Using community-based system dynamics modeling to understand the complex systems that influence health in cities: The SALURBAL study

Abstract

We discuss the design, implementation, and results of a collaborative process designed to elucidate the complex systems that drive food behaviors, transport, and health in Latin American cities and to build capacity for systems thinking and community-based system dynamics (CBSD) methods among diverse research team members and stakeholders. During three CBSD workshops, 62 stakeholders from 10 Latin American countries identified 98 variables and a series of feedback loops that shape food behaviors, transportation and health, along with 52 policy levers. Our findings suggest that CBSD can engage local stakeholders, help them view problems through the lens of complex systems and use their insights to prioritize research efforts and identify novel solutions that consider mechanisms of complexity.

Keywords: Community-based system dynamics; Diet; Group model building; Latin America; Transport.

Fig. 1

Synthesis causal loop diagram of the system that influences food behaviors and transport, based on three community-based system dynamics workshops in Latin American cities. Notes: Text that is bolded and in quotation marks is a feedback loop label; non-bolded text is a variable label. AQ = Air Quality. PA = Physical Activity. The presence of a “||” symbol on an arrow represents a time delay in the relationship between two variables. Variables in angle brackets (e.g., ) are ghost variables or aliases that represent variables that appear elsewhere in the model. Figure generated in VensimPLE 7.2.