Conveners
Student Paper Competition: Session 3
- Michael Widener (University of Toronto - St. George)
Student Paper Competition: Session 2
- Yolanda McDonald (Vanderbilt University)
Student Paper Competition: Session 1
- Katherine Lester (University of Southern California)
Student Paper Competition: Session 4
- Katherine Lester (University of Southern California)
Student Paper Competition: Session 6
- Kari Northeim (University of North Texas Health Science Center)
Student Paper Competition: Session 5
- Michael Widener (University of Toronto - St. George)
Student Paper Competition: Session 8
- Kari Northeim (University of North Texas Health Science Center)
Student Paper Competition: Session 9
- Michael Widener (University of Toronto - St. George)
Student Paper Competition: Session 7
- Debs Ghosh (University of Connecticut)
Although low-income areas are often designated food deserts, small independently owned food retail stores can act as a crucial access point for low-income areas by providing affordable, healthy food options, and even fostering an equitable and sustainable food system in these communities. However, there remain uncertainties regarding whether communities that solely rely on small groceries...
Climate-related impacts on the ocean are increasingly jeopardizing coastal communities’ health by impacting their livelihoods, food security, and cultural heritage. These impacts are particularly acute among small-scale fishers in the Global South. Fishing communities hold valuable local knowledge about sociocultural structures and natural resource management. This knowledge has been crucial...
Illegal artisanal gold mining (galamsey) accounts for about 40% of Ghana’s gold production and is an important contributor to the economy. However, it has significant negative impacts on the environment that are not well-documented. Using remote sensing analysis of land cover changes and in-depth interviews of galamsey operators and community residents in 4 towns, this paper examines the...
Introduction
By crossing ecological boundaries and insufficient political agenda to protect the earth’s climate and biodiversity, the Anthropocene drives the earth into an uninhabitable planet. Despite years of efforts to raise understanding of Planetary Health and other holistic concepts that recognise human, animal, environmental, and ecosystem health as interdependent, urgently needed...
A housing unaffordability crisis is currently impacting many Torontonians. In 2016, it was found that an estimated one in five Canadian adults between the ages of 25 and 34 lived in unaffordable housing, defined as spending 30% or more of their pre-tax income on housing. Although the housing reality for Latinx immigrants in Toronto is unknown, research studying this population in other regions...
Fowl cholera is one of the most economically significant commercial poultry diseases, capable of causing 5-20 percent mortality in the early stages of the disease and a decrease in egg production. This study employs a case-control design utilizing an epidemiological approach to investigate the relationship between land cover and the odds of having fowl cholera outbreaks in midwestern poultry...
This study investigates the relationship between heat index (HI), built environment, socioeconomic status, social vulnerability index (SVI), and violent crimes in Baltimore in the summer from 2016 to 2022 through a univariate analysis using zero-inflated Poisson (ZIP) regression and spatiotemporal analysis using a spatiotemporal Bayesian hierarchical model. First, we found in univariate ZIP...
Among the emerging contaminants of concern (CECs), per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have been widely detected in surface water across the United States. In the present study, we completed a reanalysis of seventy-five (75) PFAS samples across ten (10) major river basins and four (4) minor rivers in Alabama. Among them, the total summed concentrations of sixty-six (66) detected PFAS...
Abstract
Background: Dietary Diversity is a growing concern across the states of India. There is scarcity of studies that stressed on diversity of diet in men. Therefore, this study investigates the socioeconomic and spatial disparities in Low Dietary Diversity (LDD) prevalence among men in India collecting data from the 5th round of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5),...
Background
Stress is omnipresent in our everyday lives and a key risk factor of our physical and mental health. Yet little is known about the impact of geographic life environments, linked to our daily activities and mobility patterns, on our momentary and daily stress levels.
Objectives
We propose this review to gather evidence on the spatio-temporal determinants of momentary or...
China's rapid urbanization has prompted a significant movement of young working-class adults towards cities. This rural-urban migratory phenomenon, driven by economic advancement, has resulted in millions of older adults being “left behind” in rural areas as empty nest families. This review delves into the repercussions of such migration, particularly on the well-being of these left behind...
Background. Neighbourhood gentrification has been found to be associated with health in general, but less is known about mental health and well-being, and how these relationships might differ between social groups. This scoping review asks (1) How is gentrification associated with mental health and well-being 2) Who is most affected by gentrification, and why?
Methods. This is the first...
The studies exploring neighborhood effects on population health are mostly quantitative, investigating the relationships between the physical, built-environment, and socioeconomic characteristics of neighborhood and health. The neighborhood characteristics, however, are often aggregated measures of an administrative unit (e.g., US census-tracts) calculated using national databases and GIS...
In 2020, maternal mortality in Texas was three times the US average but its geography and drivers remain unclear. Effective access to MCH services reduces maternal mortality but remains inequitable due to affordability and transportation costs particularly for rural residents and minority populations. Even in urban areas with better MCH facility access, vulnerable populations face challenges....
While disparities in Alzheimer's Disease and Alzheimer’s Disease Related Dementias (AD/ADRD) are well-documented, the underlying causal process explaining how and why these inequalities arise is less clear. Evidence suggests that potentially-modifiable individual factors, such as social isolation and physical inactivity, can significantly reduce one’s dementia risk. Much less attention,...
Little is known about the long-term relationship between prenatal exposure to green space and adolescent mental health. Using data from the TRAILS cohort (n=1,476; study period: 1989-2002), we assessed 1) associations between prenatal green-space exposure and four mental-health outcomes, namely externalising problems, internalising problems, tobacco use, and alcohol use, self-reported at...
We will introduce a digital tool, “Housing-Health-Disparities Visualizer (HHDV)”. This tool, among other functionalities, visualizes the association between poor mental health and discriminatory loan application denials at the county level in the U.S. HHDV’s primary goal is to highlight the impact of racial segregation, driven primarily by the discriminatory denial of housing on health...
Between March 1, 2020 and December 31, 2021 there were 1.7 million confirmed cases and 27,989 deaths due to COVID-19 among Michigan residents. Of all cases, 31.6% were among women of reproductive age (10-49 years). During the same time period there were 209,171 births in Michigan. In 2020 and 2021, preterm (< 37 weeks gestation) birth rates were 102.3 and 105.9 per 1,000 live births and rates...
The world is experiencing a global water crisis, with increasing water stress, pollution, frequent droughts and flooding, and stark inequities in access to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH). In its roadmap to COVID-19 recovery, the United Nations recommends that researchers collaborate with local authorities and communities to ensure continuity and quality of water and sanitation services....
Globally and historically, Indigenous healthcare has been rooted in land-based medicine derived from knowledge systems connected to the environment. Across Turtle Island, processes of dispossession have uprooted Traditional Healing practices replacing them with colonial, hospital-based care, now characterized as places of harm for Indigenous Peoples. The need for effective mental wellness...
Equitable access to healthcare is regarded as a major indicator of improved health status of a country’s population. Various US governments have implemented series of policies to improve healthcare accessibility. However, historical racial segregation policies have led most of such efforts to be markedly skewed towards only a part of the population, creating disparities in healthcare...
Background: Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care (EmONC) facilities are scarce in Ethiopia and concentrated in bigger cities. Using geospatial analysis, this study modeled the optimal locations for new EmONC facilities such that the maximum number of women could access EmONC facilities.
Methods: We used data from the 2016 EmONC Assessment encompassing 3,804 health facilities (including 370...
Canada’s employment landscape is changing, with 1 in 4 employed Canadians also juggling unpaid care responsibilities (Magnaye et al, 2023). As the backbone of the healthcare system, unpaid carers provide the vast majority of health and social care in Canada (Statistics Canada, 2023). Transportation is the primary care activity by CEs navigating a variety of environments in carrying out care...
In recent years, the frequency and intensity of storm events have raised concerns about their potential impact on public health, particularly in relation to infectious disease outbreaks. Gastrointestinal diseases (e.g., salmonellosis, giardiasis) pose a significant public health concern, especially for vulnerable populations, including the elderly (over 70) and young children (under 5)....
Introduction
Within Haiti, determining spatiotemporal and environmental patterns of mosquito abundance is critical for tailoring vector-borne disease control, as diseases such as dengue fever and lymphatic filariasis are endemic. Here we investigated the spatiotemporal and environmental patterns of Aedes aegypti, Ae. albopictus, and Culex quinquefasciatus abundance in...
Dengue, first reported in Nepal in 2004, occurred as large outbreaks in 2022 and 2023 (54,784 and 51,243 cases), with cases reported in every district (n=77). Initially confined to districts of the lower plains, dengue has spread to higher elevations and is now endemic. We used spatial analyses to map and describe incidence in Nepal in 2022 and 2023. Incidence was calculated for each district,...
Certificate of Veterinary Inspection (CVI) records, the official documents that prove the listed animals have been inspected and meet all federal requirements, are widely used in modeling animal movement between states. Commuter Herd Agreements (CHA), which document inter-state animal movements within the same ownership instead of using a CVI, have been mostly neglected in previous analyses....
Abstract
Leptospirosis is an infectious disease which is passed through species from animals to people and it is present in different geographical periods and spaces.
This disease has got a seasonal feature. In geographical spaces with soft climate happens in Summer and Autumn seasons, whereas in tropical areas is present during the rainy season.
The case that was taken into study is from...
The Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) region of Bangladesh poses significant challenges regarding healthcare accessibility, particularly in its remote and diverse topography. This study undertakes a comprehensive assessment of the prevailing gaps in medical accessibility across the CHT, with a specific focus on elucidating disparities linked to socioeconomic factors. Using Geographic Information...
System for Ontology Learning and Extraction (SOLE) aims to automate hazard-specific ontology construction from knowledge bases of disaster-related information (e.g., scholarly articles) through the use of ontology learning techniques. The hazard-specific ontologies that are extracted from knowledge bases of disaster-related information will provide planners, policymakers, and decision-makers...
Cities play important and critical role in the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 3. However, the urbanization trend in Low Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) like Nigeria presents significant sustainable development challenge, particularly the striking urban health inequalities. It is well known that factors such as geography, social determinants of health, economic and health policies...
Background: Despite a decline in tobacco smoking, lung and bronchus cancer (LBC) remains a leading cause of cancer mortality, with increasing cases among non-smokers. This ecological study evaluates associations between geographic environmental factors and high LBC incidence areas in Pennsylvania, aiming to identify potential prevention strategies.
Methods: Case (PA Cancer Registry,...
Amazon River has the largest freshwater discharge into the world ocean. It exerts a profound influence on the composition of particulate organic matter over time and distance and in response to hydrological changes. We investigate the distribution of particulate carbon, C:N elemental ratio and δ¹³C values during three seasons in the surface and upper 100 m of the water column in areas of the...
Background
Psychological and physiological indices of momentary and chronic stress can be found in voice. In the context of Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA), vocal biomarkers (VB) are a non-invasive and objective way to measure stress in daily life.
Methods
The FragMent study aims to evaluate how daily activities and exposure to various environments influence stress. The mobile...
The dynamics of urban food accessibility are complex, including availability, location, and consumer preferences. This research challenges traditional methods for identifying food deserts by the United States Department of Agriculture claiming that fixed-distance methods fail to represent the complicated spatial dynamics found in different geographical contexts. This study redefines food...
