Amber L Pearson

Michigan State University | MSU · Department of Geography

Blue spaces (water bodies) may promote positive mental and physical health through opportunities for relaxation, recreation, and social connections. However, we know little about the nature and extent of everyday exposure to blue spaces, particularly in settings outside the home or among children, nor whether exposure varies by individual or househ...

Green space is important for health, yet, objective research on children's use of green space is sparse. This study aimed to objectively assess children's use of green space in both public and private settings during their summer leisure time, using wearable cameras. Images from cameras worn by 74 children were analysed for green space use over 4 d...

While emerging research suggests urban green space revegetation increases soil microbiota diversity and native plant species affect skin microbiome diversity, there is still a paucity of knowledge on relationships between neighborhood environmental conditions and the human microbiome. This study leveraged data on human microbiome samples (nose, mou...

An increasing number of studies find that water sharing—the non-market transfer of privately held water between households—is a ubiquitous informal practice around the world and a primary way that households respond to water insecurity. Yet, a key question about household water sharing remains: is water sharing a viable path that can help advance h...

Access to safe water is vital for community health, especially during disaster and recovery periods when standard solutions may be slow or politically stalled. Water sharing, an informal and self-guided coping mechanism, becomes critical during disasters when standard water infrastructure is damaged or destroyed. Drawing on diverse literature, we h...

Cities concentrate problems that affect human well-being and biodiversity. Exploring the link between mental health and biodiversity can inform more holistic public health and urban planning. Here we examined associations between bird and tree species diversity estimates from eBird community science datasets and national forest inventories with sel...

Spending time outdoors is associated with increased time spent in physical activity, lower chronic disease risk, and wellbeing. Many studies rely on self-reported measures, which are prone to recall bias. Other methods rely on features and functions only available in some GPS devices. Thus, a reliable and versatile method to objectively quantify ti...

Objective Reducing children’s exposure to unhealthy food marketing is crucial to combat childhood obesity. We aimed to estimate the reduction of children’s exposure to food marketing under different policy scenarios and assess exposure differences by socioeconomic status. Design Data on children’s exposure to unhealthy food marketing was compiled...

Mass shootings are a public health crisis and have become more frequent on U.S. university campuses over the past decade, with the number doubling since 2000. Due to this alarming trend, many institutions have developed response strategies for active shooting events. Yet, the extent to which these response strategies address the needs and minimize...

Prior theoretical and empirical research has highlighted links between positive parenting and the socioeconomic characteristics of the family’s neighborhood, but has yet to illuminate the etiologic origins of this association. One possibility is that the various predictors of parenting outlined by Belsky (1984; e.g., characteristics of the child, c...

INTRODUCTION Dementia risk may be elevated in socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods. Reasons for this remain unclear, and this elevation has yet to be shown at a national population level. METHODS We tested whether dementia was more prevalent in disadvantaged neighborhoods across the New Zealand population (N = 1.41 million analytic sample...

Urban landscapes experiencing population loss often maintain high quantities of vacant land which cause social stress but also create opportunities for conservation of wildlife, including birds. Understanding how features of the urban environment affect bird communities is needed to support planning and policy that creates more effective biodiversi...

Restoring urban greenspaces is an increasingly common nature-based solution aiming to bolster biodiversity while benefiting human wellbeing. However, there is limited understanding of the co-benefits, including potential trade-offs and synergies between outcomes for nature and people. Although passive acoustic recording may be a valuable outcome mo...

Neighborhood is a key context where children learn to process social information; however, the field has largely overlooked the ways children’s individual characteristics might be moderated by neighborhood effects. We examined 1,030 six- to 11-year-olds (48.7% female; 82% White) twin pairs oversampled for neighborhood disadvantage from the Twin Stu...

Global Positioning System (GPS) technology is increasingly used in health research to capture individual mobility and contextual and environmental exposures. However, the tools, techniques and decisions for using GPS data vary from study to study, making comparisons and reproducibility challenging. Objectives The objectives of this systematic revi...

Background : Accelerometer time may drift, whereas global positioning system time does not (due to constant satellite communication), potentially impacting linkage of these data; the impact of this issue on outcome measures is unknown. Our study assessed if time drift is consistent between devices and/or data collection waves and the impacts on com...

Existing scholarship hypothesizes a causal chain from climate change to resource availability constraints, to forced migration and conflict risks. Limited research, however, synthesizes findings about the efficacy of interventions to alleviate resources conflict in communities hosting climate migrants. This systematic literature review identified a...

Natural experiments are often used to study interventions in which randomization to control versus intervention conditions are impossible. Nature-based interventions (i.e., programs designed to increase human interaction with nature and improve human health) are commonly studied as natural experiments. We used a natural experiment design to explore...

Accelerometers are frequently used to measure physical activity in children, but lack of uniformity in data processing methods, such as the metric used to summarize accelerometer data, limits comparability between studies. The objective was to compare six accelerometer metrics (raw: mean amplitude deviation, Euclidean norm minus one, activity index...

Natural environments provide a myriad of health benefits, yet the role of species diversity within these spaces remains underexplored. Bird diversity may yield mental health benefits for humans, through birdsong or feelings of connection to nature. In an initial effort to establish whether bird diversity may be linked with human health in a US cont...

Psychosis research has traditionally focused on vulnerability and the detrimental outcomes of risk exposure. However, there is substantial variability in psychological and functional outcomes for those at risk for psychosis, even among individuals at high risk. Comparatively little work has highlighted the factors associated with resilience and the...

We extend the conceptualization of the social and health burdens of household water insecurity on children beyond the traditional narrow lens of microbiological pathogens and diarrhea. The global burden of disease associated with water insecurity has traditionally focused on diarrheal disease as the most significant driver of infant and child morta...

Understanding how structural racism, including institutionalized practices such as redlining, influence persistent inequities in health and neighborhood conditions is still emerging in urban health research. Such research often focuses on historical practices, giving the impression that such practices are a thing of the past. However, mortgage lend...

Exposure to nature views has been associated with diverse mental health and cognitive capacity benefits. Yet, much of this evidence was derived in adult samples and typically only involves residential views of nature. Findings from studies with children suggest that when more greenness is available at home or school, children have higher academic p...

Numerous studies have examined the effects of climate change on many aspects of both human health and violence. Fewer studies have investigated the links between climate change and intimate partner violence (IPV). We expand on this literature by examining the association between climate variability and IPV, including physical, sexual, and psycholog...

Little is known about the micro-scale spatial patterns of household water insecurity and their implications for community water interventions. This cross-sectional study analyses the location data of 250 households surveyed in Arua, Uganda, in August–September 2017 to evaluate correlates and geospatial clustering of household water insecurity, that...

Compounding systems of marginalization differentiate and shape water-related risks. Yet, quantitative water security scholarship rarely assesses such risks through intersectionality, a paradigm that conceptualizes and examines racial, gendered, class, and other oppressions as interdependent. Using an intersectionality approach, we analyze the relat...

Background: Youth experiencing socioeconomic deprivation may be exposed to disadvantage in multiple contexts (e.g., neighborhood, family, and school). To date, however, we know little about the underlying structure of socioeconomic disadvantage, including whether the 'active ingredients' driving its robust effects are specific to one context (e.g....

Limited research has explored associations between blue spaces and mental health, specifically in children. This study assessed links between coastal proximity and depression and anxiety among children in Australia and tested whether duration of residency at current address moderated associations. It also explored associations between within‐indivi...

Hot spot analysis of linked accelerometer and Global Positioning System data is often used to identify areas of high/low activity in the schoolyard. We illustrate the potential impact of a suite of methodological decisions i) accelerometer metric; ii) monitor epoch; iii) number of recess periods/days and level of aggregation; iv) sample size; v) di...

Knowledge of a person’s risk for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRDs) is required to triage candidates for preventive interventions, surveillance, and treatment trials. ADRD risk indexes exist for this purpose, but each includes only a subset of known risk factors. Information missing from published indexes could improve risk predictio...

Aim: Child poverty is a wicked problem and a key determinant of health, but research on child poverty has relied largely on self-report methods and reports from parents or caregivers. In this study we aimed to assess aspects of child poverty using data collected by children using wearable cameras. Method: The Kids'Cam Project recruited 168 rando...

Water security requires not only sufficient availability of and access to safe and acceptable quality for domestic uses, but also fair distribution within and across populations. However, a key research gap remains in understanding water security inequality and its dynamics, which in turn creates an impediment to tracking progress towards sustainab...

The Microbes and Social Equity working group was formed in 2020 to foster conversations on research, education, and policy related to how microorganisms connect to personal, societal, and environmental health, and to provide space and guidance for action. In 2021, we designed our first virtual symposium to convene researchers already working in the...

Racial and ethnic minorities in economically deprived inner cities experience high rates of chronic diseases compared to neighborhoods with higher socioeconomic status (SES). However, these economically deprived populations are understudied in terms of biomarkers associated with chronic disease risk which include C-reactive protein (CRP), telomeras...

Children's exposure to the marketing of harmful products in public outdoor spaces may influence their consumption of those products and affect health into adulthood. This study aimed to: i) examine the spatial distribution of children's exposure to three types of marketing-related ‘harms’ (alcohol, unhealthy food, and gambling) in outdoor spaces in...

Objective: Our goal was to illuminate associations between specific characteristics of under-resourced neighborhoods (i.e., socioeconomic deprivation, danger) and specific aspects of parenting (e.g., parental praise, parental nurturance, harsh parenting, parental control). Background: Prior work has highlighted associations between level of neig...

Background The specific ‘active ingredients’ through which neighborhood disadvantage increases risk for child psychopathology remains unclear, in large part because research to date has nearly always focused on poverty to the exclusion of other neighborhood domains. The objective of this study was to evaluate whether currently assessed neighborhood...

Global human health threats, such as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, necessitate coordinated responses at multiple levels. Public health professionals and other experts broadly agree about actions needed to address such threats, but implementation of this advice is stymied by systemic factors such as prejudice, resource deficits, and high inequality...

Water has always been a driver of human mobility, migration, and displacement. But water is increasingly central to explaining environmental migration in the context of climate change. Most studies of the relationship between water and environmental migration are framed around punctuated, extreme weather events and disasters that either limit agric...

This paper synthesizes the contemporary challenges for the sustainability of the social-environmental system (SES) across a geographically, environmentally, and geopolitically diverse region – the Asian Drylands Belt (ADB). This region includes 18 political entities, covering 10.3% of global land area and 30% of total global drylands. At the presen...

Integrating the dynamics and interconnections of natural and human system properties into a single measure would make it simpler to reliably and repeatedly assess and compare different social-environmental systems (SES). We propose a novel metric to assess the magnitudes and variations in SES dynamics by integrating longitudinal gross domestic prod...

Household survey data from 27 sites in 22 countries were collected in 2017–2018 in order to construct and validate a cross-cultural household-level water insecurity scale. The resultant Household Water Insecurity Experiences (HWISE) scale presents a useful tool for monitoring and evaluating water interventions as a complement to traditional metrics...

Residents in US cities are exposed to high levels of stress and violent crime. At the same time, a number of cities have put forward “greening” efforts which may promote nature’s calming effects and reduce stressful stimuli. Previous research has shown that greening may lower aggressive behaviors and violent crime. In this study we examined, for th...

Background Populations with high needs often have poor health care access. Defining need is challenging, with no agreed-upon indicator of health need for primary care based spatial equity research in New Zealand. We examined seven potential indicators and tested for evidence of the Inverse Care Law in the Waikato region. Methods Indicators were id...

Contact with nature has been used to promote both physical and mental health, and is increasingly used among cancer patients. However, the COVID-19 pandemic created new challenges in both access to nature in public spaces and in cancer care. The purpose of our study was to evaluate the change in active and passive use of nature, places of engaging...

Despite a growing number of research outputs on the importance of nature contact during the COVID-19 pandemic, we know of no longitudinal research conducted prior to and during the pandemic among low-income and minority ethnicity populations, i.e., those that might be most affected. Furthermore, we have scant information about how and to what degre...

Climate change is now considered a primary global driver of migration, with water insecurity theorized to be a key determinant. Most studies have focused on large-scale climate migration events triggered by extreme weather events such as droughts, storms, or floods. But there are few studies of how climate change, interacting with background social...

Covid-19 has fundamentally changed the way individuals and groups interact in their everyday lives and, thus, key constructs within social capital research. These social changes, to be explored in this chapter, are (1) trust, (2) group membership (for good or bad), and (3) social isolation. The chapter highlights novel research opportunities includ...

Introduction: Individuals living in low-income neighborhoods have disproportionately high rates of obesity, Type-2 diabetes, and cardiometabolic conditions. Perceived safety in one's neighborhood may influence stress and physical activity, with cascading effects on cardiometabolic health. Methods: In this study, we examined relationships among f...

Water insecurity may precipitate interpersonal conflict, although no studies to date have rigorously examined these relationships. We examined relationships between household demographics, water insecurity, regional conflict, and interpersonal conflict over water. Using survey data from eight sub-Saharan African countries, we found that interperson...

Significance This study examines evidence of the health benefits of natural soundscapes and quantifies the prevalence of restorative acoustic environments in national parks across the United States. The results affirm that natural sounds improve health, increase positive affect, and lower stress and annoyance. Also, analyses reveal many national pa...

The corpus of research concerned with high-quality greenspace and human health indicates that greenspace promotes health and lowers stress in many communities across the world. What is less understood is how poor-quality greenspaces (e.g., vacant lots) may influence health. While the research in this area is broad as a whole, there is yet to be a s...

In March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a set of public guidelines for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) prevention measures that highlighted handwashing, physical distancing, and household cleaning. These health behaviors are severely compromised in parts of the world that lack secure water supplies, particularly in low- and mi...

Inequitable access to health services can cause and exacerbate inequities in health outcomes and should therefore be monitored regularly to ensure that service distributions match population needs. Health service accessibility includes several factors and can be monitored using both quantitative and qualitative methods. We present an exploratory an...

Safe and secure water is a cornerstone of modern life in the global North. This article critically examines a set of prevalent myths about household water in high‐income countries, with a focus on Canada and the United States. Taking a relational approach, we argue that household water insecurity is a product of institutionalized structures and pow...

Background Residential exposure to greenness is associated with better birth outcomes, but it remains unknown whether this is explained by maternal characteristics associated with both place of residence and birth outcomes. We examined whether changes in residential greenness are associated with preterm birth (PTB) and birthweight. Methods We exam...

Purpose: To examine potential indicators of health need for primary care in spatial equity research, and evidence of the Inverse Care Law in the Waikato region of New Zealand. Methods: A cross-sectional analysis of 7 health need indicators (ambulatory sensitive hospitalizations; cancer rate; mortality rate; New Zealand index of multiple deprivat...

The academic discipline of geography, faced with increasing competition from cognate fields and declining undergraduate enrollments, continues to suffer an identity crisis. In recent decades, many geography programs have instituted department or degree name changes, or otherwise rebranded, without any evidence guiding these decisions. This study be...

In this commentary we draw attention to water sharing as political, highlighting the stakes and concerns around such practices. We engage a broad definition of politics, capturing everyday acts and practices that might be interpreted along a gradient ranging from mundane and banal forms of resistance, to refusal, to more obvious and visible acts of...

Background: Individuals living in deprived inner cities have disproportionately high rates of cancers, Type 2 diabetes and obesity, which have stress- and physical inactivity-related etiologies. This study aims to quantify effects of ecological park restoration on physical activity, stress and cardio-metabolic health outcomes. Methods: The Study...

Discipline and context specific inquiries into the nature and dynamics of trust are beginning to give way to cross-boundary understandings which seek to outline its more consistent elements. Of particular note within these is an argument that trust is premised on vulnerability; that it has an important nexus with assessments of the ability, benevol...

The enhanced-two-step-floating-catchment-area (E2SFCA) method is a popular measure of the spatial accessibility of healthcare such as general practitioner (GP) services. However, the key step of defining appropriate GP and population catchment sizes is often overlooked. Applications of E2SFCA methods use a range of catchment sizes, most of which ar...

Billions of people globally, living with various degrees of water insecurity, obtain their household and drinking water from diverse sources that can absorb a disproportionate amount of a household's income. In theory, there are income and expenditure thresholds associated with effective mitigation of household water insecurity, but there is little...

Background: Identifying and intervening on health disparities requires representative community public health data. For cities with high vacancy and transient populations, traditional methods of population estimation for refining random samples are not feasible. The aim of this project was to develop a novel method for systematic observations to e...

Introduction: Geographic measures of accessibility can quantify inequitable distributions of health care. Although closest distance measures are often used in Aotearoa New Zealand these may not reflect patient use of health care. This research examines patterns of patient enrolment in general practitioner (GP) services from a geospatial perspectiv...

Prior research has suggested that disadvantaged neighborhood contexts alter the etiology of youth antisocial behavior (ASB). Unfortunately, these studies have relied exclusively on governmental data collected in administratively-defined neighborhoods (e.g., Census tracts or block groups, zip codes), a less than optimal approach for studying neighbo...

Research linking green space and mental health abounds. It also appears that oceanic blue spaces may be salutogenic, benefitting mental health through their expansive viewscapes, and possibly auditory and olfactory stimuli. Yet, it is unknown whether the same is true for freshwater bodies. In this ecological study, we explored associations between...