Initiative announces awardees of spring quarter 2024 Tier 3 pilot research grants

Community-driven Enumeration and Needs Assessment of People Experiencing Homelessness: A high-frequency method for enumeration and needs assessment of the unsheltered population of people experiencing homelessness

Investigators
Zack W. Almquist, Department of Sociology
Amy Hagopian, Department of Health Systems and Population Health
Paul Hebert, Department of Health Systems and Population Health and VA Health Services Research and Development
Tyler McCormick, Departments of Sociology and Statistics
Junhe Yang, Center for Studies in Demography & Ecology and eScience Institute
Owen Kajfasz, King County Regional Homelessness Authority
Janelle Rothfolk, King County Regional Homelessness Authority
Cathea Carey, King County Regional Homelessness Authority

Project abstract
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s 2023 Annual Homeless Assessment Report estimates 653,100 people were homeless at a point in time that year, a 12% increase from 2022. Each U.S. Continuum of Care–the entity responsible for coordinating homeless services for a region–conducts a “Point-in-Time (PIT) count” to contribute to the national count. The PIT comprises two key elements: (1) the emergency shelter report from administrative records and (2) an unsheltered PIT count conducted by volunteers who make in-person counts of people living in tents, vehicles, etc., on a single night in January.

In 2022 – through a Tier 2 PHI grant – we introduced a novel method for counting unsheltered people experiencing homelessness through a social network (peer-referral) method, respondent-driven sampling (RDS), which allows for creating a population-representative survey for understanding the needs, demographics, and size of the unsheltered population in King County. We followed this with RDS in 2023 and 2024.

We propose to extend this method to allow for quarterly surveying of this vulnerable population. Quarterly surveys will provide an entirely novel seasonal enumeration of the unsheltered population and facilitate the timely collection of new survey instruments relevant to changing conditions in the community. Employing RDS quarterly is novel and will require developing procedures and statistical methods. Further, we plan to open-source the app we developed for conducting the RDS and provide training tools for other continuum of care to take up our method.

Living with Water: Co-developing strategies to protect health while adapting to sea level rise in the Duwamish Valley

Investigators
Nicole Errett, Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences
Maja Jeranko, Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences
BJ Cummings, Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences
Katelin Teigen, Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences
Juliette Randazza, Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences
Paulina López, Duwamish River Community Coalition
Robin Schwartz, Duwamish River Community Coalition
Celina Balderas Guzman, Department of Landscape Architecture
Bethany Gordon, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering
Sameer H. Shah, School of Environmental and Forest Sciences
Amir Sheikh, The Burke Museum / Quaternary Research Center

Project abstract
Global climate change presents significant threats to coastal and river communities, with flooding events increasing in frequency and severity in recent years. Seattle’s Duwamish Valley (DV) has been particularly affected by sea level rise, exemplified by a devastating flood in December 2022 that severely damaged South Park residents and businesses. In response, the City of Seattle (City) has implemented temporary flood prevention strategies, such as sandbag barriers and stormwater infrastructure enhancements.

While engineered solutions offer some protection, their long-term effectiveness hinges on flood risks remaining below infrastructural protective capacity. Before the flood, our UW team collaborated with the Duwamish River Community Coalition (DRCC), City, and public health agencies to conduct a multilingual door-to-door survey (SASPER) of community residents to assess the local impacts of climate change and collect information about their support for various climate adaptation strategies. The Tier 3 project builds on this work and responds to a community request to develop a comprehensive community-driven flood adaptation vision for South Park.

In partnership with DRCC, we propose to (1) conduct an integrated literature review of strategies for flood adaptation based on a values-focused needs assessment of South Park residents; (2) co-design a flood adaptation vision with residents through community-based workshops/design charrettes; and (3) evaluate our approach to community co-design of flood and sea-level rise adaptation through an equity lens. Leveraging our long-standing partnership with DRCC, we seek to build community capacity for climate resilience planning and support ongoing flood adaptation efforts in the Duwamish Valley.

Sensing the impacts of climate change on frontline workers in Thailand

Investigators
Kurtis Heimerl, Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering
Jason Young, Information School
Adisorn Lertsinsrubtavee, Asia Institute of Technology
Weenarin Lulitanonda, Thailand Clean Air Network

Project abstract
Climate change is reshaping environments around the world, with frontline populations bearing the consequences. In South-East Asia, burns of land have created some of the consistently worst air quality in the world. Major megalopolises like Bangkok, Jakarta, and Singapore commonly have months of AQI ratings above 100. In 2020, we began work with researchers at the Asia Institute of Technology (AIT) to explore the impacts of this crisis on marginalized communities, specifically Thai motorcycle taxi drivers. These taxis, using Uber-like ride-sharing, are often driven by low-income people as a full-time job. Unfortunately, these frontline workers receive extreme pollution exposure. Leveraging mixed methods, our prior studies found that drivers experience significant pollution exposure and despite the risks, drivers felt as though they must work and had limited mitigation strategies available.

We propose to focus on understanding how other frontline workers in developing countries react to pollution, explore mechanisms for improving their outcomes with new sensors and measurements, and expand engage in policy changes. Specifically, we seek funding to (1) conduct a new study with lower-income frontline communities, notably street sweepers and roadside vendors, (2) develop new mobile cognitive tests that are easier for participants to use and explore the effects of pollution on participants through cognitive tests such as PVTs, and (3) collaborate with our local community partner, Thailand Clean Air Network (ThaiCAN), to use our data to support the recent Clean Air Bill as well as raise awareness by spotlighting the effects of poor air quality.

Online Assessment and Monitoring of Memory Health in Rural Communities Through Personalized Computational Modeling

Investigators
Andrea Stocco, Department of Psychology
Thomas Grabowski, Department of Radiology; Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center
Nancy Spurgeon, Central Washington Area Health Education Center

Project abstract
The incidence of dementia is as much as 80% higher in rural than in urban areas, but up to 92% of rural cases remain undiagnosed until late stages due to limited access to diagnostic services. This massive diagnostic gap translates into significant health disparities, since the success of treatments often depends on early detection. This project aims to reduce the diagnostic gap through an innovative software for online, repeatable assessment of memory function. The software consists of an eight-minute adaptive memory test whose responses are fed to a computational model of long-term memory. The model’s parameters are fit to the individual’s behavior, providing a multidimensional profile of their visuomotor and memory function.

In partnership with the Central Washington Area Health Education Center (AHEC), we plan to deploy this tool in the rural communities of Douglas and Chelan counties, WA, recruiting up to 500 individuals in a longitudinal memory health monitoring program. Awareness of this program will be spread through a series of public events: lectures, seminars for health professionals, and brain-wellness fairs. A subset of participants whose memory is deteriorating rapidly will be offered the opportunity to enroll in the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center’s clinical registry to receive professional care and the possibility to enroll in further studies. If successful, this project will address all three pillars of population health: improving human health, increasing the resilience, and reducing the social and economic inequity of rural communities through advanced, online diagnostic monitoring of memory health.

Improving data to understand the well-being of small and excluded populations

Investigators
Jennie Romich, School of Social Work
Sofia G. Ayala, Center for Studies in Demography & Ecology
Santino Camacho, School of Social Work
Isaac Sederbaum, Evans School of Public Policy & Governance
Scott Allard, Evans School of Public Policy & Governance
Max Halvorson, School of Social Work
Youngjun Choe, Department of Industrial & Systems Engineering
Arjee Restar, Department of Epidemiology

Project abstract
Research data often renders small populations invisible. This project focuses on two populations who are rarely included and identified in sufficient numbers for group analysis in either general population surveys or administrative data, transgender (trans) people and Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders (NHPI).

This project will establish community-informed methods and practices for identifying small populations within Washington State administrative data. It will do so by: (1) documenting the presence of transgender people and Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (NHPI) peoples within extant data, specifically the Washington Merged Longitudinal Administrative Data; (2) working with leaders from trans and NHPI communities to develop principles for best describing their populations; (3) developing a set of practices and methods for identifying trans and NHPI persons within future administrative data resources within and beyond Washington State.