Simulating congestion pricing policy impacts on pedestrian safety using a system dynamics approach.

Research on congestion pricing policy (CPP) impacts has generally focused on the economic and congestion-related benefits of CPPs. Few studies have examined safety effects and the interrelated factors that produce safety outcomes for vulnerable road users. We built a novel system dynamics simulation model to explore the potential mechanisms producing pedestrian injuries over time and the impacts of a CPP (and related interventions) on this trend.

Promoting knowledge to policy translation for urban health using community-based system dynamics in Brazil.

Background: Effectively bridging the knowledge-policy gap to support the development of evidence-based policies that promote health and well-being remains a challenge for both the research and policy communities. Community-based system dynamics (CBSD) is a participatory modelling approach that aims to build stakeholders' capacity to learn and address complex problems collaboratively. However, limited evidence is available about the contributions of CBSD to knowledge-generating and policy processes across sectors and policy spheres.

Novel participatory methods for co-building an agent-based model of physical activity with youth.

Public health scholarship has increasingly called for the use of system science approaches to understand complex problems, including the use of participatory engagement to inform the modeling process. Some system science traditions, specifically system dynamics modeling, have an established participatory practice tradition. Yet, there remains limited guidance on engagement strategies using other modeling approaches like agent-based models.

Integrating complex systems science into road safety research and practice, Part 2: applying systems tools to the problem of increasing pedestrian death rates.

Objectives: To provide a specific example of how systems dynamics tools can increase understanding of stakeholder 'mental models' and generate robust systems-based hypotheses about the escalating problem of rising pedestrian death rates in the USA.

Methods: We designed and facilitated two group model building (GMB) workshops. Participants generated causal loop diagrams (CLDs) individually and in small groups to explore hypotheses concerning time-dynamic interacting factors underlying the increasing rates of pedestrian deaths.

Using community-based system dynamics modeling to understand the complex systems that influence health in cities: The SALURBAL study.

We discuss the design, implementation, and results of a collaborative process designed to elucidate the complex systems that drive food behaviors, transport, and health in Latin American cities and to build capacity for systems thinking and community-based system dynamics (CBSD) methods among diverse research team members and stakeholders. During three CBSD workshops, 62 stakeholders from 10 Latin American countries identified 98 variables and a series of feedback loops that shape food behaviors, transportation and health, along with 52 policy levers. Our findings suggest that CBSD can engage local stakeholders, help them view problems through the lens of complex systems and use their insights to prioritize research efforts and identify novel solutions that consider mechanisms of complexity.

Integrating complex systems science into road safety research and practice, part 1: review of formative concepts.

Many of our most persistent public health problems are complex problems. They arise from a web of factors that interact and change over time and may exhibit resistance to intervention efforts. The domain of systems science provides several tools to help injury prevention researchers and practitioners examine deep, complex and persistent problems and identify opportunities to intervene.

Understanding a successful obesity prevention initiative in children under 5 from a systems perspective.

Introduction/background: Systems thinking represents an innovative and logical approach to understanding complexity in community-based obesity prevention interventions. We report on an approach to apply systems thinking to understand the complexity of a successful obesity prevention intervention in early childhood (children aged up to 5 years) conducted in a regional city in Victoria, Australia.

Methods: A causal loop diagram (CLD) was developed to represent system elements related to a successful childhood obesity prevention intervention in early childhood.

A Community Based Systems Diagram of Obesity Causes.

Introduction: Application of system thinking to the development, implementation and evaluation of childhood obesity prevention efforts represents the cutting edge of community-based prevention. We report on an approach to developing a system oriented community perspective on the causes of obesity.

Methods: Group model building sessions were conducted in a rural Australian community to address increasing childhood obesity.

A systems approach to reducing maternal obesity: The Health in Preconception, Pregnancy and Postbirth (HIPPP) Collaborative.

Obesity in our childbearing population has increased to epidemic proportions in developed countries; efforts to address this issue need to focus on prevention. The Health in Preconception, Pregnancy and Postbirth (HIPPP) Collaborative - a group of researchers, practitioners, policymakers and end-users - was formed to take up the challenge to address this issue as a partnership. Application of systems thinking, participatory systems modelling and group model building was used to establish research questions aiming to optimise periconception lifestyle, weight and health.

Mental illness, poverty and stigma in India: a case-control study.

Objective: To assess the effect of experienced stigma on depth of multidimensional poverty of persons with severe mental illness (PSMI) in Delhi, India, controlling for gender, age and caste.

Design: Matching case (hospital)-control (population) study.

Setting: University Hospital (cases) and National Capital Region (controls), India.

Open streets initiatives in the United States: closed to traffic, open to physical activity.

Background: The ciclovía, or open streets concept, is a community-level physical activity (PA) promotion strategy where streets are closed to motorized traffic and open for individuals to engage in PA. This paper presents an overview of such initiatives in the United States (US) to understand their potential in PA promotion, comparing event and city characteristics.

Methods: We searched ciclovía and open streets initiatives held in 2011 in the US using internet searches, publication databases, social media, and personal contacts.

Target population involvement in urban ciclovias: a preliminary evaluation of St. Louis open streets.

Ciclovias are active street events when roads are open to walkers, cyclists, and families and closed to automobiles. Over 70 cities in the USA have implemented ciclovias to promote physical activity. The authors evaluated four events during 2010 to determine what activities participants perform and who is attending.