Foreword Ana V. Diez Roux 1. Neighborhoods and Health: A Progress Report Dustin T. Duncan and Ichiro Kawachi 2. Operationalizing Neighborhood Definitions in Health Research: Spatial Misclassification and Other Issues Dustin T. Duncan, Seann D. Regan, and Basile Chaix 3. Quantitative Methods for Measuring Neighborhood Characteristics in Neighborhood Health Research Dustin T. Duncan, William C. Goedel, and Rumi Chunara 4. Statistical Methods in Spatial Epidemiology Samson Gebreab 5. Agent Based Models Brenda Heaton, Abdulrahman El-Sayed, and Sandro Galea 6. Experimental and quasi-experimental designs in neighborhood health effects research: Strengthening causal inference and promoting translation Nicole M. Schmidt, Quynh C. Nguyen, and Theresa L. Osypuk 7. Qualitative Methods and Neighborhood Health Research Danya E. Keene 8. Designing Healthier Built Environments Pedro Gullón Tosio and Gina S. Lovasi 9. Food Environment and Health Jason Block, Michael Seward, Peter James 10. Neighborhoods, Social Stigma, and Health Danya E. Keene and Mark B. Padilla 11. Neighborhood Foreclosure and Health Maraina Arcaya 12. Residential Segregation and Health Michael R. Kramer Index

"The methodological insights and specific research findings displayed here signal an important advance in epidemiology. This book summarizes much of the recent progress that has been made in studies that use aggregate or area-wide measurements. Overall, this book has much to offer. The authors themselves are clearly aware of the complexities, unsolved problems, and numerous challenges that confront anyone who wants to assess quantitatively the impact of social and geographic units on health." --American Journal of Epidemiology "Advances the debate over the theory and methodology of the study of neighborhoods and health to the center stage of epidemiology, public health, and health policy." --JAMA

Selling point: The originating work at the intersection of place and health (the field now known as spatial epidemiology), now completely revised and expanded Selling point: A scientifically grounded work in theory and methods of how neighborhood factors (things like neighborhood stigma, home foreclosure, food access, and walkability) impact health, including manifestations such as obesity, hypertension, and disease Selling point: A complete and up-to-date survey of neighborhood-health research being conducted in the fields of epidemiology and geography, with detailed applications to public health and urban planning Selling point: Offers accessible, novel approaches from both population science and social science to address problems of public health and health equity Selling point: Renders spatial epidemiology in terms of today's greatest health challenges (e.g., smoking, obesity, HIV), with implications and possible health policy solutions Selling point: An essential, accessible text for courses and practice in epidemiology, public health, geography, medicine, demography, urban planning, and health policy

Dustin T. Duncan, ScD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Population Health at the New York University School of Medicine, where he directs the NYU Spatial Epidemiology Lab. As a social and spatial epidemiologist, he studies how specific neighborhood characteristics influence population health and health disparities. His work includes applying emerging geospatial technologies such as Global Positioning System (GPS) devices and smart phones to, in part, examine mobility and social networks in neighborhoods. Dr. Duncan completed his doctorate and the Alonzo Smythe Yerby Postdoctoral Fellowship, both in social epidemiology, at the Harvard University T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Ichiro Kawachi, MD, PhD, is the John L. Loeb and Frances Lehman Loeb Professor of Social Epidemiology and Chair of the Department of Social & Behavioral Sciences at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, where he has taught since 1992. He has previously co-edited Behavioral Economics and Public Health, Social Epidemiology, Globalization and Health, and the Oxford Handbook of Public Health Practice, all published by Oxford University Press. Kawachi lectures about social epidemiology through the Harvard University Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) platform, edX. His course, "Health and Society" (PHx 201), is a version of the class that he has taught for twenty years at Harvard. In 2013-1014, 35,000 students from all over the world were enrolled in the MOOC course.

Selling point: The originating work at the intersection of place and health (the field now known as spatial epidemiology), now completely revised and expanded Selling point: A scientifically grounded work in theory and methods of how neighborhood factors (things like neighborhood stigma, home foreclosure, food access, and walkability) impact health, including manifestations such as obesity, hypertension, and disease Selling point: A complete and up-to-date survey of neighborhood-health research being conducted in the fields of epidemiology and geography, with detailed applications to public health and urban planning Selling point: Offers accessible, novel approaches from both population science and social science to address problems of public health and health equity Selling point: Renders spatial epidemiology in terms of today's greatest health challenges (e.g., smoking, obesity, HIV), with implications and possible health policy solutions Selling point: An essential, accessible text for courses and practice in epidemiology, public health, geography, medicine, demography, urban planning, and health policy