Gender differences in the associations between health and neighbourhood environment

M. Stafford, S. Cummins, S. Macintyre, A. Ellaway and M. Marmot

Social Science & Medicine, 2005, vol. 60, issue 8, 1681-1692

Abstract: Multiple deprivation indicators are frequently used to capture the characteristics of an area. This is a useful approach for identifying the most deprived areas, and summary indices are good predictors of mortality and morbidity, but it remains unclear which aspects of the residential environment are most salient for health. A further question is whether the most important aspects vary for different types of residents. This paper focuses on whether associations with neighbourhood characteristics are different for men and women. The sociopolitical and physical environment, amenities, and indicators of economic deprivation and affluence were measured in neighbourhoods in the UK, and their relationship with self-rated health was investigated using multilevel regression models. Each of these contextual domains was associated with self-rated health over and above individual socioeconomic characteristics. The magnitude of the association was larger for women in each case. Statistically significant interactions between gender and residential environment were found for trust, integration into wider society, left-wing political climate, physical quality of the residential environment, and unemployment rate. These findings add to the literature indicating greater effects of non-work-based stressors for women and highlight the influence of the residential environment on women's health.

Keywords: Neighbourhood; Infrastructure; Social; cohesion; Social; capital; Self-rated; health; Gender; UK (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2005
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (69)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277-9536(04)00418-6
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:socmed:v:60:y:2005:i:8:p:1681-1692

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/supportfaq.cws_home/regional
http://www.elsevier. ... _01_ooc_1&version=01

Access Statistics for this article

Social Science & Medicine is currently edited by Ichiro (I.) Kawachi and S.V. (S.V.) Subramanian

More articles in Social Science & Medicine from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().