NetLogo User Community Models

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## WHAT IS IT?

This is a toy model, illustrating the fact that 'people take their health with them'. This means, when measuring health inequalities between places the dynamics of who lives there at that time matters.

In this simple example, health inequalities between places can change over time, even when the total health of the whole population stays exactly the same. When we think about 'Levelling Up' areas, we need to be sure that any benefits we see aren't just caused by gentrification, poorer residents being forced out by rising prices.

## HOW IT WORKS

1. People:
• Represented as “persons” with attributes such as income, health, home location, and last relocation tick. They aim to improve their living conditions by relocating closer to services if affordable.
2. Services:
• Represented as “houses,” providing amenities that attract people. Services aim to relocate to zones with higher desirability based on average income and competition.
3. Patches:
• Represent the urban environment where each patch has a housing cost, which varies based on proximity to services and local average incomes.

## HOW TO USE IT

You can try varying the number of people and services, as an example of policy levers that could be pulled (e.g., location of houses and of shops selling items people need for daily living).

## EXTENDING THE MODEL

This is an extremely basic 'toy model' to illustrate this single concept. There is lots that can be built upon.

## CREDITS AND REFERENCES

Model created by Jonathan Stokes as a simple illustration of one of the key dynamic complexities inspiring the initial application for the OPTIMA project, Orienting Policy Towards Inequality Minimising Actions (OPTIMA): A systems science approach to 20-minute neighbourhood policy and evaluation.

In the OPTIMA project, we will use much more sophisticated agent-based models to explore potential health inequality impacts of '20-minute neighbourhood' policy options. See https://fundingawards.nihr.ac.uk/award/NIHR160301 for more details.

(This project is funded by the NIHR Public Health Research Programme (NIHR160301). The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care.)