Public Health

Urban Scaling of Health Outcomes: A Scoping Review

McCulley, EM
Mullachery, PH
Ortigoza, AF
Rodríguez, DA
Roux, AV Diez
Bilal, U
2022

Urban scaling is a framework that describes how city-level characteristics scale with variations in city size. This scoping review mapped the existing evidence on the urban scaling of health outcomes to identify gaps and inform future research. Using a structured search strategy, we identified and reviewed a total of 102 studies, a majority set in high-income countries using diverse city definitions. We found several historical studies that examined the dynamic relationships between city size and mortality occurring during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In more recent years...

Uncovering Physical Activity Trade-Offs in Transportation Policy: A Spatial Agent-Based Model of Bogotá, Colombia

Stankov, I
Meisel, JD
Sarmiento, OL
Delclòs-Alió, X
Hidalgo, D
Guzman, L
Rodriguez, D
Hammond, R
Roux, AV Diez
2024

Transportation policies can impact health outcomes while simultaneously promoting social equity and environmental sustainability. We developed an agent-based model (ABM) to simulate the impacts of fare subsidies and congestion taxes on commuter decision-making and travel patterns. We report effects on mode share, travel time and transport-related physical activity (PA), including the variability of effects by socioeconomic strata (SES), and the trade-offs that may need to be considered in the implementation of these policies in a context with high levels of necessity-based physical...

Support for Market-Based and Command-and-Control Congestion Relief Policies in Latin American Cities: Effects of Mobility, Environmental Health, and City-level Factors

Wang, X
Rodriguez, D
Mahendra, A
2021
Public support for the implementation of congestion relief policies is critical for the policies’ technical and political success. To identify the personal, social, and city-level factors associated with higher acceptance towards such policies, this study uses a 2016 survey of 8178 residents from 11 cities across 10 Latin American countries collected by the Development Bank of Latin America (Corporación Andina de Fomento or CAF). We examined support for two demand-side approaches to managing the traffic congestion externality: congestion pricing – a market-based approach, and driving...

City-Level Impact of Extreme Temperatures and Mortality in Latin America

Kephart, JL
Sánchez, BN
Moore, J
Schinasi, L
Bakhtsiyarava, M
Ju, Y
Rodriguez, D
Gouveia, N
Caiaffa, W
Dronova, I
Arunachalam, S
Roux, AV Diez
2022

Climate change and urbanization are rapidly increasing human exposure to extreme ambient temperatures, yet few studies have examined temperature and mortality in Latin America. We conducted a nonlinear, distributed-lag, longitudinal analysis of daily ambient temperatures and mortality among 326 Latin American cities between 2002 and 2015. We observed 15,431,532 deaths among ≈2.9 billion person-years of risk. The excess death fraction of total deaths was 0.67% (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.58–0.74%) for heat-related deaths and 5.09% (95% CI 4.64–5.47%) for cold-related deaths. The...

COVID-19 Has Significantly Impacted the Mobility and Activities of the Senior Population in Contra Costa County

Ragland, David R.
Schorr, Glenn
Felschundneff, Grace
2020

Meeting the mobility needs of an aging population is one of the most substantial challenges facing California in the coming decades. The number of residents age 60 and above will grow to 13.9 million by 2050, representing over 25% of the state population. Meanwhile, the number of residents age 85 and above is expected to increase by over 70% between 2010 and 2030. In 2018, the Safe Transportation Research and Education Center (SafeTREC) at UC Berkeley conducted a survey on transportation mobility issues among older adults in Contra Costa County in California. Results indicated, among other...

Comparing Methods and Data Sources for Classifying Bicycle Level of Traffic Stress: How Well Do Their Outcomes Agree?

Harvey, C
Rodriguez, DA
Fang, K
2024

Level of Traffic Stress (LTS) metrics are widely used to examine how bicyclists may perceive stress along urban streets and identify opportunities for infrastructure improvements. The intuitiveness of the original method, which condensed 18 input variables into four levels, has made LTS very popular among practitioners. Nonetheless, it can be challenging to collect all required inputs. In response, numerous alternative methods have been developed with fewer or different inputs drawn from more general sources, such as OpenStreetMap (OSM) or GIS datasets from local agencies. These...

Post-Traumatic Stress Symptoms in Parents of Adolescents Hospitalized with Anorexia Nervosa

Timko, CA
Dennis, NJ
Mears, C
Rodriguez, D
Fitzpatrick, KK
Peebles, R
2022

The current study was a planned secondary analysis to examine post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) in parents of youth hospitalized for medical stabilization due to anorexia nervosa (AN). Questionnaires were administered to 47 parents (34 mothers, 13 fathers; 10 parental dyads) after admission; follow-up occurred at discharge and 4 weeks, 3 months, and 6 months post-discharge. PTSS were present in the majority of mothers (55.9%) and fathers (61.5%). PTSS were not associated with illness severity, but were associated with parental report of mood symptoms, avoidance, inflexibility, and...

Area Under the Curve as an Alternative to Latent Growth Curve Modeling When Assessing the Effects of Predictor Variables on Repeated Measures of a Continuous Dependent Variable

Rodriguez, Daniel
2023
Researchers conducting longitudinal data analysis in psychology and the behavioral sciences have several statistical methods to choose from, most of which either require specialized software to conduct or advanced knowledge of statistical methods to inform the selection of the correct model options (e.g., correlation structure). One simple alternative to conventional longitudinal data analysis methods is to calculate the area under the curve (AUC) from repeated measures and then use this new variable in one’s model. The present study assessed the relative efficacy of two AUC measures: the AUC...

A Random Intercept Latent Transition Analysis (RI-LTA) of Consumer Spending Across Online and In-Person Channels Through the Pandemic

Tahlyan, Divyakant
Mahmassani, Hani
Stathopoulos, Amanda
Said, Maher
Walker, Joan
Shaheen, Susan
2025

In this study, we utilize a latent transition analysis with random intercept (RI-LTA) framework to understand the changes to consumer spending landscape through the pandemic across various product categories and acquisition channels. Using data from 785 individuals from across United States at four different time points (pre-COVID, December 2020, March 2021, and March 2022), the presented model revealed five different behavioral classes of consumer spending and the dynamics of movement between classes as a result of the pandemic. The results from the model also revealed that the pandemic’s...

Short-Term Planning and Policy Interventions to Promote Cycling in Urban Centers: Findings from a Commute Mode Choice Analysis in Barcelona, Spain

Braun, L
Rodriguez, D
Cole-Hunter, T
Ambros, A
Donaire-Gonzalez, D
Jerrett, M
Mendez, M
Nieuwenhuijsen, MJ
Nazelle, A De
2016
Cycling for transportation has become an increasingly important component of strategies to address public health, climate change, and air quality concerns in urban centers. Within this context, planners and policy makers would benefit from an improved understanding of available interventions and their relative effectiveness for cycling promotion. We examined predictors of bicycle commuting that are relevant to planning and policy intervention, particularly those amenable to short- and medium-term action. We estimated a travel mode choice model using data from a...