image: Chris Lim, PhD, is an assistant professor of environmental health sciences at the University of Arizona Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health.
Credit: University of Arizona Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health
TUCSON, Arizona — A University of Arizona Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health researcher has received a $1.2 million grant from the American Cancer Society to evaluate potential links between the neighborhood environment and cancer risk.
“The study will give us a much more complex look at the many factors that may contribute to increased obesity-related cancer risk in these neighborhoods and help guide policy moving forward,” said lead researcher Chris Lim, PhD, an assistant professor of environmental health sciences at the Zuckerman College of Public Health.
There is strong evidence that the neighborhood environment has effects on health apart from personal-level risk factors such as smoking and weight, but studies looking at cancer are limited. Most studies look at only one aspect of a neighborhood at a time — such as the availability of healthy food or how safe it is to walk around — rather than investigating the entire highly complex neighborhood environment.
The neighborhood environment includes the built environment and social environments. Built environment domains include urban design, transportation, retail and food establishments, public services, housing, greenspace and land use, parks and accessibility. Social environment domains include socioeconomic status, racial/ethnic composition, historical racism, and immigration and acculturation.
Lim’s research team will examine the relationship between neighborhood environment and obesity-related cancer risk in the United States using data from two ongoing studies: the NIH-AARP Diet and Cancer Study, a large prospective cohort across six states and two cities; and the Arizona Cancer Registry.
The study will apply machine learning and deep learning approaches on large geospatial datasets to characterize the neighborhood environment for each participant with more detail.
Combining multiple neighborhood features into “archetypes” will allow for more interpretable results and identify locations suitable for interventions.
Findings from this study will be shared with policymakers and community members to develop strategies for improving neighborhood infrastructure associated with reducing cancer risk. Cancer disparities come from the interactions between various factors, so understanding their influences on cancer outcomes is needed to improve health equity.
“This is a great opportunity for Dr. Lim to use his expertise in data integration and analysis using machine learning,” said Iman Hakim, MD, PhD, MPH, dean of the Zuckerman College of Public Health. “The relationship between neighborhood environment and cancer risk has never been studied with such a complex, comprehensive approach, and it promises to guide policy and practice to build healthier communities here in Arizona and beyond.”
Lim will collaborate with researchers at the University of Arizona Health Sciences, the University of Arizona Cancer Center, the New York University Grossman School of Medicine and the University of Pennsylvania. Co-researchers at the Zuckerman College of Public Health include Robin B. Harris, PhD, MPH, a professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, and Celina Valencia, DrPH, an assistant professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine.
This research is supported by the American Cancer Society under award No. RSG-24-1259248-01-HOPS.