Category Archives: Methods

Can Big Data get us Better Estimates of Neighborhood Disorder?

Posted on April 26, 2016 by Built Environment and Health

At the Built Environment and Health group, we try hard to measure neighborhood characteristics accurately. We systematically audit Street View imagery, we use LiDAR scans to assess tree canopy, and we use business registration records to profile neighborhood retail. A … Continue reading →

Posted in Methods, Physical Disorder, Street View | Leave a comment

Maintaining Human Subject’s Protections in Neighborhood Health Effects Research

Posted on February 21, 2016 by Built Environment and Health

We recently published a commentary in the American Journal of Public Health describing the concerns we have for protecting study subject anonymity with the use of online geographic and data tools in neighborhood health effects research.  Examples of neighborhood data available … Continue reading →

Posted in Methods, Tools, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Strategies to Refine Annual Business Establishment Data across More than Two Decades

Posted on October 1, 2015 by Built Environment and Health

Analyses of place and health have been largely cross-sectional, and new challenges are faced as we wrangle longitudinal geographic data.  Our group just published a manuscript detailing our work to clean and code data on all NYC metropolitan area businesses … Continue reading →

Posted in Economic Development, Food Environment, Methods | Leave a comment

CDC Releases New Built Environment Assessment Tool

Posted on July 27, 2015 by Built Environment and Health

The CDC released a new direct systematic observation data collection instrument for measuring the core features and quality of the built environment related to behaviors that affect health, especially behaviors such as walking, biking, and other types of physical activity.  The … Continue reading →

Posted in Community Needs Assessment, Methods, Walkability | Leave a comment

New Research Using Google Street View to Conduct Neighborhood ‘Virtual Audits’

Posted on January 5, 2015 by Built Environment and Health

We recently published three papers describing our use of Google Street View to conduct ‘virtual-audits’ to collect observational data on neighborhood characteristic and conditions. A long established approach to collecting data on neighborhood conditions is to send trained observers to … Continue reading →

Posted in CANVAS, Methods, Physical Disorder, Street View, Urban Design, Walkability | 1 Comment

Steve Mooney receives Award at Society for Epidemiologic Research Annual Meeting

Posted on June 24, 2013 by Built Environment and Health

Steve Mooney, a doctoral student with the BEH group, won a best poster presentation award at the Society for Epidemiologic Research annual conference for his work on the effects on causal inference of error in measuring contextual variables. Proportion of … Continue reading →

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Recent Research Papers

Posted on January 22, 2013 by Built Environment and Health

Several new papers from the group have come out in the past several months. In the Journal of Urban Health we published a paper showing that New Yorker’s engagement in active transport, either walking or cycling, is positively associated with … Continue reading →

Posted in Active Transport, Methods, Safety, Socioeconomic status, Walkability | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment