Mapping the community context of alcohol harm to improve prevention, policy, and public safety
The Challenge
Alcohol harms include traffic fatalities, domestic violence, overdoses, and hospitalizations. Rather than occur randomly, these sorts of events cluster in places where the alcohol environment enables or concentrates risk: dense clusters of outlets, inadequate zoning, proximity to schools and vulnerable populations, and systemic inequities rooted in historical policy decisions. Understanding and disrupting the community-level risk environment requires spatial data science, regulatory data, and public health epidemiology working together.
Our Approach
My team studies the relationship between the physical, regulatory, and social features of the alcohol environment and population-level harms. We use geospatial analysis, spatial regression, and novel administrative data to understand how outlet density, zoning patterns, and historical housing policy shape alcohol-related injury, violence, and death. We translate findings into interactive dashboards and regulatory intelligence tools for state alcohol control agencies.
Featured Work
- Iowa Alcohol Density Monitoring Program: interactive geospatial dashboards for the Iowa Alcoholic Beverages Division, tracking outlet locations, proximity to schools, and alcohol-related crash data across Iowa cities
- Alabama geospatial alcohol outlet analysis: technical assistance to the Alabama ABC Board on high-risk outlet cluster identification
- Research on redlining and the alcohol risk environment: examining how historical housing policy shaped current patterns of alcohol outlet density in Midwestern cities (presented at APHA 2024)
- Research on alcohol outlet density and family-reactive service calls, domestic violence, and emergency response burden
- Expert associate of the CDC-funded Center for Translating Alcohol Science to Practice
Funding & Partners
Iowa Alcoholic Beverages Division, Alabama ABC Board, Area Substance Abuse Council, Iowa Office of Drug Control Policy, CDC Center for Translating Alcohol Science to Practice.