Access to healthy living for women in low-income households in peripheral neighbourhoods in the Medellin metropolitan area, Colombia

This project studies accessibility to healthy living among low-income women in Itagüí, a municipality in the Medellin metropolitan area (Colombia). Under a strongly collaborative framework we incorporate environmental, spatial, and temporal variables to develop a space-time accessibility model of healthy living during and after the COVID-19 social distancing measures. We deploy a mixed-methods approach in which we combine qualitative storytelling from women's testimonies on access to healthcare and food, with quantitative geolocation, physical activity, and air pollution exposure data, to identify how they access healthy living in their everyday life and how this is affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. We work with strong network of collaborators including a group of 40 local women, people working in three levels of government (local, metropolitan and national), and Colombian academics which allows us to produce research with the potential to generate significant societal impacts. The project will communicate its findings with different audiences through art exhibitions, online technical tools, academic papers, and briefs.