The NCI-funded R21 grant will develop and validate novel GIS-based total daily environmental exposure measures along routes and around locations identified by GPS traces. They will be collected from participants at baseline and will be related to health behaviors most likely to be influenced by the built environment, e.g. physical activity, sedentary behavior, and healthy eating. Our team of experts from geography, sociology, criminology, transportation, active living, animal tracking, pollution monitoring, and forestry will provide techniques to facilitate the development of exposure estimates, from the GPS traces, for energy balance promoting environments (e.g., parks, connected streets, to public transportation, residential density, multiple destinations, and grocery stores) and energy imbalance promoting environments (e.g., low-income neighborhoods, freeways, industrial zones, convenience stores and fast food restaurants). We are developing a geo-database to facilitate the matching of GIS to GPS data, comparing different spatial techniques for creating exposure variables, and assessing relationships across several data sets, including RCTs designed to change behavior locations.
Principal Investigator: Jacqueline Kerr, PhD
Co-Investigators: Jim Sallis PhD, Loki Natarajan PhD
Consultants: Stephen Matthews, Jasper Schipperijn, Jared Aldstadt, Sherry Ryan, Jennifer Miller, Linda Beale, Doug Wiebe
Project Coordinator: Katie Crist, MPH
