School of Medicine Publications and Presentations
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
12-2021
Abstract
Both the planning and public health literature have discussed proximity to greenspaces as predominantly beneficial to health, based on studies mostly conducted in high-income regions. Understanding the health risks of proximity to greenspace and nature—where pathogens and wildlife coexist—is important, as nature-based solutions are increasingly called for to address complex urban challenges. This exploratory pilot study bridges planning and epidemiology approaches to develop a new method to analyze habitat and environmental factors associated with the risk of vector-borne Chagas disease in a low-income region, South Texas. Chagas disease is endemic in Latin America, where it affects between seven to eight million people and where environmental factors have been studied to limit the disease's spread. The disease is considered endemic in the southern United States, where little is known about environmental risks. In this pilot study, we developed a new methodology to analyze publicly available habitat and environmental secondary data, which could be used by planning departments. We applied the method to a prior pilot study, which determined a 19.6% prevalence level of T. cruzi (the agent of Chagas disease) among 209 domestic dogs. We geocoded the sample to 100 low-income residential locations, which yielded a 32% positivity rate, and collected secondary data surrounding each location. Logistical regression of factors yielded the following risks: adjacent unconstructed lots, and the presence of four or more dogs in a yard. Based on the results, we formulated vector control-based planning policy recommendations to prevent the spread of the disease.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Publication Title
Habitat International
DOI
10.1016/j.habitatint.2021.102460
Academic Level
staff
Mentor/PI Department
Psychiatry
Comments
Original published version available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2021.102460