Dustin T. Duncan
Research Projects
Dustin T. Duncan, ScD, is a prominent social and spatial epidemiologist and a Professor at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. His research focuses on how neighborhood environments—both physical and social—shape population health, particularly among marginalized groups. He uses Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and other spatial technologies to understand how the environments people live in affect health outcomes.
Key areas of Duncan’s research include:
1. Neighborhoods and Health: He investigates how urban environments, including walkability, access to healthy food, and green spaces, impact conditions like obesity, cardiovascular disease, and mental health.
2. HIV Prevention and LGBTQ+ Health: Duncan is known for his work on the health of sexual and gender minority populations. Much of his research looks at how the spatial and social environments of LGBTQ+ individuals influence HIV risk, substance use, and other health outcomes.
3. Spatial Exposure to Stress: Another key focus is studying how exposure to stress in various neighborhoods (e.g., crime or economic disadvantage) can influence health behaviors and outcomes, such as sleep, mental health, and substance use.
Duncan has published extensively on these topics and collaborates with interdisciplinary teams, using advanced spatial methods to better understand how to improve health equity.
Key research project information can be found here:
Dustin T. Duncan, ScD – Google Scholar
Dustin Duncan, ScD | Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health
What reviewers are saying about the research and editorial works of Dr. Duncan
"The COVID-19 pandemic showed, yet again, that the consequences of pandemics emerge from far more than the pathogen itself. They emerge from the social conditions that set the stage for who becomes sick, who lives, and who dies. This book offers a comprehensive account of the social forces that created the COVID-19 pandemic and points to lessons we would be wise to learn if we are to mitigate the next pandemic."
~ Sandro Galea, MD, DrPH, Dean and Robert A. Knox Professor, School of Public Health, Boston University
"The methodological insights and specific research findings displayed here signal an important advance in epidemiology. This book summarizes much of the recent progress that has been made in studies that use aggregate or area-wide measurements. Overall, this book has much to offer. The authors themselves are clearly aware of the complexities, unsolved problems, and numerous challenges that confront anyone who wants to assess quantitatively the impact of social and geographic units on health." --American Journal of Epidemiology "Advances the debate over the theory and methodology of the study of neighborhoods and health to the center stage of epidemiology, public health, and health policy."
~ JAMA
"The distribution and control of disease in human populations has always been profoundly and inextricably social. As these authors skillfully and exhaustively demonstrate, the COVID-19 pandemic serves as a paradigmatic case study of the social determinants of exposure, infection, and disease. Race, gender, class, and power all play starring roles in this terrible saga, along with work, housing, policing and trust. This book provides a comprehensive account of how to understand mass disease in terms of a society out of joint."
~ Jay S. Kaufman, PhD, Professor, School of Population and Global Health, McGill University