About Yong Yang

Dr. Yang is motivated to examine how the human's health-related behaviors including physical activities are influenced by the built and social environments, to estimate the corresponding impacts on humans' health, and to provide implications for policy interventions. Dr. Yang's research is based on the integration of methodologies from epidemiology, systems science, and geography.

Education

• PhD, Geography, University of Southampton, United Kingdom, 2007
• MS, Geographical Information Science, Peking University, China, 2000
• BS, Physical Geography, Peking University, 1997

Research Interests

• Urban Environment and Health Behavior
• Active Travel and Physical Activity
• Aging and Mental Health
• Neighborhood and Childhood Obesity
• Application of agent-based modelling in public health
• Application of GIS and spatial analysis in public health

Selected Publications

1. Yang Y. Public transit use among American older adults: Insights from a nationally representative survey. Journal of Transport & Health. 2025;41:101982. 
2. Yang Y, Jiang Y. The association between social isolation and incident dementia among older adults: Evidence from national health and aging trend study. Innovation in Aging. 2024;8(10). 
3. Yang Y, Jiang Y, Wen M, Wang L. A dual group-based 11-year trajectory analysis of cognitive impairment and transport restriction for community-dwelling older adults. International journal of geriatric psychiatry. 2024;39(12):e70032. 
4. Yang Y, Lindblom EN, Ward KD, Salloum RG. Should menthol e-cigarettes be banned? Reaction of adult smokers and users of e-cigarettes to hypothetical bans. Tob Control. 2024;33(e1):e125-e127. 
5. Yang Y, Xiang X. Examine the associations between perceived neighborhood conditions, physical activity, and mental health during the covid-19 pandemic. Health & Place. 2021;67:102505. 
6. Yang Y, Langellier BA, Stankov I, et al. Public transit and depression among older adults: Using agent-based models to examine plausible impacts of a free bus policy. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. 2020;74(11):875-881. 
7. Yang Y. A narrative review of the use of agent-based modeling in health behavior and behavior intervention. Translational behavioral medicine. 2019;9(6):1065-1075. 
8. Yang Y, Jiang Y, Xu Y, Mzayek F, Levy M. A cross-sectional study of the influence of neighborhood environment on childhood overweight and obesity: Variation by age, gender, and environment characteristics. Prev Med. 2018;108:23-28. 
9. Yang Y, Xu Y, Rodriguez DA, Michael Y, Zhang H. Active travel, public transportation use, and daily transport among older adults: The association of built environment. Journal of Transport & Health. 2018;9:288-298. 
10. Yang Y. Using agent-based modeling to study multiple risk factors and multiple health outcomes at multiple levels. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 2017;1408(1):7-14.