# Gentrification, Mobility, and Exposure to Contextual Determinants of Health

> **NIH NIH R21** · UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON · 2024 · $194,938

## Abstract

Project Summary: This project investigates the relationship between gentrification, displacement, and
contextual determinants of health (CDOH) using consumer trace data as a unique new source to examine long
term mobility for a large number of individuals. The impacts of neighborhoods on health are well established;
differences in residential environments contribute to inequalities in health outcomes that systematically
disadvantage racial/ethnic minorities. Gentrification is the process through which lower income neighborhoods
experience a rapid rise in their relative socioeconomic position within the metropolitan region (Core-Based
Statistical Area or CBSA). It is an increasingly prevalent phenomenon in recent decades with the potential to
cause negative health outcomes through residential displacement. Yet, we currently have limited evidence on
whether residents of gentrifying neighborhoods are more likely to move compared to residents of non-gentrifying
neighborhoods; where they move to, particularly if the destination neighborhoods are more disadvantaged in
terms of contextual CDOH, defined as place-based CDOH that operate at the neighborhood level; and who is
more likely to move, specifically if racial and ethnic minorities are disproportionately impacted.
Data limitations have constrained empirical investigation of the public health impacts of gentrification. The
proposed research leverages consumer trace data from Data Axle that have broad population coverage and
high temporal and spatial specificity to further our understanding of gentrification, mobility, and health disparities.
Our multidisciplinary team's expertise in demography, applied economics, sociology, and public health is ideally
suited to conduct this research.
Specific aims: (1) document the impact of gentrification on mobility patterns; (2) demonstrate how these mobility
patterns affect exposure to key CDOH shown to contribute to the perpetuation of socioeconomic and race/ethnic
inequities in health; and (3) examine the differential effects of gentrification across race/ethnicity, gender,
residents socioeconomic status, local housing market dynamics, as well as metropolitan-area segregation levels.
To achieve these aims, our approach leverages a novel longitudinal dataset for the 100 largest US metros based
on consumer trace data at the address level with broad population coverage, including for lower income
residents. We will use regression at the individual level controlling for individual and neighborhood characteristics
to establish the relationship between gentrification (defined at the tract level) and likelihood to move, distance
and characteristics of the moves as well as to analyze changes in CDOH (at different scales depending on
conceptual considerations and data availability) among stayers and movers between 2006 and 2020.
The proposed research is the first to our knowledge to address these questions with such comprehensive data
and represents a significant cont...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10758857
- **Project number:** 5R21HD108570-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON
- **Principal Investigator:** Arthur Acolin
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $194,938
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2023-01-02 → 2025-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10758857

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10758857, Gentrification, Mobility, and Exposure to Contextual Determinants of Health (5R21HD108570-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-27 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10758857. Licensed CC0.

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