Big Data and Children's Health
Elisabeth Dowling Root, associate professor of geography, is part of the Discovery Themes' new Translational Data Analytics @ Ohio State initiative. Her research focuses on two broad topics: the socio-environmental drivers of communicable diseases (e.g. pneumonia and cholera) and evaluating health programs and interventions in the U.S. and in developing countries.
“I study the ways in which big data can be used to improve children’s health around the world,” said Root.
To date, Root has been involved with several major international health projects (in Bangladesh, Honduras, Philippines and Indonesia) and two research initiatives in the United States. Her work evaluates the short- and long-term impacts of public health interventions — including vaccination campaigns, maternal and child health and family planning programs, and health systems changes — in low-income countries. She is also interested in the long-term effects of neighborhood social and structural environments on child and adolescent health and in disease mapping for informing targeted health interventions.
@OSUGeography prof investigates how #bigdata can be used to improve #health of children around the world #ASCDaily
"My main approach involves collecting extensive survey and health data and combining these data with areal demographic and economic indicators and environmental data," explained Root. "I then use spatial statistical methods and GIS (geographic information systems) to quantify and assess the spatial and contextual factors which alter disease processes and programmatic effects."
For example, Root’s research has revealed that vaccines have real long-term global implications for development.
“When you vaccinate, your children think better because they don’t get sick so much when they are little. Their labor-force outcomes are better. They have a higher salary, and that sets up not only them but the next generation to be more productive members of society.”
Root didn’t start out as a geographer. She graduated with a BA in anthropology and public policy analysis from Pomona College in 1999 and “discovered” geography while working on a community health assessment, which included mapping for a Washington D.C. think tank.
“I fell for it, hook, line and sinker,” Root said. “Geography is an extraordinary and versatile discipline.”
Root went on to earn an MA in geography from the University of Maryland and a PhD in geography from the University of North Carolina, where she made yet another discovery.
“I love teaching. The students ask interesting questions. They challenge me to think and to help them think. There is something very fulfilling in that.”
At Ohio State, Root teaches Life and Death Geographies: Global Population Dynamics; Special Topics in GIS; and Spatial Methods for Health & Population Research. She is co-author of the forthcoming textbook Health and Medical Geography (Fourth Edition) (Guilford Press, 2017).
