Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER)
Maison des Sciences Humaines
11, Porte des Sciences
L-4366 Esch-sur-Alzette / Belval
Salle de conférence (1st floor)
seminars@liser.lu
Abstract
The way neighborhoods are designed, including the resources available and transportation options, shape residents’ health behaviors and outcomes. Inequitable investment and distinct urban planning and policy decisions generate disparities in both these neighborhood built environment factors and their subsequent health impacts. In this seminar, Dr. Jana A. Hirsch will overview the longitudinal evidence connecting neighborhood environments to health including physical activity, cardiovascular risk, and cognitive decline. She will discuss patterning of built environment factors in the U.S. by social stratification, including neighborhood racial and socioeconomic composition, with an emphasis on the neighborhood changes. The presentation will include current research gaps with a view towards highlighting key directions for future research to support healthy, equitable cities.
Biography
Jana Hirsch, PhD, MES, is an interdisciplinary researcher whose work aims to understand the way neighborhoods shape health behavior and disparities. She has primarily worked at the intersections of urban planning, geography, and epidemiology with a focus on built environments and health among adults and older adults. In particular, she has extensive experience measuring neighborhood change within communities and the subsequent impact of these changes on chronic disease and aging disparities. In her current role as an Assistant Research Professor at the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and the Urban Health Collaborative in the Dornsife School of Public Health of Drexel University (Philadelphia, PA, US), she researches longitudinal neighborhood change and cognitive decline. Personally, she is an eager, active walker and a people-focused “urbanophile."
