Land Use and Built Environment

A Novel International Partnership for Actionable Evidence on Urban Health in Latin America: LAC‐urban health and SALURBAL

Roux, AV Diez
Slesinski, SC
Alazraqui, M
Caiaffa, W
Frenz, P
Fuchs, R
Miranda, J
Rodriguez, D
2018

This article describes the origins and characteristics of an interdisciplinary multinational collaboration aimed at promoting and disseminating actionable evidence on the drivers of health in cities in Latin America and the Caribbean: The Network for Urban Health in Latin America and the Caribbean and the Wellcome Trust funded SALURBAL (Salud Urbana en América Latina, or Urban Health in Latin America) Project. Both initiatives have the goals of supporting urban policies that promote health and health equity in cities of the region while at the same time generating generalizable...

The Ridership Performance of The Built Environment for BRT Systems: Evidence from Latin America

Vergel-Tovar, C.
Rodriguez, D
2018
Despite the increasing popularity of BRT worldwide, there is a lack of empirical evidence regarding the built environment characteristics that determine BRT ridership. We examine associations between BRT station level demand and built environment attributes for 120 stations in seven Latin American cities. Using direct ridership models, we study whether underlying built environment factors identified using factor analysis and the package of these factors embodied in station “types” identified using cluster analysis were associated with higher ridership. Of the nine factors identified, those...

Examining the Role of Trip Destination and Neighborhood Attributes in Shaping Environmental Influences on Children’s Route Choice

Moran, M
Rodriguez, D
Corburn, J
2018

Routes are a common way through which child pedestrians experience the built environment. However, empirical evidence on route-scale environmental influences on children's walking are scarce and mainly concern home-school itineraries. To address this gap, this study aims to identify environmental influences on children’s route choice, and to explore how these may vary by trip destination and neighborhood type. One hundred and seven children (10–12 year old) living in inner-city and clustered suburban neighborhoods in Rishon LeZion, Israel participated in the study. Participants were...

The Association Between Neighborhood Environments and Physical Activity from Pregnancy to Postpartum: A Prospective Cohort Study

Porter, AK
Rodriguez, D
Frizzelle, BG
Evenson, KR
2019

The objectives of this study were to determine if neighborhood measures were associated with physical activity cross-sectionally during late pregnancy (27–30 weeks’ gestation), 3 months postpartum, and 12 months postpartum, and longitudinally with an increase in physical activity from late pregnancy to 12 months postpartum. Data are from the Pregnancy, Infection, and Nutrition (PIN3) and Postpartum Prospective Cohort Study. Dichotomized self-reported recreation and total physical activity hours/week were explored cross-sectionally at three time points, and as an increase over time....

Ambient PM2. 5 in Latin American Cities: Population Exposure, Trends, Associated Urban Factors, and Effects on Mortality

Gouveia, N
Hernández, A
Rodriguez, D
Texcalac, J
Ballester, L
McClure, L
Morales, R
Wang, X
2019

Latin America is one of the most urbanized areas of the world with nearly 80% of the population living in cities. Despite its benefits, this concentration of population in cities also increases exposures to pollutants related to urban activity. We examined levels and trends of PM2.5; patterns of population exposure by age, gender and socioeconomic status; disparities in exposure; and association of PM2.5 concentration with city characteristics and effects on mortality. Methods: Ground level annual PM2.5 from satellite-based observations was available in 2015 for 371 cities with greater...

Associations Between Neighborhood Built Environment and Cognition Vary by Apolipoprotein E genotype: Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis

Besser, L
Galvin, JE
Rodriguez, D
Seeman, T
Kukull, W
Rapp, S
Smith, J
2019

We examined whether neighborhood built environment (BE) and cognition associations in older adults vary by apolipoprotein E (APOE) genotype, a genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's disease (AD). We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of 4091 participants. Neighborhood characteristics included social and walking destination density (SDD, WDD), intersection density, and proportion of land dedicated to retail. Individuals were categorized as APOE ε2 (lower AD risk), APOE ε4 (higher AD risk), or APOE ε3 carriers. Among APOE ε2 carriers, greater proportion of land dedicated to retail was...

Determinants of Residential Preferences Related to Built and Social Environments and Concordance Between Neighborhood Characteristics and Preferences

Li, Y
Auchincloss, AH
Rodriguez, DA
Moore, K
Roux, AV Diez
Sanchez, B
2019

We explored associations between residential preferences and sociodemographic characteristics, the concordance between current neighborhood characteristics and residential preferences, and heterogeneity in concordance by income and race/ethnicity. Data came from a cross-sectional phone and mail survey of 3668 residents of New York City, Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles, St. Paul, and Winston Salem in 2011–12. Scales characterized residential preferences and neighborhood characteristics. Stronger preferences were associated with being older, female, non-White/non-Hispanic, and lower...

Assessing Google Street View Image Availability in Latin American Cities

Fry, D
Mooney, SJ
Rodriguez, D
Caiaffa, WT
Lovasi, GS
2020

Virtual audits using Google Street View are an increasingly popular method of assessing neighborhood environments for health and urban planning research. However, the validity of these studies may be threatened by issues of image availability, image age, and variance of image age, particularly in the Global South. This study identifies patterns of Street View image availability, image age, and image age variance across cities in Latin America and assesses relationships between these measures and measures of resident socioeconomic conditions. Image availability was assessed at 530,308...

GIS-based Home Neighborhood Food Outlet Counts, Street Connectivity, and Frequency of Use of Neighborhood Restaurants and Food Stores

Peng, K
Rodriguez, DA
Peterson, M
Braun,
Howard, AG
Lewis, CE
Shikany, J
Gordon-Larsen, P
2020

Researchers have linked neighborhood food availability to the overall frequency of using food outlets without noting if those outlets were within or outside of participants’ neighborhoods. We aimed to examine the association of neighborhood restaurant and food store availability with frequency of use of neighborhood food outlets, and whether such an association was modified by neighborhood street connectivity using a large and diverse population-based cohort of middle-aged U.S. adults. We used self-reported frequency of use of fast food restaurants, sit-down restaurants, and grocery...

Neighborhood Characteristics and Transport Walking: Exploring Multiple Pathways of Influence Using a Structural Equation Modeling Approach

Li, J
Auchincloss, AH
Yang, Y
Rodriguez, DA
Sánchez, BN
2020

In studies of neighborhood effects on transport walking, residential preferences along with other personal characteristics (walking attitude, factors that affect decision to walk for transport) are important factors to consider. However, few studies have examined relationships between neighborhood characteristics and transport walking accounting for a complex suite of personal factors. This study employed a structural equation modeling approach to examine associations between neighborhood characteristics and transport walking behaviors by accounting for residential preferences, self-...