Data for Health

Data for Health topic

Causal Effect Estimation in Observational Field Studies of Thermal Comfort

April 1, 2025
by Ruiji Sun. We introduce and apply regression discontinuity to thermal comfort field studies, which are typically observational. The method utilizes policy thresholds in China, where the winter district heating policy is based on cities' geographical locations relative to the Huai River. Using the regression discontinuity method, we quantify the causal effects of the experiment treatment (district heating) on the physical indoor environments and subjective responses of building occupants. In contrast, using conventional correlational analysis, we demonstrate that the correlation between indoor operative temperature and thermal sensation votes does not accurately reflect the causal relationship between the two. This highlights the importance of causal inference methods in thermal comfort field studies and other observational studies in building science where the regression discontinuity method might apply.

Looking Ahead: How Adolescents’ Consideration of Future Consequences Shapes Their Developmental Outcomes

March 25, 2025
by Elaine Luo. Adolescents constantly balance immediate impulses with long-term goals. Our research explored how adolescents differ in their tendency to think about immediate versus future consequences, and how these differences relate to academic performance, stress, and perceived life chances. Using Latent Profile Analysis, we identified three distinct groups: Indifferent (low consideration overall), Future-Focused (prioritizing future outcomes), and Dual-Focused (high consideration of both immediate and future outcomes). Results indicated the Dual-Focused adolescents had higher academic achievement, whereas the Future-Focused group perceived the most positive life prospects. A discussion on practical implications and future research direction for supporting balanced decision-making among adolescents is also provided.

Excel Data Analysis: Charts, Pivot Tables, and VLOOKUP

March 7, 2025, 1:00pm
This three-hour workshop will cover charts in more detail, review pivot tables, and the widely-used VLOOKUP function. We recommend first taking the introductory workshop Excel Data Analysis: Introduction.

Excel Data Analysis: Charts, Pivot Tables, and VLOOKUP

February 10, 2025, 2:00pm
This three-hour workshop will cover charts in more detail, review pivot tables, and the widely-used VLOOKUP function. We recommend first taking the introductory workshop Excel Data Analysis: Introduction.

Language Models in Mental Health Conversations – How Empathetic Are They Really?

December 3, 2024
by Sohail Khan. Language models are becoming integral to daily life as trusted sources of advice. While their utility has expanded from simple tasks like text summarization to more complex interactions, the empathetic quality of their responses is crucial. This article explores methods to assess the emotional appropriateness of these models, using metrics such as BLEU, ROUGE, and Sentence Transformers. By analyzing models like LLaMA in mental health dialogues, we learn that while they suffer through traditional word-based metrics, LLaMA's performance in capturing empathy through semantic similarity is promising. In addition, we must advocate for continuous monitoring to ensure these models support their users' mental well-being effectively.

Excel Data Analysis: Charts, Pivot Tables, and VLOOKUP

October 7, 2024, 2:00pm
This three-hour workshop will cover charts in more detail, review pivot tables, and the widely-used VLOOKUP function. We recommend first taking the introductory workshop Excel Data Analysis: Introduction.

Elaine (Hua) Luo

Data Science Fellow 2024-2025
Graduate School of Education

Elaine (Hua) Luo is a PhD candidate in the Graduate School of Education, School Psychology PhD program. Her research interests focus on adolescents’ identity development and well-being under the transactional influence of entities in their socio-ecological systems. In her research, Elaine has utilized not only quantitative but also qualitative and mixed methods to study her research topics of interest. Before coming to Berkeley, Elaine earned her Master’s in Human Development and Psychology from Harvard Graduate School of Education and her Bachelor of Art in Education Sciences from...

Excel Data Analysis: Charts, Pivot Tables, and VLOOKUP

February 16, 2023, 1:00pm
This three-hour workshop will cover charts in more detail, review pivot tables, and the widely-used VLOOKUP function. We recommend first taking the introductory workshop Excel Data Analysis: Introduction.

Finding Health Statistics and Data

March 17, 2022, 2:00pm
Participants in this workshop will learn about some of the issues surrounding the collection of health statistics, and will also learn about authoritative sources of health statistics and data. We will look at tools that let you create custom tables of vital statistics (birth, death, etc.), disease statistics, health behavior statistics, and more.

Excel Data Analysis: Charts, Pivot Tables, and VLOOKUP

September 14, 2022, 4:00pm
This three-hour workshop will cover charts in more detail, review pivot tables, and the widely-used VLOOKUP function. We recommend first taking the introductory workshop Excel Data Analysis: Introduction.