Neighborhoods and Health

Dustin T. Duncan, ScD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Population Health at the New York University School of Medicine, where he directs the NYU Spatial Epidemiology Lab. As a social and spatial epidemiologist, he studies how specific neighborhood characteristics influence population health and health disparities. His work includes applying emerging geospatial technologies such as Global Positioning System (GPS) devices and smart phones to, in part, examine mobility and social networks in neighborhoods. Dr. Duncan completed his doctorate and the Alonzo Smythe Yerby Postdoctoral Fellowship, both in social epidemiology, at the Harvard University T.H. Chan School of Public Health.Ichiro Kawachi, MD, PhD, is the John L. Loeb and Frances Lehman Loeb Professor of Social Epidemiology and Chair of the Department of Social & Behavioral Sciences at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, where he has taught since 1992. He has previously co-edited Behavioral Economics and Public Health, Social Epidemiology, Globalization and Health, and the Oxford Handbook of Public Health Practice, all published by Oxford University Press. Kawachi lectures about social epidemiology through the Harvard University Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) platform, edX. His course, "Health and Society" (PHx 201), is a version of the class that he has taught for twenty years at Harvard. In 2013-1014, 35,000 students from all over the world were enrolled in the MOOC course.

The methodological insights and specific research findings displayed here signal an important advance in epidemiology. This book summarizes much of the recent progress that has been made in studies that use aggregate or area-wide measurements. Overall, this book has much to offer. The authors themselves are clearly aware of the complexities, unsolved problems, and numerous challenges that confront anyone who wants to assess quantitatively the impact of social and geographic units on health.

• ForewordAna V. Diez Roux 1. Neighborhoods and Health: A Progress ReportDustin T. Duncan and Ichiro Kawachi 2. Operationalizing Neighborhood Definitions in Health Research: Spatial Misclassification and Other IssuesDustin T. Duncan, Seann D. Regan, and Basile Chaix 3. Quantitative Methods for Measuring Neighborhood Characteristics in Neighborhood Health ResearchDustin T. Duncan, William C. Goedel, and Rumi Chunara 4. Statistical Methods in Spatial EpidemiologySamson Gebreab 5. Agent Based ModelsBrenda Heaton, Abdulrahman El-Sayed, and Sandro Galea 6. Experimental and quasi-experimental designs in neighborhood health effects research: Strengthening causal inference and promoting translationNicole M. Schmidt, Quynh C. Nguyen, and Theresa L. Osypuk 7. Qualitative Methods and Neighborhood Health ResearchDanya E. Keene 8. Designing Healthier Built EnvironmentsPedro Gullón Tosio and Gina S. Lovasi 9. Food Environment and HealthJason Block, Michael Seward, Peter James 10. Neighborhoods, Social Stigma, and HealthDanya E. Keene and Mark B. Padilla 11. Neighborhood Foreclosure and HealthMaraina Arcaya 12. Residential Segregation and HealthMichael R. Kramer Index