Harvard/MGH Center on Genomics, Vulnerable Populations, and Health Disparities

HOME / EVENTS

Place Matters: Incorporating Measures of the Built and Social Environment into Disparities Research (2014)

Date: Friday, April 11, 2014 (All day)

Teachers:

• Francine Laden, ScD (Mark and Catherine Winkler Associate Professor of Environmental Epidemiology, HSPH)

• Jennifer Haas, MD (Professor, Department of Medicine, HMS)

• Peter James, ScD (Postdoctoral Fellow, HSPH)

​​

Course Description: Disparities in health and health care are pervasive and persistent.  U.S. society is characterized by longstanding spatial differentiation by race and socioeconomic status; this has led to investigation into the role of “place” as a determinant of health disparities independent of individual attributes.  This workshop provided an introduction to the concept of place and how to measure the built and social environment.  We discussed linking individual location data to area-based measures, provided an overview of sources of information about the built environment and the social environment, and provided some key examples.  We spoke briefly about analysis and causal inference and discussed how to incorporate area based measures into an existing project or project proposal.

​

Click HERE for the video archive.

This was one of a series of disparities-focused gene-environment research workshops sponsored by the Harvard Catalyst Health Disparities Research Program to support and encourage disparities-focused gene-environment research.  Workshops were tailored to individuals looking to incorporate a novel aim or method into a grant they are currently developing, with a particular interest in supporting faculty writing K-awards, R23s, or R01s.  Participants either (1) had disparities-focused projects under development, but wanted to add cutting edge methods to strengthen their grant proposals, or (2) were developing a proposal that would be strengthened by the addition of a disparities-focused Aim.