TY - JOUR
T1 - Fourteen pathways between urban transportation and health
T2 - A conceptual model and literature review
AU - Glazener, Andrew
AU - Sanchez, Kristen
AU - Ramani, Tara
AU - Zietsman, Josias
AU - Nieuwenhuijsen, Mark J.
AU - Mindell, Jennifer S.
AU - Fox, Mary
AU - Khreis, Haneen
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Texas A&M Transportation Institute's Center for Advancing Research in Transportation Emissions, Energy, and Health (CARTEEH), a U.S. Department of Transportation's University Transportation Center in College Station, TX . The grant number is 69A3551747128 . More information about CARTEEH is available at: https://www.carteeh.org/ . The authors also thank the following experts for their early review and feedback on the conceptual model: Gregory D. Winfree (Texas A&M Transportation Institute), Robert Wunderlich (Texas A&M Transportation Institute), Karen Lucas (University of Manchester), Thomas A. Burke (Johns Hopkins University), and Adele Houghton (Harvard University and Biositu).
Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Texas A&M Transportation Institute's Center for Advancing Research in Transportation Emissions, Energy, and Health (CARTEEH), a U.S. Department of Transportation's University Transportation Center in College Station, TX. The grant number is 69A3551747128. More information about CARTEEH is available at: https://www.carteeh.org/. The authors also thank the following experts for their early review and feedback on the conceptual model: Gregory D. Winfree (Texas A&M Transportation Institute), Robert Wunderlich (Texas A&M Transportation Institute), Karen Lucas (University of Manchester), Thomas A. Burke (Johns Hopkins University), and Adele Houghton (Harvard University and Biositu).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Authors
PY - 2021/6
Y1 - 2021/6
N2 - Introduction: Transportation is an integral part of our daily lives, giving us access to people, education, jobs, services, and goods. Our transportation choices and patterns are influenced by four interrelated factors: the land use and built environment, infrastructure, available modes, and emerging technologies/disruptors. These factors influence how we can or choose to move ourselves and goods. In turn, these factors impact various exposures, lifestyles and health outcomes. Aim and methods: We developed a conceptual model to clarify the connections between transportation and health. We conducted a literature review focusing on publications from the past seven years. We complemented this with expert knowledge and synthesized information to summarize the health outcomes of transportation, along 14 identified pathways. Results: The pathways linking transportation to health include those that are beneficial, such as when transportation serves as means for social connectivity, independence, physical activity, and access. Some pathways link transportation to detrimental health outcomes from air pollution, road travel injuries, noise, stress, urban heat islands, contamination, climate change, community severance, and restricted green space, blue space, and aesthetics. Other possible effects may come from electromagnetic fields, but this is not definitive. We define each pathway and summarize its health outcomes. We show that transportation-related exposures and associated health outcomes, and their severity, can be influenced by inequity and intrinsic and extrinsic effect modifiers. Conclusions: While some pathways are widely discussed in the literature, others are new or under-researched. Our conceptual model can form the basis for future studies looking to explore the transportation-health nexus. We also propose the model as a tool to holistically assess the impact of transportation decisions on public health.
AB - Introduction: Transportation is an integral part of our daily lives, giving us access to people, education, jobs, services, and goods. Our transportation choices and patterns are influenced by four interrelated factors: the land use and built environment, infrastructure, available modes, and emerging technologies/disruptors. These factors influence how we can or choose to move ourselves and goods. In turn, these factors impact various exposures, lifestyles and health outcomes. Aim and methods: We developed a conceptual model to clarify the connections between transportation and health. We conducted a literature review focusing on publications from the past seven years. We complemented this with expert knowledge and synthesized information to summarize the health outcomes of transportation, along 14 identified pathways. Results: The pathways linking transportation to health include those that are beneficial, such as when transportation serves as means for social connectivity, independence, physical activity, and access. Some pathways link transportation to detrimental health outcomes from air pollution, road travel injuries, noise, stress, urban heat islands, contamination, climate change, community severance, and restricted green space, blue space, and aesthetics. Other possible effects may come from electromagnetic fields, but this is not definitive. We define each pathway and summarize its health outcomes. We show that transportation-related exposures and associated health outcomes, and their severity, can be influenced by inequity and intrinsic and extrinsic effect modifiers. Conclusions: While some pathways are widely discussed in the literature, others are new or under-researched. Our conceptual model can form the basis for future studies looking to explore the transportation-health nexus. We also propose the model as a tool to holistically assess the impact of transportation decisions on public health.
KW - Equity
KW - Morbidity
KW - Mortality
KW - Motor vehicles
KW - Public health
KW - Transportation
KW - Urban
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jth.2021.101070
DO - 10.1016/j.jth.2021.101070
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85104611377
SN - 2214-1405
VL - 21
JO - Journal of Transport and Health
JF - Journal of Transport and Health
M1 - 101070
ER -