The field of neighborhoods and health (sometimes referred to as spatial epidemiology) has grown exponentially in the fifteen years since the publication of the first edition of Neighborhoods and Health edited by Ichiro Kawachi and Lisa Berkman in 2003. The field continues to grow since the revamped second edition of Neighborhoods and Health (Oxford University Press, 2018), which Dustin Duncan co-edited with Ichiro Kawachi. This forum aims to: 1) provide an historical overview of neighborhoods and health research, 2) examine recent directions in neighborhoods and health research, and 3) touch on methodological areas. In particular, Dr. Duncan will overview applications of novel geospatial methods to study neighborhoods in population health and health disparities research with examples from two of his prospective cohort studies. The N2 (Neighborhoods and Networks) Cohort Study includes 600 HIV-negative and HIV-positive Black gay, bisexual and other sexual minority men in Chicago, IL, Jackson, MS, and New Orleans and Baton Rouge, LA (Grant Numbers: R01MH112406 and U01PS005122). The TURNNT (Trying to Understand Relationships, Networks and Neighborhoods among Transgender women of color) Study examines a cohort of 300 HIV-negative and HIV-positive Black, Latina and Asian-Pacific Islander trans women in New York City (Grant Numbers: R01MD013554 and 3R01MD013554-02S1). Both studies use advanced global positioning systems (GPS) methods to understand how activity space neighborhoods (defined as the local areas within which people move during their daily activities) influence HIV prevention and care outcomes.

Bio

Dustin T. Duncan, ScD is an Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, where he directs Columbia’s Spatial Epidemiology Lab and co-directs the department’s Social and Spatial Epidemiology Unit. Dr. Duncan is a Social and Spatial Epidemiologist. Dr. Duncan’s intersectional research focuses on Black gay, bisexual and other sexual minority men and transgender women of color. His work appears in leading public health, epidemiology, medical, geography, criminology, demography, and psychology journals. Working in collaborations with scholars across the world, he has over 150 high-impact articles, book chapters and books, and his research has appeared in major media outlets including U.S. News & World Report, The Washington Post, The New York Times and CNN. Dr. Duncan’s recent work has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the HIV Prevention Trials Network, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Verizon Foundation, and the Aetna Foundation. He has received several early career and distinguished scientific contribution awards including from the Harvard University T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Interdisciplinary Association for Population Health Science (IAPHS). In 2020, he received the Mentor of the Year Award from Columbia University Irving Medical Center’s Irving Institute for Clinical and Translational Research.