Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Exploring Food Deserts And Environmental Impacts On Health In Chicago And Oregon, Sivasomasundari Arunarasu, Paulina Grzybowicz

altREU Projects

Food deserts are defined as, “an impoverished area where residents lack access to healthy foods”. This lack of access can be due to a combination of socioeconomic, geographic, and food-related variables, and has been proven to impact the health of residents in the area. In this project, several statistical and machine learning techniques are used to model the impact of food desserts and various other factors on health outcomes, including diabetes and obesity rates, in both the different neighborhoods in the City of Chicago and the various counties in the state of Oregon. The models are then used to determine …