"Does it Matter Where You Live? Neighborhoods and Health"

Places -- local social and spatial contexts -- influence nearly all aspects of people's lives, not least of which is their health. Obviously a family's economic disadvantage impacts the health of its members, but does living in a poor neighborhood disadvantage residents above and beyond family factors? If so how? Attempts at answering this and related questions have inspired a vast literature on neighborhoods and health. However, the conceptual frameworks, data sources, and statistical machinery prominent today were mostly in place two decades ago. Progress requires a new perspective on the interconnection of people and places, the incorporation of an explicit spatial as well as social perspective, and the innovative use of spatial data and tools.

Dr. Entwisle has over 20 years of national and international experience in population based research, including the design and conduct of five longitudinal surveys. She has devoted her career to defining, measuring, and assessing social, spatial, and biophysical contexts at various scales and is particularly interested in neighborhoods and health, broadly defined. Dr. Entwisle is currently PI of the National Children's Study (NCS) Vanguard Center in Duplin County and PI of the NCS Study Center for additional counties in North Carolina. The National Children's Study (NCS) is an unprecedented effort to learn about and improve children's health. The Study, the largest of its kind ever conducted in the United States, will measure the effects of behavioral, biological, environmental, and social influences on children's health. Dr. Entwisle's vision is an NCS Study Center that inspires research specifically relevant to children in North Carolina as well as in the country as a whole.