Exploring the relationships between daily behaviors of people, their spatial and temporal exposures to environments and mental and physical health.
Investigating how people's everyday activities, along with where and when they spend their time, relate to their mental and physical well-being. Especially, the impact of differences in space-time exposures and activity patterns across social groups on social and spatial inequalities are analysed.
Environmental exposures
In daily life, people are exposed to various built-up, natural and social environments which have different effects on their physical and mental health. This is true for their residential environments as well as environments they are visiting or crossing while being mobile. In our approach, we merge knowledge taken from for example epidemiology and time geography. We make use of observational cohort studies in combination with survey and rich environmental data, GPS-tracking and Geographic Ecological Momentary Assessment. Lab-based experiments, combining Immersive Virtual Environments with a walking simulator, are designed to assess the impact of environmental attributes on people’s perceptions, attitudes and biomarkers. Based on thorough studies, recommendations for policymakers and social groups are formulated and tested.
Healthy ageing
Healthy ageing includes physical and mental health, subjective well-being and social participation. It is seen as a functional ability, including mobility, to adapt to environments and situations. This ability is influenced by an individual's social and demographic characteristics, values and goals as well as environmental affordances and constraints. Insights from epidemiology, geography, urban planning, and environmental and gerontopsychology are used. Rich data from cohort studies, surveys and geographical environments will be analyzed with state-of-the art methods.
