park use and park-based physical activity. Using comprehensive data sources including both objective and subjective measurements at the park level and the individual level, this study aimed to assess the association between crime rates and use of local parks in low-income urban neighborhoods.Residential Green Space Quantity and Quality and Child Well-being: A Longitudinal Study
There are few studies on the potential benefits of green space quantity and quality for child well-being. The authors hypothesized that more and better quality residential green space would be favorable for well-being and that these associations could be subject to effect modification across childhood.Helmet Use Among Personal Bicycle Riders and Bike Share Users in Vancouver, BC
Public bike share users have low prevalence of helmet use, and few public bike share systems make helmets available. In summer 2016, a public bike share system launched in Vancouver, BC. Each bicycle is equipped with a free helmet, in response to BC’s all-ages compulsory helmet law. This study assessed the prevalence of helmet use among adult cyclists on personal and public bicycles in Vancouver.Increases in Use and Activity Due to Urban Renewal: Effect of a Natural Experiment
Urban green space and other recreational facilities are associated with physical activity. For adolescents living in multistory housing, public outdoor spaces that support physical activity may play an important role in activity promotion strategies. However, stronger evidence for a relation between the built environment and adolescent physical activity is scarce.The Built Environment and Cognitive Disorders: Results From the Cognitive Function and Ageing Study II
Built environment features have been related to behavior modification and might stimulate cognitive activity with a potential impact on cognitive health in later life. This study investigated cross-sectional associations between features of land use and cognitive impairment and dementia, and also explored urban and rural differences in these associations.
