Monetizing Health from Active Transportation

Dr. Iroz-Elardo has managed a diverse set of projects that seek to estimate and monetize the health impacts of active transportation including:

As a the primary lead at UD4H, Dr. Iroz-Elardo modeled the monetary value of health impacts from first and last mile spending. This was done to support the Southern California Association of Government's Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) - the first time this has ever occured! To accomplish this, Dr. Iroz-Elardo married a cost-of-illness approach to estimate direct healthcare cost savings and indirect productivity gains as inputs for the input-output econometric model REMI (in partnership with AECOM). 

UD4H & AECOM (2016). Active Transportation, Health, and Economic Benefit Study. Southern California Association of Governments. Los Angeles, CA.

In Utah, Dr. Iroz-Elardo led UD4H and an interdisciplinary group of stakeholders in monetizing and communicating the benefits of the state's active transportation infrastructure. The client was provided modular fact sheets for counties to communicate the. This effort included estimating health, sales, and tourism benefits that rippled through the economy using IMPLAN as the input-output model. County-level multipliers were provided to assist future efforts to make the case for active transportation in individual communities.

Iroz-Elardo, N., Chapman, J. ,Moland, A., Frank, L.D., Behr, C., Brockmyer, R., & Vyas, M. (2017). Economic Impacts of Active Transportation: Utah Active Transportation Benefits Study – Final Report. Utah Transit Authority. Salt Lake City, UT. 
 

Dr. Iroz-Elardo continues to serve as an international expert and trainer in how to conceptualize, communicate and model the monetary benefits of health impacts associated with built environment change.  For example, she has:

• Traveled to the World Health Organization's European headquarters to provide technical guidance on the Health Economic Assessment Tool (HEAT)
• Gave a plenary talk at the 2017 Utah Bike Summit
• Provided a half-day workshop on the topic at the 2017 National Walking Summit

Climate Smart Strategy Health Impact Assessment

This HIA is the third in a series of HIAs designed to support Metro's (Portland, Oregon's metropolitan government) Climate Smart Community Scenario Planning.  It extends the analysis in the Community Climate Choices HIA by analyzing the Draft Approach and comparing it to previous scenarios under consideration.  Using the Integrated Tranport Health Impact Model (ITHIM), this HIA quantitatively evaluates how transportation and land use strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from light-duty vehicles impacts health through three pathways: physical activity, air quality, traffic safety.  This HIA is also novel in linking the health analysis to expected monentized savings.

Iroz-Elardo, N, Hamberg A, Main E, Haggerty B, Early-Alberts J, Cude C. Climate Smart Strategy Health Impact Assessment. Oregon Health Authority. September 2014. Portland, Oregon. 

Community Climate Choices Health Impact Assessment

This HIA is the second in a series of HIAs designed to support Metro's (Portland, Oregon's metropolitan government) Climate Smart Community Scenario Planning.  Using the Integrated Tranport Health Impact Model (ITHIM), this HIA quantitatively evaluates three draft scenarios to show how transportation and land use strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from light-duty vehicles impacts health through three pathways: physical activity, air quality, traffic safety.

Iroz-Elardo, N, Hamberg A, Main E, Early-Alberts J, Douglas J. Community Climate Choices Health Impact Assessment. Oregon Health Authority. March 2014. Portland, Oregon.

Iroz-Elardo, N. (2013) Poultry and the Press: Urban Chickens on the National Stage.  Metroscape. Portland Oregon: Institute of Portland Metropolitan Studies, Portland State University.

Stakeholder Participation Working Group of the 2010 HIA in the Americas Workshop. (2012) Best Practices for Stakeholder Participation in Health Impact Assessment. Oakland, CA.

Sprague, W., Picha, E., Iroz-Elardo, N., Heinicke T. (2010).  Foreclosure Activity in the Portland MSA.  Portland Oregon: Institute on Metropolitan Studies, Portland State University.

Baggett, S. A., & Iroz-Elardo, N. (2009). Resident Satisfaction Survey, Multnomah County Aging & Disability Services, Adult Care Homes: 2008. Portland Oregon: Portland State University, Institute on Aging.

Baggett, S.A., Neal, M.B., Iroz-Elardo, N., & Huguet, N. (2009). Multnomah County Aging & Disability Services: 2008 Community Needs Survey.  Portland Oregon: Portland State University, Institute on Aging.

Pivetz, T., Iroz-Elardo, N., Strauss, W., Rust, S., & Menkedick, J. (2004). Brief on Estimated Sample Size of Women Needed to Result in 100,000 Live Births. Unpublished White paper. Battelle Memorial Institute.

Dissertation

Iroz-Elardo, Nicole. "Participation, Information, Values, and Community Interests Within Health Impact Assessments" (2014). Dissertations and Theses. Paper 1846.

Peer-reviewed

Iroz-Elardo, N. Health Impact Assessment as Public Participation. Community Development Journal. doi: 10.1093/cdj/bsu052  

Strauss, W., Ryan, L., Morara, M., Iroz-Elardo, N., Davis, M., Cupp, M., et al. (2010). Improving cost-effectiveness of epidemiological studies via designed missingness strategies. Statistics in Medicine. 29(13):1377-87.

Wilson, N. K., Strauss, W., Iroz-Elardo, N., & Chuang, J. C. (2010). Exposures of preschool children to chlorpyrifos, diazinon, pentachlorophenol, and 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid over three years from 2003 –2005: A longitudinal model Journal Of Exposure Science And Environmental Epidemiology. 20(6):546-58.