Spatial risk for a superspreading environment: Insights from six urban facilities in six global cities across four continents.

Introduction: This study sets out to provide scientific evidence on the spatial risk for the formation of a superspreading environment.

Methods: Focusing on six common types of urban facilities (bars, cinemas, gyms and fitness centers, places of worship, public libraries and shopping malls), it first tests whether visitors' mobility characteristics differ systematically for different types of facility and at different locations. The study collects detailed human mobility and other locational data in Chicago, Hong Kong, London, São Paulo, Seoul and Zurich.

Media Reports on COVID-19 Vaccinations: A Study of Topic Modeling in South Korea.

Early successes in controlling the COVID-19 pandemic have prevented Republic of Korea from implementing a prompt, large-scale vaccine rollout to the public. The influence of traditional media on public opinion remains critical and substantial in Republic of Korea, and there have been heated debates about vaccination in traditional media reports in Korea. Effective and efficient public health communication is integral in managing public health challenges.

A metropolitan-scale, three-dimensional agent-based model to assess the effectiveness of the COVID-19 Omicron wave interventions in a hyperdense city: a case study of Hong Kong.

We simulated the COVID-19 Omicron spread in Hong Kong, China, by building a novel three-dimensional agent-based model that incorporates its vertically expanded, hyperdense urban environment. The model examined the effectiveness of the 'zero-COVID' interventions (i.e.

Spatial-Temporal Accessibility and Inequality of Veterinary Service in Hong Kong: A Geographic Information System-Based Study.

Veterinary services are vital to the welfare of pets and their owners. Previous studies examined multiple factors affecting pet owners' decision to consult veterinarians, yet few studied the spatial accessibility of veterinary services. This study is one of the pioneering studies on the spatial-temporal accessibility of veterinary service and how it is associated with social and spatial inequality in Hong Kong.

Geographic Clustering of Fast-Food Restaurants Around Secondary Schools in Hong Kong.

Introduction: Clustering of fast-food restaurants around schools facilitates fast-food consumption among students, which may cause obesity. We examined the prevalence of fast-food restaurants and identified the clusters of fast-food restaurants near secondary schools in Hong Kong.

Methods: We collected data of Western fast-food chain restaurants and 490 secondary schools in Hong Kong.

Smart city lifestyle sensing, big data, geo-analytics and intelligence for smarter public health decision-making in overweight, obesity and type 2 diabetes prevention: the research we should be doing.

The public health burden caused by overweight, obesity (OO) and type-2 diabetes (T2D) is very significant and continues to rise worldwide. The causation of OO and T2D is complex and highly multifactorial rather than a mere energy intake (food) and expenditure (exercise) imbalance. But previous research into food and physical activity (PA) neighbourhood environments has mainly focused on associating body mass index (BMI) with proximity to stores selling fresh fruits and vegetables or fast food restaurants and takeaways, or with neighbourhood walkability factors and access to green spaces or public gym facilities, making largely naive, crude and inconsistent assumptions and conclusions that are far from the spirit of 'precision and accuracy public health'.

The Food Environments of Fruit and Vegetable Consumption in East and Southeast Asia: A Systematic Review.

Fruit and vegetable (FV) consumption benefits the health of populations. This can be especially the case in locations which have undergone significant changes in their food environments, such as East and Southeast Asian countries. This current systematic review is the first to study the food environments-facilitators, barriers, and moderators-associated with FV consumption in East and Southeast Asia.

Explaining Racial Inequality in Food Security in Columbus, Ohio: A Blinder-Oaxaca Decomposition Analysis.

Food insecurity is a leading public health challenge in the United States. In Columbus, Ohio, as in many American cities, there exists a great disparity between Black and White households in relation to food insecurity. This study investigates the degree to which this gap can be attributed to differences in food shopping behavior, neighborhood perception, and socioeconomic characteristics.

Inpatient mortality in transition-aged youth with rheumatic disease: an analysis of the National Inpatient Sample.

Background: Transition from pediatric to adult care is a vulnerable time for youth with chronic diseases. In youth with rheumatic disease, studies show high rates of loss to follow up and increased disease activity. However, mortality data are lacking.

Adult obesity prevalence at the county level in the United States, 2000-2010: Downscaling public health survey data using a spatial microsimulation approach.

Obesity is a growing public health concern in the United States. There is a need to monitor obesity prevalence at the local level to intervene in place-specific ways. However, national public health surveys suppress the local geographic information of respondents due to small sample sizes and the protection of confidentiality.

Designing an Agent-Based Model Using Group Model Building: Application to Food Insecurity Patterns in a U.S. Midwestern Metropolitan City.

Recent advances in computing resources have increased interest in systems modeling and population health. While group model building (GMB) has been effectively applied in developing system dynamics models (SD), few studies have used GMB for developing an agent-based model (ABM). This article explores the use of a GMB approach to develop an ABM focused on food insecurity.

Explained and unexplained racial and regional inequality in obesity prevalence in the United States.

There are substantial racial and regional disparities in obesity prevalence in the United States. This study partitioned the mean Body Mass Index (BMI) and obesity prevalence rate gaps between non-Hispanic blacks and non-Hispanic whites into the portion attributable to observable obesity risk factors and the remaining portion attributable to unobservable factors at the national and the state levels in the United States (U.S.

Impacts of Federally Funded State Obesity Programs on Adult Obesity Prevalence in the United States, 1998-2010.

Objectives: From 2000 to 2010, the Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity (DNPAO) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) funded 37 state health departments to address the obesity epidemic in their states through various interventions. The objective of this study was to investigate the overall impacts of CDC-DNPAO statewide intervention programs on adult obesity prevalence in the United States.

Methods: We used a set of an individual-level, interrupted time-series regression and a quasi-experimental analysis to evaluate the overall effect of CDC-DNPAO intervention programs before (1998-1999) and after (2010) their implementation by using data from CDC's Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System.