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Interaction of Built and Social Features of the Environment in Determining Health and Health Disparities

A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Health".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2020) | Viewed by 19715

Special Issue Editor

Dr. John D. Prochaska

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Preventive Medicine & Community Health, School of Medicine, University of Texas Medical Branch, 301 University Blvd., Galveston, TX 77555-1153, USA
Interests: social and environmental determinants of health and health disparities; cumulative risk assessment

Special Issue Information

Dear colleagues,

The role that environments play in determining health continues to gain attention in both the environmental and public health research arenas. Our built environments, including the structures and infrastructure we have created, and our social environments, including the interpersonal relationships, social networks and social capital, and political climate we function within, both play a key role in determining our health. These two aspects of our environment also exist at multiple ecological levels, including one’s immediate surroundings within their home or workspace and expanding outwards to one’s neighborhood, community, and beyond (e.g., climate), and they both have impacts on health across the life course. While research to date has increased our understanding of how both the built and social aspects of our environments determine a range health and health-related outcomes, as well as health disparities, within the populations and communities we serve, more research is needed to further our understanding of how these two aspects of our environments interact with one another to produce health synergistically (or antagonistically).

This Special Issue seeks to highlight critical new findings related to how the social and built environments interact to determine health at any ecological level of environment. Papers focusing on the interplay among multiple aspects of the social and built environments, those highlighting novel methods in examining this interplay between social and built environments as they impact health and health-related outcomes, as well as papers with a focus on the built and social environment’s synergistic role in producing or sustaining health disparities are particularly welcome.

Dr. John D. Prochaska
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2500 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Built environment
  • Social environment
  • Health disparities
  • Climate change
  • Life space
  • Social ecological framework
  • Cumulative risk
  • Life course

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

20 pages, 1028 KiB  
Article
The Relationship between Nature Deprivation and Individual Wellbeing across Urban Gradients under COVID-19
by Linda Powers Tomasso, Jie Yin, Jose Guillermo Cedeño Laurent, Jarvis T. Chen, Paul J. Catalano and John D. Spengler
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18(4), 1511; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijerph18041511 - 05 Feb 2021
Cited by 47 | Viewed by 7775
Abstract
Lockdown aiming at slowing COVID-19 transmission has altered nature accessibility patterns, creating quasi-experimental conditions to assess if retracted nature contact and perceived nature deprivation influence physical and emotional wellbeing. We measure through on-line survey methods (n = 529) how pandemic mandates limiting [...] Read more.
Lockdown aiming at slowing COVID-19 transmission has altered nature accessibility patterns, creating quasi-experimental conditions to assess if retracted nature contact and perceived nature deprivation influence physical and emotional wellbeing. We measure through on-line survey methods (n = 529) how pandemic mandates limiting personal movement and outdoor nature access within the United States affect self-assessed nature exposure, perceived nature deprivation, and subsequent flourishing as measured by the Harvard Flourishing Index. Results indicate that perceived nature deprivation strongly associates with local nature contact, time in nature, and access to municipal nature during the pandemic, after controlling for lockdown mandates, job status, household composition, and sociodemographic variables. Our hypothesis is that individuals with strong perceived nature deprivation under COVID-19 leads to diminished wellbeing proved true. Interaction models of flourishing showed positive modification of nature affinity with age and qualitative modification of nature deprivation with race. Our results demonstrate the potential of local nature contact to support individual wellbeing in a background context of emotional distress and social isolation, important in guiding public health policies beyond pandemics. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Interaction of Built and Social Features of the Environment in Determining Health and Health Disparities)
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14 pages, 860 KiB  
Article
Environmental Quality Perceptions and Health: A Cross-Sectional Study of Citizens of Kaunas, Lithuania
by Regina Gražulevičienė, Sandra Andrušaitytė, Audrius Dėdelė, Tomas Gražulevičius, Leonas Valius, Violeta Kapustinskienė and Inga Bendokienė
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020, 17(12), 4420; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijerph17124420 - 19 Jun 2020
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 3049
Abstract
The perception of urban environmental quality is an important contributor when identifying local problems in sustainable development and environmental planning policy. This study examined the associations between environmental and social residential characteristics, physical activity, obesity, and hypertension in Kaunas city, Lithuania. This cross-sectional [...] Read more.
The perception of urban environmental quality is an important contributor when identifying local problems in sustainable development and environmental planning policy. This study examined the associations between environmental and social residential characteristics, physical activity, obesity, and hypertension in Kaunas city, Lithuania. This cross-sectional study analyzed 580 citizens’ demographic-, socioeconomic-, health-, and lifestyle-related factors, environmental health concerns, and environmental quality perceptions. Using Geographic Information Systems and the multivariate logistic regression, we found that the less physically active group more often presented lower than mean ratings of the quality of pathways and cycling routes (32.9% and 45.6%, p = 0.042) and only irregularly visited the natural environment. Obese participants presented poorer ratings of air pollution, the quality of pathways and cycling routes, their possibility to reach green spaces by walking, and the available relaxing areas. The environmental issues associated with hypertension were poor possibilities to reach green spaces by walking (OR 1.94, 95% CI 1.14–3.32) and the availability of relaxation areas (OR 2.30, 95% 1.34–3.95). The quality of the neighborhood and individual-level characteristics were the factors that influenced a higher prevalence of health problems at the district level. Our findings suggest that a public health policy to improve the physical and social environment of the neighborhood would have a potential to increase citizens’ physical activity and health. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Interaction of Built and Social Features of the Environment in Determining Health and Health Disparities)
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23 pages, 1474 KiB  
Article
Towards Convergence: How to Do Transdisciplinary Environmental Health Disparities Research
by Clare E.B. Cannon
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020, 17(7), 2303; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijerph17072303 - 29 Mar 2020
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 3978
Abstract
Increasingly, funders (i.e., national, public funders, such as the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation in the U.S.) and scholars agree that single disciplines are ill equipped to study the pressing social, health, and environmental problems we face alone, particularly environmental [...] Read more.
Increasingly, funders (i.e., national, public funders, such as the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation in the U.S.) and scholars agree that single disciplines are ill equipped to study the pressing social, health, and environmental problems we face alone, particularly environmental exposures, increasing health disparities, and climate change. To better understand these pressing social problems, funders and scholars have advocated for transdisciplinary approaches in order to harness the analytical power of diverse and multiple disciplines to tackle these problems and improve our understanding. However, few studies look into how to conduct such research. To this end, this article provides a review of transdisciplinary science, particularly as it relates to environmental research and public health. To further the field, this article provides in-depth information on how to conduct transdisciplinary research. Using the case of a transdisciplinary, community-based, participatory action, environmental health disparities study in California’s Central Valley provides an in-depth look at how to do transdisciplinary research. Working with researchers from the fields of social sciences, public health, biological engineering, and land, air, and water resources, this study aims to answer community residents’ questions related to the health disparities they face due to environmental exposure. Through this case study, I articulate not only the logistics of how to conduct transdisciplinary research but also the logics. The implications for transdisciplinary methodologies in health disparity research are further discussed, particularly in the context of team science and convergence science. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Interaction of Built and Social Features of the Environment in Determining Health and Health Disparities)
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13 pages, 704 KiB  
Article
Neighborhood Walkability in Relation to Knee and Low Back Pain in Older People: A Multilevel Cross-Sectional Study from the JAGES
by Daichi Okabe, Taishi Tsuji, Masamichi Hanazato, Yasuhiro Miyaguni, Nao Asada and Katsunori Kondo
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2019, 16(23), 4598; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijerph16234598 - 20 Nov 2019
Cited by 17 | Viewed by 4272
Abstract
Few studies have focused on a relationship between the built environment and musculoskeletal pain. This study aimed to investigate an association between neighborhood walkability and knee and low back pain in older people. Data were derived from the Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study (JAGES) [...] Read more.
Few studies have focused on a relationship between the built environment and musculoskeletal pain. This study aimed to investigate an association between neighborhood walkability and knee and low back pain in older people. Data were derived from the Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study (JAGES) 2013, a population-based study of independently living people ≥65 years old. A cross-sectional multilevel analysis was performed, of 22,892 participants in 792 neighborhoods. Neighborhood walkability was assessed by residents’ perceptions and population density. Dependent variables were knee and low back pain restricting daily activities within the past year. The prevalence of knee pain was 26.2% and of low back pain 29.3%. After adjusting for sociodemographic covariates, the prevalence ratio (PR) of knee and low back pain was significantly lower in neighborhoods with better access to parks and sidewalks, good access to fresh food stores, and higher population densities. After additionally adjusting for population density, easier walking in neighborhoods without slopes or stairs was significantly inversely correlated with knee pain (PR 0.91, 95% confidence interval 0.85–0.99). Neighborhoods with walkability enhanced by good access to parks and sidewalks and fresh food stores, easy walking without slopes or stairs, and high population densities, had lower prevalences of knee and low back pain among older people. Further studies should examine environmental determinants of pain. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Interaction of Built and Social Features of the Environment in Determining Health and Health Disparities)
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