# Using Participatory Systems Modeling to Understand Community Influences on Cardiovascular Health

> **NIH NIH K08** · YALE UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $167,702

## Abstract

Approximately 30% of cardiovascular (CV) mortality is potentially preventable through the adoption 
of healthy behaviors, such as regular physical activity, healthy diet, and not smoking. Adoption of 
these behaviors is influenced by the community environments where patients reside and variation in 
these environments is associated with disparities in CV mortality. Eliminating these placed-based 
disparities has been elusive because a community is comprised of multiple interrelated parts, 
including the physical and the social environment, which are further influenced by contextual 
factors such as state policies, urbanicity, and socioeconomic status. As such, although aspects of 
the physical and social community environment have been independently associated with lower CV 
morbidity and mortality, interventions aiming improve a single one have had variable effects. This 
proposal requests three years of support for Dr. Brita Roy to complete targeted training in complex 
systems modeling – a set of methods that effectively captures these dynamic community relationships 
– to explore the various effects changes in the physical and social environments of a community 
together have in shaping CV health-related behaviors. These methods are critical tools for 
implementation science, as they enable the translation of current evidence towards real-world 
interventions by elucidating the mechanisms by which change occurs, better anticipating results 
before testing expensive interventions.
Dr. Roy is a board-certified general internist with a strong quantitative background in engineering 
and with expertise in healthy behavior promotion. This proposal describes a career development plan 
that will allow Dr. Roy to develop skills in group model building (i.e., a participatory approach 
to model development) applied to two complementary methods necessary to understand the complexity 
of community environments: (1) agent- based modeling, a method that characterizes bidirectional 
resident-environment interactions; and (2) system dynamics modeling, a method that captures 
positive and negative dynamic feedback loops among many community factors. Dr. Roy will develop 
these methodologic skills and hone other skills needed to become an independent investigator under 
the guidance of Drs. Harlan Krumholz, an expert in CV health outcomes research; Leslie Curry, an 
expert in implementation science; Marcella Nunez-Smith, an expert in community-engaged research 
and CV health disparities; and Margaret Weeks, an expert in group model building. The primary 
mentor, Dr. Krumholz, has been Dr. Roy’s mentor on her current K12 award and has successfully 
mentored multiple K awardees. Completion of this award will help Dr. Roy achieve her long-term goal 
of establishing herself as an independent investigator who develops interventions to effectively 
mitigate place-based disparities in CV health using assets-based, participatory approaches. The 
knowledge gained and mo...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9897647
- **Project number:** 5K08HL143133-02
- **Recipient organization:** YALE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Brita Roy
- **Activity code:** K08 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $167,702
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-04-01 → 2022-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9897647

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9897647, Using Participatory Systems Modeling to Understand Community Influences on Cardiovascular Health (5K08HL143133-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9897647. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*