Public Health
Surfacing and Countering Inequities
Communities of color in Boston had greater exposure to infection when accessing groceries during the early months of the pandemic.
I have long been interested in how conditions in neighborhoods and their streets influence resident health outcomes, connecting to my other work on crime and environmental hazards. During the pandemic, there was a trenchant need to expand this focus to better understand how social dynamics, access to amenities, and other factors determined infection and vaccination rates. This work has been conducted with a variety of partners, including Dan Dooley at the Boston Public Health Commission, Cordula Robinson at the Kostas Research Institute, Russ Schutt and the Center for Survey Research at UMass Boston, Ryan Wang at Northeastern University, and Alina Ristea of University College London. The work has been supported by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA).
Publications (students in bold)
Dass, S., Ristea, A., O’Brien, D.T.* Strategies and inequities in balancing recreation and COVID exposure when visiting green spaces. In press at Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science.
Ristea, A., Tucker, R., You, S., Amiri, M., Beauchamp, N., Castro, E., Chen, Q., Ciomek, A., Das, B. de Benedictis-Kessner, J., Gibbons, S., Hangen, F., Montgomery, B., Papadopoulos, P., Robinson, C., Sheini, S., Shields, M., Shu, X., Wood, M., Heydari, B., O’Brien, D.T.* A Multisource Database Tracking the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Communities of Boston, MA, USA. In press at Nature Scientific Data.
Wang, Y., Ristea, A., Amiri, M., Dooley, D., Gibbons, S., Grabowski, H., Hargraves, J. L., Kovacevic, N., Roman, A., Schutt, R. K., Gao, J., Wang, Q.*, O’Brien, D. T.* 2021. Vaccination intentions generate racial disparities in the societal persistence of COVID-19. Scientific Reports. 11: 19906.
O’Brien, D.T., Schutt, R., Hargraves, L., Dooley, D., Fowler, F., Wang, Q., Ristea, A., Roman, A., Amiri, M., Gibbons, S., Grabowski, H., Kovacevic, N. Living in Boston during COVID-19: Inequities in Navigating a Pandemic. Released through the Boston Area Research Initiative and SSRN (https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3742887).
O’Brien, D.T., Schutt, R., Hargraves, L., Dooley, D., Fowler, F., Wang, Q., Ristea, A., Roman, A., Amiri, M., Gibbons, S., Grabowski, H., Kovacevic, N. Living in Boston during COVID-19: Fear and Ambivalence. Released through the Boston Area Research Initiative and SSRN (https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3756516).
Schutt, R., O’Brien, D.T., Hargraves, L., Dooley, D., Fowler, F., Wang, Q., Ristea, A., Roman, A., Amiri, M., Gibbons, S., Grabowski, H., Kovacevic, N. Living in Boston during COVID-19: Economic Strains. Released through the Boston Area Research Initiative and SSRN (https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3742887).
O’Brien, D.T., Schutt, R., Hargraves, L., Dooley, D., Fowler, F., Wang, Q., Ristea, A., Roman, A., Amiri, M., Gibbons, S., Grabowski, H., Kovacevic, N. Living in Boston during COVID-19: Lifestyle, Ideology, and Context Drive Attitudes. Released through the Boston Area Research Initiative and SSRN https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3756526).
Hangen, F., O’Brien, D.T., Philbrick, S., Reardon, T. Evictions and COVID-19: The Responsibility of the Large Landlord. Released through the Boston Area Research Initiative (https://cssh.northeastern.edu/bari/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2020/12/Eviction-Brief-BARI-MAPC.pdf).
O’Brien, D.T., Farrell, C. & Welsh, B. 2019. Broken (windows) theory: A meta-analysis of the evidence for the pathways from neighborhood disorder to resident health outcomes and behaviors. Social Science & Medicine. 228: 272-292.
Grants
Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) for a proposal titled, “Predicting the next outbreak.” $1,200,000. 2021-2022. PI, with Nicholas Beauchamp, Ryan Qi Wang, and Babak Heydari. (Subaward from Kostas Research Institute, lead PI Cordula Robinson).
National Science Foundation RAPID program. Support for a proposal titled, “Coronavirus and Urban Neighborhoods: Infection Transmission in an Inequitable, Networked Social Context [COVID-19].” $199,718. 2020-2021. PI, with Ryan Wang, Alina Ristea, Lee Hargraves (UMass Boston), and Russell Schutt (UMass Boston).
