About

Cynthia Chen is a professor in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at the University of Washington. Her research areas include infrastructure and smart cities, engineering and health, transportation engineering, and urban adaptable systems. Her work involves human mobility pattern analysis and the development of systems that enhance urban infrastructure and transportation networks.

Research topics

• Medicine
• Internal medicine
• Political Science
• Business
• Computer Science
• Sociology
• Geography
• Virology
• Marketing
• Cardiology
• Socioeconomics
• Radiology
• Economics
• Physical therapy
• Economic growth
• Pediatrics

Selected publications

• C-117 | Clinical Outcomes After Endocardial Left Atrial Appendage Occlusion by Heart Failure Phenotype

  Journal of the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography & Interventions · 2026-04-01

  articleOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• C-16 | Shared Care, Shared Outcomes: TAVR Performance Across Veterans Affairs and Academic Partner Institutions

  Journal of the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography & Interventions · 2026-04-01

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Strategic Use of Benzylic Alcohols Reveals Cryptic Hydrogen-Bonding Interactions: Discovery of HBC-12551 as a Potent Noncovalent Bruton’s Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitor

  Journal of Medicinal Chemistry · 2026-01-30

  article

  Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) represents a key therapeutic target for B-cell malignancies. While covalent inhibitors have shown efficacy, the emergence of resistant BTK mutants necessitates the development of noncovalent alternatives with improved selectivity and tolerability profiles. Utilizing structure-based drug design, we identified HBC-12551, a novel noncovalent BTK inhibitor. By strategically incorporating a hydrogen-bonding interaction with the backbone NH of Cys481, HBC-12551 demonstrated significantly enhanced potency. This compound potently inhibited both wild-type and C481S mutant BTK and exhibited robust antiproliferative effects in B-cell lymphoma cell lines. Preclinical studies further revealed promising antitumor activity in vivo, coupled with favorable pharmacokinetic properties. These findings suggest that HBC-12551 holds significant potential as a promising therapeutic candidate for the treatment of B-cell malignancies.

  PublisherDOI

• The differential use of healthcare and associated costs among older adults with common physical and comorbid mental health conditions - a systematic review and meta-analysis

  SSM - Mental Health · 2026-05-05

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• The association of daily gardening and healthy ageing in Singapore

  Scientific Reports · 2025-07-01

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  This study investigates the benefits of gardening, exploring its relevance in an ageing population. A cross-sectional study was conducted with participants aged 30-98 years, who were given a questionnaire with four components for evaluation: sociodemographic characteristics, gardening status and reasons, physical health, and mental health. A total of 386 complete responses were obtained. Participants were categorised into two groups based on gardening frequency. One group included individuals who do not garden or garden occasionally, and the other group being those who garden daily (26.4%). The top reason for gardening was "happiness or satisfaction", while "insufficient time" was the most cited reason for not gardening. Analysis showed that gardening daily was associated with 43% lower odds of developing poor health, defined as having either anxiety, health limitations, or both (OR = 0.57, 95%CI 0.32-0.99, p = 0.0499). There may also be an association between gardening daily and a reduction in the odds of developing anxiety and health limitations individually, although not statistically significant. Overall, this study shows that gardening daily was associated with better health outcomes, reducing anxiety and health limitations. This supports the promotion of gardening as an activity for healthy ageing.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Gardening and Healthy Ageing: A Study on Health Benefits

  Innovation in Aging · 2025-12-01

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Abstract This study explores the health benefits of gardening, particularly its relevance in an ageing population. As societies age, promoting sustainable and accessible activities that enhance physical and mental well-being is crucial. Gardening, a widely enjoyed activity, may offer significant health benefits. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 386 participants aged 30 to 99 years, assessing sociodemographic, gardening habits, and physical and mental health through a structured questionnaire. Participants were categorized into two groups based on gardening frequency: those who do not garden or garden occasionally and those who garden daily (26.4%). The primary motivation for gardening was “happiness or satisfaction”, while “insufficient time” was the most cited barrier. Analysis revealed that daily gardening was associated with 43% lower odds of poor health (OR = 0.57, 95% CI: 0.32-0.99, p = 0.0499), defined as having either anxiety, health limitations, or both. Although not statistically significant, results suggest daily gardening may also reduce the odds of anxiety and health limitations. These findings highlight gardening’s potential as a simple, cost-effective intervention for promoting healthy ageing. By fostering physical activity, relaxation, and social engagement, gardening could play a key role in enhancing overall well-being and improving quality of life. Given its accessibility, policymakers and healthcare professionals should consider incorporating gardening into public health initiatives. Future research could conduct a randomised controlled trial to evaluate the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of gardening interventions, providing stronger evidence for its role in preventive health strategies for ageing populations.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• On Predicting Sociodemographics from Mobility Signals

  ArXiv.org · 2025-11-06

  preprintOpen access

  Inferring sociodemographic attributes from mobility data could help transportation planners better leverage passively collected datasets, but this task remains difficult due to weak and inconsistent relationships between mobility patterns and sociodemographic traits, as well as limited generalization across contexts. We address these challenges from three angles. First, to improve predictive accuracy while retaining interpretability, we introduce a behaviorally grounded set of higher-order mobility descriptors based on directed mobility graphs. These features capture structured patterns in trip sequences, travel modes, and social co-travel, and significantly improve prediction of age, gender, income, and household structure over baselines features. Second, we introduce metrics and visual diagnostic tools that encourage evenness between model confidence and accuracy, enabling planners to quantify uncertainty. Third, to improve generalization and sample efficiency, we develop a multitask learning framework that jointly predicts multiple sociodemographic attributes from a shared representation. This approach outperforms single-task models, particularly when training data are limited or when applying models across different time periods (i.e., when the test set distribution differs from the training set).

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Older adults’ attitudes towards using technologies for communication, entertainment, health and productivity: a cross-sectional study

  BMC Public Health · 2025-11-05 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  BACKGROUND: Technology is essential for advancing healthcare services by enhancing information availability and access. This is especially relevant to Singapore's rapidly ageing population. However, despite widespread smartphone ownership, usage of health-related applications remains low among older Singaporeans. Therefore, this study sought to investigate and understand key factors influencing older adults' attitudes towards technology, namely in health, communication, productivity, and entertainment. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted in Singapore through a self-administered face-to-face questionnaire. Data were collected from 380 adults aged 40 and above regarding attitudes towards different technologies in four domains: health, communication, productivity, and entertainment in July 2023. Participants' responses were then re-coded as having a positive or negative attitude, and chi-square tests were used to analyse across categorical variables. Multivariable logistic regression examined the association between attitude and age groups, adjusting for confounders. RESULTS: Overall, respondents exhibited positive attitudes toward health technology (69.5%), communication (94.5%), entertainment (85.8%), and productivity (79.7%). Participants aged 75 and above exhibited lower positive attitudes, although they demonstrated notable positivity toward communication (74.6%) and entertainment (56.7%), as opposed to health (35.8%) and productivity (38.8%). Younger age groups (40-54 years) exhibited higher odds of positive attitude toward health technology (OR 7.69, 95% CI: 2.42-25.5), similarly for those with higher education (OR 6.0, 95% CI: 2.64-14.1) and larger families (OR 4.77, 95% CI: 1.54-17.2) after multivariable adjustment. Notably, positive attitudes toward health technology were consistently lower across all age groups compared to other domains. Within health technology, younger adults were more inclined to use medical services and health apps compared to older adults. Although younger adults utilised technology more for time-saving purposes (53% vs. 18%, P < 0.001), no age differences were observed for health monitoring (44% vs. 37%, P = 0.228). CONCLUSION: More older Singaporeans were less positive towards health technology compared to technologies for communication, productivity, and entertainment. Increasing age remains the predominant variable, even after adjusting for confounders. Efforts to improve accessibility, usability, and perceived usefulness of health technologies may help enhance adoption among older adults.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Relation of income to trends in well-being by age: implications for the future older “forgotten” lower middle class

  Health Affairs Scholar · 2025-01-09

  articleOpen access

  Abstract The structure of social welfare policy has neglected a growing and increasingly economically marginalized segment of the American population—the lower middle class, a large group who are ineligible for many need-based social services. We examined 20-year time trends in physical well-being, mental well-being, and functional well-being by levels of household income. Our descriptive study used data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System and is representative of the population of the United States, ages 40 to 74, from 2003 to 2022 (n = 5 308 256). We found dramatic and consistent differences in trends in well-being by income category. While well-being generally got worse over the 20-year period for all ages, the declines were most pronounced for lower-middle-income households for individuals age 50 to 59. These differential trends by income were similar for all 3 of the measures of well-being we examined, but were most different by income level for physical well-being and functional well-being. No major trends or levels were explained by race, body mass index, or smoking. If the observed trends persist, the current age 50–59-year-old lower-middle-income population will enter retirement ages with substantially worse well-being than previous generations.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Relationship between handgrip strength and timed up-and-go test on hospitalization costs in older adults: a population-based study

  BMC Public Health · 2025-01-23 · 4 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  Abstract Background Weak handgrip strength and slow timed up-and-go (TUG) time are known risk factors for hospitalization among older adults; however, few studies have investigated the relationships between these physical tests and future hospitalization costs. Methods We used data from 13,613 participants in the population-based Singapore Chinese Health Study who underwent assessment for handgrip strength and TUG time at a mean age of 74 years. Hospitalization costs for the subsequent year, among those who survived for at least one year thereafter, were ascertained via linkage with administrative healthcare finance data. We analyzed costs using a two-part model that contained a probit regression model in the first part, and a generalized linear regression model with gamma distribution and log link in the second. Results Handgrip strength showed a dose-dependent inverse relationship with hospitalization costs ( P trend &lt;0.001). Compared to the strongest quartile, participants in the weakest quartile experienced a 38.2% (95% CI: 18.0-58.5%) increase of US$599 (US$281-US$917) in mean costs. Conversely, TUG time demonstrated a dose-dependent positive association with hospitalization costs ( P trend &lt;0.001). Compared to the fastest quartile, participants in the slowest quartile had a 103.0% (72.1-133.9%) increase of US$1431 (US$1002-US$1859) in mean costs. We then examined combinations of handgrip strength and TUG time. Compared to participants who were both strong and fast, participants who were either weak or slow only had 12.9–48.7% higher mean costs. Meanwhile, participants who were both weak and slow experienced a 99.9% (68.5-131.4%) increase of US$1630 (US$1116-US$2144) in mean costs. Conclusions Weak handgrip strength and slow TUG time were independently associated with increased hospitalization costs among older adults.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• A three-population three-scale social network model to assess disease dispersion

  NIH · $2.7M · 2015–2022

• Collaborative Research: A Whole-Community Effort to Understand Biases and Uncertainties in Using Emerging Big Data for Mobility Analysis

  NSF · $558k · 2021–2026

• JST: SCC-PG: Socially-integrated Technological Solutions for Real-time Response and Neighborhood Survival After Extreme Events

  NSF · $95k · 2020–2022

• Collaborative Research: Using Cell Phone Data to Analyze the Continuum and Life Cycle of Disaster in Spatio-Temporal Movements

  NSF · $236k · 2012–2016

Frequent coauthors

• Falk Müller‐Riemenschneider

  Berlin Institute of Health at Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin

  67 shared

• Peter Smith

  University of Toronto

  59 shared

• Gerald Choon‐Huat Koh

  Ministry of Health

  59 shared

• Yot Teerawattananon

  50 shared

• Cameron Mustard

  Institute for Work & Health

  48 shared

• Katika Akksilp

  Health Intervention and Technology Assessment Program

  39 shared

• Ngan Phoon Fong

  National University Health System

  37 shared

• Chuen Seng Tan

  National University of Singapore

  36 shared

Labs

• THINK LabPI

Awards & honors

• Cynthia Chen elected to WA Academy of Sciences