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Transportation as a social determinant of health

Guest Editors:
David Ederer: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, United States
Ipek N. Sener: Texas A&M Transportation Institute, United States
Owen Waygood: Polytechnique Montréal, Canada


BMC Public Health welcomed submissions to our Collection on transportation as a social determinant of health. 
Transportation is a critical social determinant that can have a significant impact on the physical and mental health, overall wellbeing of individuals and communities, and access to essential services such as healthcare and social services, educational and employment opportunities.
The lack of reliable and safe transportation options can hinder individuals’ ability to meet their basic needs.
There is a need for transportation and public health policies to implement interventions to overcome transportation barriers, improve existing infrastructures and promote the understanding of population health outcomes related to transport options.

Meet the Guest Editors

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David Ederer: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, United States

Dr Ederer is an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer at CDC. His research focuses on applying public health principles in transportation safety, and how the built environment influences chronic disease.  He served as an advisor to the US Mission to the United Nations during the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals. He has a Ph.D. in Transportation Systems Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology, and a Master of Public Health from the University of Michigan. 
 

Ipek N. Sener: Texas A&M Transportation Institute, United States

Dr Sener is a Research Scientist at TTI, where her research examines the transportation ecosystem through the lens of social and behavioral sciences, specifically focusing on how the concepts of health, well-being, and quality of life are considered. She has studied extensively issues related to the use of active, alternative, and emerging transportation options, including accessibility, affordability, equity, and inclusion as well as sustainable mobility. She recently served as a transportation expert for the Gravity Project—a national collaborative to advance interoperable social determinants of health data—resulting in the approval of new ICD-10-CM codes for "transportation insecurity," which became effective in October 2022.
 

Owen Waygood: Polytechnique Montréal, Canada

Dr Waygood has been researching topics related to transport and health since his Ph.D. in 2006 on children’s independent mobility. In that research, he examined physical activity, social interactions, and children’s attitudes to transport. Since then, he has continued examining such relationships for the general population and how transport relates to mental health measures such as life satisfaction. In 2020, he published a book entitled Transport and Children’s Wellbeing. He currently is leading a research project on estimating traffic danger and its impacts on children’s accessibility to diverse destinations related to their health and wellbeing.
 


About the collection

BMC Public Health welcomed for submissions to our Collection on transportation as a social determinant of health. 

Transportation is a critical social determinant that can have a significant impact on the physical and mental health, overall wellbeing of individuals and communities, and access to essential services such as healthcare and social services, educational and employment opportunities.

The lack of reliable and safe transportation options can hinder individuals’ ability to meet their basic needs. It can be a barrier by creating dangerous travel conditions limiting people’s autonomy and social connections, leading to social isolation and loneliness, and increasing exposure to traffic collisions and harmful emissions, with a clear impact on public health.

A transportation system can impact access to employment for those without cars and equal distribution of opportunities in education for younger people, impacting the wellbeing and life satisfaction of the population. Transportation barriers particularly affect marginalized communities such as people living in rural communities, the economically disadvantaged, ethnic minorities, older adults and those with disabilities.

There is a need for transportation and public health policies to implement interventions to overcome transportation barriers, improve existing infrastructures and promote the understanding of population health outcomes related to transport options.

There are a number of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets linked to transportation as a social determinant of health, including Sustainable Development Goal 3- Good Health and Well-Being, Sustainable Development Goal 8-Decent work and Economic Growth, Sustainable Development Goal 9- Industry Innovation and Infrastructures, and Sustainable Development Goal 11- Sustainable cities and communities. 

BMC Public Health launched this collection calling for research on transportation as a social determinant of health. We welcomed submissions addressing but not limited to:

  • The effects of transportation access on health and quality of life
  • Policies addressing transportation barriers and transportation-related issues at the intersection of health and transportation 
  • Application and evaluation of public health approaches (such as Health in All Policies approaches) to transportation and vice versa
  • How modes of transportation (such as public transportation or shared mobilities) relate to public health
  • The relationship between health equity and access to opportunities
  • Social wellbeing and mental health issues related to transportation systems
  • The health and wellbeing impacts related to what occurs during travel as a result of modes used


Image credit: Vlad Fonsark / Pexels

  1. Understanding why patients experience loss to follow-up (LTFU) is essential for TB control. This analysis examines the impact of travel distance to RR-TB treatment on LTFU, which has yet to be analyzed within ...

    Authors: Katherine C. McNabb, Alanna J. Bergman, Amita Patil, Kelly Lowensen, Nomusa Mthimkhulu, Chakra Budhathoki, Nancy Perrin and Jason E. Farley
    Citation: BMC Public Health 2024 24:578
    Content type: Research Published on:

  2. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Taiwan has implemented strict border controls and community spread prevention measures. As part of these efforts, the government also implemented measures for public transportatio...

    Authors: Ning Chang, Yi-chen Tsai, Wei J. Chen, Chung-Chuan Lo and Hsiao-Han Chang
    Citation: BMC Public Health 2024 24:551
    Content type: Research Published on:

Submission Guidelines

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This Collection welcomes submission of Research Articles. Should you wish to submit a different article type, please read our submission guidelines to confirm that type is accepted by the journal. Articles for this Collection should be submitted via our submission system, Snapp. During the submission process you will be asked whether you are submitting to a Collection, please select "Transportation as a social determinant of health" from the dropdown menu.

Articles will undergo the journal’s standard peer-review process and are subject to all of the journal’s standard policies. Articles will be added to the Collection as they are published.

The Guest Editors have no competing interests with the submissions which they handle through the peer review process. The peer review of any submissions for which the Guest Editors have competing interests is handled by another Editorial Board Member who has no competing interests.