Citation

Rollings KA, Wells NM, Evans GW. Behav. Sci. (Basel) 2015; 5(2): 190-202.

Affiliation

Design and Environmental Analysis, Human Development, and the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research, Cornell University, 1411 Martha Van Rensselaer Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA. gwe1@cornell.edu.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, MDPI: Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute)

DOI

10.3390/bs5020190

PMID

25938692

PMCID

PMC4493443

Abstract

Although sociodemographic factors are one aspect of understanding the effects of neighborhood environments on health, equating neighborhood quality with socioeconomic status ignores the important role of physical neighborhood attributes. Prior work on neighborhood environments and health has relied primarily on level of socioeconomic disadvantage as the indicator of neighborhood quality without attention to physical neighborhood quality. A small but increasing number of studies have assessed neighborhood physical characteristics.

FINDINGS generally indicate that there is an association between living in deprived neighborhoods and poor health outcomes, but rigorous evidence linking specific physical neighborhood attributes to particular health outcomes is lacking. This paper discusses the methodological challenges and limitations of measuring physical neighborhood environments relevant to health and concludes with proposed directions for future work.

Language: en