1. Reporting on
the Built Environment
and Health
@TaunyaEnglish
WHYY Radio, NewsWorks.org

2. Beyond the doctor’s office

3. Beyond the doctor’s office

4. Oh, the places you’ll go
Credit and apologies to Dr. Seuss

5. Kick-off questions
Studies Question the Pairing of Food Deserts and Obesity
- New York Times, April 2012
Will Philadelphia’s experiment in eradicating ‘food deserts’ work?
- Washington Post, June 2012
Hunger experts, meeting in Phila., stew over ‘food deserts’
- Philadelphia Inquirer, Sept. 2011
Kids buy cheap snacks at the corner store
- WHYY, October 2009

6. Kick-off questions
“It's opener, out there, in the wide, open air.”– Dr. Seuss

7. New “health care” sounds
Knock at
the door
Mass
Transit
Public
Housing

8. Understanding the sector
A different kind of practitioner
 City and transit planners
 Social workers
 Population health scholars
 Housing advocates

9. Understanding the sector

10. Understanding the sector

11. Understanding the sector

12. Understanding the sector

13. Understanding the sector
Courtesy Jennifer Culhane, MPH, PHD – Drexel University

14. Naming the series
http://www.newsworks.org/designsonhealth

15. Understanding maps
Tools of the trade
 GIS
 Neighborhood data sets
• Crime stats
• Air quality reports
• Birth, death records
• School attendance, delinquency
• Noise complaints
• Vacant lots, abandoned buildings

16. Understanding maps
Esri Health GIS
Conference
Institute on GIS and
Public Health

17. Understanding maps
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQ6d0By7GhE
Institute on GIS and Public Health
Amy Hillier, PennDesign

18. What I learned from Charlie Branas, Cartographic Modeling Lab
Maps can be misleading

19. What I learned from Dennis Culhane, Cartographic Modeling Lab
Neighborhood effects
physical distancesocial distance

20. The series
What matters in a neighborhood?
 Walkability
• The WISH Study
Walkability’s Impact on Senior Health
• NIH funded
• Philadelphia Corp. for Aging

21. Walkability
“Broken sidewalks, streetlights that change
to fast for an older adult to get across …
bus stops where there’s no place to sit
down. Neighborhoods that are nice and
kempt and lovely but it’s blocks and blocks
to get to a grocery or a market.”
- researcher Allen Glicksman

22. Walkability

23. Walkability

24. The series
What matters in a neighborhood?
 Home
• Multi-family smoking policies
• Mold, water damage
• Dust mites, roaches, pests
• Crowded living conditions
• Proximity to traffic, car pollution

25. Home

26. Home

27. Home
"If you are talking about some of the
poorer patients, you can't just pick
yourself up and leave. You are where you
are, and if you have neighbors on both
sides, who might not keep up their home--
and you do--you are impacted by them.”
- pediatrician Hal Byke

28. The series
What matters in a neighborhood?
 Mass transit
 Parks, places to play
 Bike lanes
But, what’s enough?
 HIA – Health Impact Assessment

29. Mass transit
Proposal: Spend $400M to extend subway
(and get workers out of their cars)

30. Mass transit

31. Mass transit

32. Mass transit
• Three pix from video footage glaxo, urban, young workers

33. Detours, dead ends
“Sadly, it's true that Bang-ups and Hang-ups can happen to you.” – Dr. Seuss

34. Detours, dead ends
Goal: Launch a new conversation about the power of place
and the influence of neighborhood on health.
✖ #placehealth
✔ #builtenvironment
✔ #hia
“Creating a nonorganic hashtag may be the hardest thing ever.”
-- Don Henry, WHYY Director of Digital News

35. Does it
work?
Taunya: A: “We don’t know yet.”
A: “Stay tuned.”
A: “Experts are tracking … ”
A: “Evidence is mounting.”
Detours, dead ends

36. Thank You …
DennisA. Hunt Fund for Health Journalism