Michelle C Kondo
Biographic Data
| ID | 4426970 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Michelle C Kondo |
| GIVEN NAMES | Michelle C |
| FAMILY NAME | Kondo |
| SIGNATURE | KONDO M C |
| AFFILIATIONS | Northern Research Station |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-9152-1589 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 47 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 118 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 47 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2012 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Cultivating Health: The Role of Urban Greening in Supporting Baltimore’s Youth
Project VITAL (Vacant Lot Improvement to Transform Adolescent Lives) is a study designed to evaluate the impact of revitalized vacant lots on adolescent health in Baltimore, Maryland. We implemented a mixed-methods research approach, which included surveys of 14- to 19-year-olds, observations of nearby vacant lots, and street block assessments during 2023-2024. The aim was to understand how greening vacant lots affected adolescent mental health, …
Building a Culture of Health Through the Built Environment: Impact of a Cluster Randomized Trial Remediating Vacant and Abandoned Property on Health Mindsets
Changing built environment conditions to impact health mindsets and health equity may be a promising target for public health interventions. The present study was a cluster randomized controlled trial to test the impact of remediating vacant and abandoned properties on factors related to health mindset-including well-being, health interconnectedness, social capital markers, neighborhood disorder, and worry-as well as direct and indirect violence …
Barriers to Participation in Nature Prescriptions: Evidence From a Cross‐Sectional Survey of Adults in Australia, India, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the United States
Cities, states, and countries across the globe are recognizing the interconnections of human and planetary health, and are investing in greening. Nevertheless, environmental improvements may not bring adequate changes in exposure needed to reduce chronic disease and improve mental health. Nature prescription, in which a health provider refers a patient to spend time outdoors, is a potential behavioral intervention that could connect people to acc…
Understanding perceived park access and physical activity among older adults: A structural equation modeling approach
Gender and violent crime modify associations between greenspace and cardiovascular disease mortality in Philadelphia, PA
Contact with nature, nature prescriptions, and loneliness: Evidence from an international survey of adults in Australia, India, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the United States
Evidence to support nature contact and nature prescriptions to reduce loneliness is scant. A total of 2100 individuals took part in a survey conducted in Australia (n = 525, mean age = 34.1), India (n = 526, mean age = 29.5), Singapore (n = 523, mean age = 36.1), the UK (n = 526, mean age = 37.3), and the US (n = 525, mean age = 43.6) in 2022 (overall age range 18-89yrs). Multilevel logistic regressions adjusted for confounding indicated mean lev…
From Neighborhood to Household: Connections Between Neighborhood Vacant and Abandoned Property and Family Violence
Rates of family violence, including intimate partner violence (IPV) and child maltreatment, remain high in the USA and contribute to substantial health and economic costs. How neighborhood environment may influence family violence remains poorly understood. We examine the association between neighborhood vacant and abandoned properties and family violence, and the role collective efficacy may play in that relationship. Data were used from a longi…
Commentary: A road map for future data-driven urban planning and environmental health research
Recent advances in data science and urban environmental health research utilise large-scale databases (100s-1000s of cities) to explore the complex interplay of urban characteristics such as city form and size, climate, mobility, exposure, and environmental health impacts. Cities are still hotspots of air pollution and noise, suffer urban heat island effects and lack of green space, which leads to disease and mortality burdens preventable with be…
A greening theory of change: How neighborhood greening impacts adolescent health disparities
Neighborhoods are one of the key determinants of health disparities among young people in the United States. While neighborhood deprivation can exacerbate health disparities, amenities such as quality parks and greenspace can support adolescent health. Existing conceptual frameworks of greening‐health largely focus on greenspace exposures, rather than greening interventions. In this paper, we develop and propose a Greening Theory of Change that e…
Vacant Building Removals Associated with Relative Reductions in Violent and Property Crimes in Baltimore, MD 2014–2019
Does Urban Greenspace Reduce Mortality Inequalities Based on Poverty, Race, or Both in Philadelphia, PA
Associations between land bank ownership and stewardship of vacant properties and crime, violence, and youth victimization in Flint, MI
Land banks across the United States are managing expanding vacant property inventories. By maintaining vacant properties and engaging residents in the process, land banks facilitate processes integral to building safe neighborhoods and may play a role in violence prevention. Using generalized additive mixed model regression, adjusted for spatial and temporal dependencies, we examined whether land bank ownership and stewardship of vacant propertie…
Community engagement, greening, and violent crime: A test of the greening hypothesis and Busy Streets
Researchers have documented that vacant lot greening can reduce community‐level crime and violence. Busy Streets Theory (BST) suggests that residents who are involved in the greening process can help to improve physical environments and build social connections that deter crime and violence. Yet few researchers have explored how community engagement in the greening process may affect crime and violence outcomes. We applied BST to test the effects…
Lessons learned from local vacant land management organizations for engaging youth in greening
Youth living in areas with high concentrations of vacant properties may be at particular risk for poor health outcomes given the associations between deteriorated vacant properties, poor mental health, and community violence. Vacant lot greening has emerged as a key strategy to mitigate the harms of deteriorated properties. Youth engagement in greening has documented benefits for youth, yet few organizations responsible for managing vacant proper…
Use of smartphone mobility data to analyze city park visits during the Covid-19 pandemic
Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic focused attention on city parks as important public resources. However, monitoring park use over time poses practical challenges. Thus, pandemic-related trends are unknown. Methods: We analyzed monthly mobility data from a large panel of smartphone devices, to assess park visits from January 2018 to November 2020 in the 50 largest U.S. cities. Results: In our sample of 11,890 city parks, visits declined by 36.0…
Vacant lot remediation and firearm violence – A meta-analysis and benefit-to-cost evaluation
Our objectives were to synthesize the early evidence regarding the effect of city-wide vacant-lot remediation programs on firearm violence and to determine what proportion of remediation costs are recovered from reducing firearm violence. Building on our scoping review, we conducted a meta-analysis of before-and-after studies with control groups. We then assumed three hypothetical cities of small, medium, and large populations and performed a pro…
Neighborhood Blighted Property Removal and 311 Calls for Non‐Emergency Services: A Test of a Marker of Social Control
Many studies have demonstrated that collective efficacy is associated with positive health outcomes, lower crime, and violence in urban communities, and residents’ emotional connection to their community. Remediation of blighted properties has been theoretically linked to increases in collective efficacy. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of blighted property remediation on city non‐emergency 311 calls for public incivilities an…
Socioeconomic Disparities in Hypertension by Levels of Green Space Availability: A Cross-Sectional Study in Philadelphia, PA
Green spaces have been proposed as equigenic factors, potentially mitigating health disparities. We used data from the 3887 participants residing in Philadelphia who participated in the Public Health Management Corporation's Southeastern Pennsylvania Household Health Survey in 2014-2015 to assess whether socioeconomic disparities in hypertension are modified by availability of neighborhood-level green spaces. Socioeconomic status (SES) was measur…
Stress and Distress during the Covid-19 Pandemic: The Role of Neighborhood Context
Neighborhoods play a central role in health and mental health, particularly during disasters and crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic. We examined changes in psychological distress following the pandemic, and the potential role of neighborhood conditions among 244 residents of New Orleans, Louisiana. Using modified linear regression models, we assessed associations between neighborhood characteristics and change in psychological distress from bef…
Reduction in socioeconomic inequalities in self-reported mental health conditions with increasing greenspace exposure
The effects of organizations engaging residents in greening vacant lots: Insights from a United States national survey
Community Greening, Fear of Crime, and Mental Health Outcomes
Unmaintained vacant land in urban areas is associated with a number of negative outcomes for residents of urban areas, including mental and physical health, safety, and quality of life. Community programs which promote land parcel maintenance in urban neighborhoods have been found to reverse some of the effects that unmaintained land has on nearby residents. We explored how land parcel maintenance is associated with mental health outcomes using d…
Changes in crime surrounding an urban home renovation and rebuild programme
Neighbourhood environments are a known social determinant of health. Vacant and abandoned buildings and lots and poor or hazardous housing conditions, combined with crime and violence, can affect residents’ health and wellbeing. Nationwide Children’s Hospital and its partners launched the Healthy Homes initiative in 2008, which sought to improve nearby residents’ health and wellbeing by rejuvenating vacant and abandoned properties and increasing …
Green space and mortality in European cities: A health impact assessment study
BACKGROUND: Natural outdoor environments including green spaces play an important role in preserving population health and wellbeing in cities, but the number of deaths that could be prevented by increasing green space in European cities is not known. We aimed to estimate the number of natural-cause deaths among adult residents that could be prevented in cities in 31 European countries, if the WHO recommendation for universal access to green spac…
Gender Differences in Impacts of Place-Based Neighborhood Greening Interventions on Fear of Violence Based on a Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial
Effects of greening and community reuse of vacant lots on crime
The Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation initiated a ‘Lots of Green’ programme to reuse vacant land in 2010. We performed a difference-in-differences analysis of the effects of this programme on crime in and around newly treated lots, in comparison to crimes in and around randomly selected and matched, untreated vacant lot controls. The effects of two types of vacant lot treatments on crime were tested: a cleaning and greening ‘stabili…
What's Love Got To Do With It? Illuminations on Loving Attachment in Planning
10.1080/14649357.2012.731210 Original image by Libby Porter, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia In 2009, the People of Color Interest Group (POCIG) sponsored a round table at the annual Associ
Neighborhood Blight, Stress, and Health: A Walking Trial of Urban Greening and Ambulatory Heart Rate
We measured dynamic stress responses using ambulatory heart rate monitoring as participants in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania walked past vacant lots before and after a greening remediation treatment of randomly selected lots. Being in view of a greened vacant lot decreased heart rate significantly more than did being in view of a nongreened vacant lot or not in view of any vacant lot. Remediating neighborhood blight may reduce stress and improve hea…
Immigrant Organizations in Pursuit of Inclusive Planning: Lessons from a Municipal Annexation Case
This article highlights a case in which an immigrant organization, called the Trusted Advocates, brokered for the inclusion of immigrant interests in a neighborhood annexation decision. Racialized controversies over neighborhood identity, and planners’ and officials’ distrust of the organization, provided two main challenges to the organization’s efficacy. The analysis reveals that while immigrant organizations need to provide evidence of their a…
Community engagement, greening, and violent crime: A test of the greening hypothesis and Busy Streets
Researchers have documented that vacant lot greening can reduce community‐level crime and violence. Busy Streets Theory (BST) suggests that residents who are involved in the greening process can help to improve physical environments and build social connections that deter crime and violence. Yet few researchers have explored how community engagement in the greening process may affect crime and violence outcomes. We applied BST to test the effects…
The Impact of Green Stormwater Infrastructure Installation on Surrounding Health and Safety
Objectives. We investigated the health and safety effects of urban green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) installments. Methods. We conducted a difference-in-differences analysis of the effects of GSI installments on health (e.g., blood pressure, cholesterol and stress levels) and safety (e.g., felonies, nuisance and property crimes, narcotics crimes) outcomes from 2000 to 2012 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. We used mixed-effects regression models…
Place-based stressors associated with industry and air pollution
The effects of organizations engaging residents in greening vacant lots: Insights from a United States national survey
Can “Cleaned and Greened” Lots Take on the Role of Public Greenspace
Cities are increasingly greening vacant lots to reduce blight. Such programs could reduce inequities in urban greenspace access, but whether and how greened lots are used remains unclear. We surveyed three hundred greened lots in Philadelphia for signs of use and compared characteristics of used and nonused lots. We found physical signs of use that might be found in yard space, such as barbeques, picnic benches, and swings, on approximately 10 pe…
Community Greening, Fear of Crime, and Mental Health Outcomes
Unmaintained vacant land in urban areas is associated with a number of negative outcomes for residents of urban areas, including mental and physical health, safety, and quality of life. Community programs which promote land parcel maintenance in urban neighborhoods have been found to reverse some of the effects that unmaintained land has on nearby residents. We explored how land parcel maintenance is associated with mental health outcomes using d…
Vacant Building Removals Associated with Relative Reductions in Violent and Property Crimes in Baltimore, MD 2014–2019
Associations between land bank ownership and stewardship of vacant properties and crime, violence, and youth victimization in Flint, MI
Land banks across the United States are managing expanding vacant property inventories. By maintaining vacant properties and engaging residents in the process, land banks facilitate processes integral to building safe neighborhoods and may play a role in violence prevention. Using generalized additive mixed model regression, adjusted for spatial and temporal dependencies, we examined whether land bank ownership and stewardship of vacant propertie…
Changes in crime surrounding an urban home renovation and rebuild programme
Neighbourhood environments are a known social determinant of health. Vacant and abandoned buildings and lots and poor or hazardous housing conditions, combined with crime and violence, can affect residents’ health and wellbeing. Nationwide Children’s Hospital and its partners launched the Healthy Homes initiative in 2008, which sought to improve nearby residents’ health and wellbeing by rejuvenating vacant and abandoned properties and increasing …
Towards Participatory Air Pollution Exposure Assessment in a Goods Movement Community
Participation in personal air pollution monitoring and Photovoice exercises helped to increase awareness of pervasive mobile- and point-source diesel emissions throughout the neighborhood and develop priorities for action. Monitoring indicated the negative effects of cigarette smoke exposure, and disconnect between ambient- and personal-level PM2.5 concentrations that emphasized the need for more personal- and local-level monitoring. In addition,…
Influences of Gender and Race on Immigrant Political Participation: The Case of the Trusted Advocates
Gender and violent crime modify associations between greenspace and cardiovascular disease mortality in Philadelphia, PA
Contact with nature, nature prescriptions, and loneliness: Evidence from an international survey of adults in Australia, India, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the United States
Evidence to support nature contact and nature prescriptions to reduce loneliness is scant. A total of 2100 individuals took part in a survey conducted in Australia (n = 525, mean age = 34.1), India (n = 526, mean age = 29.5), Singapore (n = 523, mean age = 36.1), the UK (n = 526, mean age = 37.3), and the US (n = 525, mean age = 43.6) in 2022 (overall age range 18-89yrs). Multilevel logistic regressions adjusted for confounding indicated mean lev…
From Neighborhood to Household: Connections Between Neighborhood Vacant and Abandoned Property and Family Violence
Rates of family violence, including intimate partner violence (IPV) and child maltreatment, remain high in the USA and contribute to substantial health and economic costs. How neighborhood environment may influence family violence remains poorly understood. We examine the association between neighborhood vacant and abandoned properties and family violence, and the role collective efficacy may play in that relationship. Data were used from a longi…
Does Urban Greenspace Reduce Mortality Inequalities Based on Poverty, Race, or Both in Philadelphia, PA
Lessons learned from local vacant land management organizations for engaging youth in greening
Youth living in areas with high concentrations of vacant properties may be at particular risk for poor health outcomes given the associations between deteriorated vacant properties, poor mental health, and community violence. Vacant lot greening has emerged as a key strategy to mitigate the harms of deteriorated properties. Youth engagement in greening has documented benefits for youth, yet few organizations responsible for managing vacant proper…
Reduction in socioeconomic inequalities in self-reported mental health conditions with increasing greenspace exposure
Gender Differences in Impacts of Place-Based Neighborhood Greening Interventions on Fear of Violence Based on a Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial
Structural Characteristics of Tree Cover and the Association with Cardiovascular and Respiratory Health in Tampa, FL
Do Denser Neighborhoods Have Safer Streets? Population Density and Traffic Safety in the Philadelphia Region
This study uses multilevel negative binomial models to investigate relationships between neighborhood socio-demographics, urban form, roadway characteristics, traffic collisions, injuries, and fatalities on the Philadelphia region’s streets from 2010 to 2014. We pay particular attention to neighborhood population density. Results indicate that streets in denser neighborhoods have fewer overall collisions, injuries, and fatalities. The association…
Immigrant Organizations in Pursuit of Inclusive Planning: Lessons from a Municipal Annexation Case
This article highlights a case in which an immigrant organization, called the Trusted Advocates, brokered for the inclusion of immigrant interests in a neighborhood annexation decision. Racialized controversies over neighborhood identity, and planners’ and officials’ distrust of the organization, provided two main challenges to the organization’s efficacy. The analysis reveals that while immigrant organizations need to provide evidence of their a…
Influences of Gender and Race on Immigrant Political Participation: The Case of the Trusted Advocates
What's Love Got To Do With It? Illuminations on Loving Attachment in Planning
10.1080/14649357.2012.731210 Original image by Libby Porter, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia In 2009, the People of Color Interest Group (POCIG) sponsored a round table at the annual Associ
A random spatial sampling method in a rural developing nation
Random spatial sampling methodology can be used to survey a random sample of population in a remote region of a developing nation. Although this method should be further validated and compared with more established methods to determine its utility in social survey applications, it shows promise for use in developing nations with resource-challenged environments where detailed geographic and human census data are less available
Toward Participatory Air Pollution Exposure Assessment in a Goods Movement Community
Progress in Community Health Partnerships: Research, Education, and Action - Volume 8, Issue 3, Fall 2014
Towards Participatory Air Pollution Exposure Assessment in a Goods Movement Community
Participation in personal air pollution monitoring and Photovoice exercises helped to increase awareness of pervasive mobile- and point-source diesel emissions throughout the neighborhood and develop priorities for action. Monitoring indicated the negative effects of cigarette smoke exposure, and disconnect between ambient- and personal-level PM2.5 concentrations that emphasized the need for more personal- and local-level monitoring. In addition,…
Place-based stressors associated with industry and air pollution
Nature-Based Strategies for Improving Urban Health and Safety
The Impact of Green Stormwater Infrastructure Installation on Surrounding Health and Safety
Objectives. We investigated the health and safety effects of urban green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) installments. Methods. We conducted a difference-in-differences analysis of the effects of GSI installments on health (e.g., blood pressure, cholesterol and stress levels) and safety (e.g., felonies, nuisance and property crimes, narcotics crimes) outcomes from 2000 to 2012 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. We used mixed-effects regression models…
Neighborhood Blight, Stress, and Health: A Walking Trial of Urban Greening and Ambulatory Heart Rate
We measured dynamic stress responses using ambulatory heart rate monitoring as participants in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania walked past vacant lots before and after a greening remediation treatment of randomly selected lots. Being in view of a greened vacant lot decreased heart rate significantly more than did being in view of a nongreened vacant lot or not in view of any vacant lot. Remediating neighborhood blight may reduce stress and improve hea…
Effects of greening and community reuse of vacant lots on crime
The Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation initiated a ‘Lots of Green’ programme to reuse vacant land in 2010. We performed a difference-in-differences analysis of the effects of this programme on crime in and around newly treated lots, in comparison to crimes in and around randomly selected and matched, untreated vacant lot controls. The effects of two types of vacant lot treatments on crime were tested: a cleaning and greening ‘stabili…
Can “Cleaned and Greened” Lots Take on the Role of Public Greenspace
Cities are increasingly greening vacant lots to reduce blight. Such programs could reduce inequities in urban greenspace access, but whether and how greened lots are used remains unclear. We surveyed three hundred greened lots in Philadelphia for signs of use and compared characteristics of used and nonused lots. We found physical signs of use that might be found in yard space, such as barbeques, picnic benches, and swings, on approximately 10 pe…
Effect of Greening Vacant Land on Mental Health of Community-Dwelling Adults: A Cluster Randomized Trial
Importance: Neighborhood physical conditions have been associated with mental illness and may partially explain persistent socioeconomic disparities in the prevalence of poor mental health. Objective: To evaluate whether interventions to green vacant urban land can improve self-reported mental health. Design, Setting, and Participants: This citywide cluster randomized trial examined 442 community-dwelling sampled adults living in Philadelphia, Pe…
Citywide cluster randomized trial to restore blighted vacant land and its effects on violence, crime, and fear
Significance Blighted and vacant urban land is a widespread and potentially risky environmental condition encountered by millions of people every day. About 15% of the land in US cities is deemed vacant or abandoned, translating into an area roughly the size of Switzerland: over 3 million hectares of otherwise beneficial spaces remain neglected. Urban residents, especially in low-income neighborhoods, point to these spaces as primary threats to t…
Neighborhood Interventions to Reduce Violence
Violence is a widespread problem that affects the physical, mental, and social health of individuals and communities. Violence comes with an immense economic cost to its victims and society at large. Although violence interventions have traditionally targeted individuals, changes to the built environment in places where violence occurs show promise as practical, sustainable, and high-impact preventive measures. This review examines studies that u…
Does spending time outdoors reduce stress? A review of real-time stress response to outdoor environments
Perceptions of Nature and Access to Green Space in Four Urban Neighborhoods
Health benefits have been linked to spending time outdoors in nature and green space. However, there is some evidence of inequities to accessing safe outdoor space, particularly in low-resource communities. The primary aim of this study is to assess attitudes towards nature and use of green space in urban areas. A secondary aim is to describe perceptions of physician-initiated nature prescriptions that target local pediatric populations. We condu…
Eighth Annual Conference of inVivo Planetary Health: From Challenges to Opportunities
inVIVO Planetary Health (inVIVO) is a progressive scientific movement providing evidence, advocacy, and inspiration to align the interests and vitality of people, place, and planet. Our goal is to transform personal and planetary health through awareness, attitudes, and actions, and a deeper understanding of how all systems are interconnected and interdependent. Here, we present the abstracts and proceedings of our 8th annual conference, held in …
Structural Characteristics of Tree Cover and the Association with Cardiovascular and Respiratory Health in Tampa, FL
Do Denser Neighborhoods Have Safer Streets? Population Density and Traffic Safety in the Philadelphia Region
This study uses multilevel negative binomial models to investigate relationships between neighborhood socio-demographics, urban form, roadway characteristics, traffic collisions, injuries, and fatalities on the Philadelphia region’s streets from 2010 to 2014. We pay particular attention to neighborhood population density. Results indicate that streets in denser neighborhoods have fewer overall collisions, injuries, and fatalities. The association…
Nature Rx: Reemergence of Pediatric Nature-Based Therapeutic Programs From the Late 19th and Early 20th Centuries
Across the United States, physicians are prescribing patients nature. These “Nature Rx” programs promote outdoor activity as a measure to combat health epidemics stemming from sedentary lifestyles. Despite the apparent novelty of nature prescription programs, they are not new. Rather, they are a reemergence of nature-based therapeutics that characterized children’s health programs in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These historic programs…
The association between blighted property remediation and domestic crime by alcohol availability
Green space and mortality in European cities: A health impact assessment study
BACKGROUND: Natural outdoor environments including green spaces play an important role in preserving population health and wellbeing in cities, but the number of deaths that could be prevented by increasing green space in European cities is not known. We aimed to estimate the number of natural-cause deaths among adult residents that could be prevented in cities in 31 European countries, if the WHO recommendation for universal access to green spac…
Gender Differences in Impacts of Place-Based Neighborhood Greening Interventions on Fear of Violence Based on a Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial
Use of smartphone mobility data to analyze city park visits during the Covid-19 pandemic
Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic focused attention on city parks as important public resources. However, monitoring park use over time poses practical challenges. Thus, pandemic-related trends are unknown. Methods: We analyzed monthly mobility data from a large panel of smartphone devices, to assess park visits from January 2018 to November 2020 in the 50 largest U.S. cities. Results: In our sample of 11,890 city parks, visits declined by 36.0…
Medicine (35 works) · Environmental health (28 works) · Urban Green Space and Health (26 works) · Geography (25 works) · Psychology (22 works) · Sociology (18 works) · Political science (17 works) · Noise Effects and Management (12 works) · Psychological intervention (12 works) · Demography (11 works)