Policy, Research and Residents’ Perspectives on Built Environments Implicated in Heart Disease: A Concept Mapping Approach

Ivana Stankov, Natasha J. Howard, Mark Daniel and Margaret Cargo
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Ivana Stankov: Urban Health Collaborative, Dornsife School of Public Health, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
Natasha J. Howard: Centre for Population Health Research, School of Health Sciences, University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA 5001, Australia
Mark Daniel: Centre for Population Health Research, School of Health Sciences, University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA 5001, Australia
Margaret Cargo: Centre for Population Health Research, School of Health Sciences, University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA 5001, Australia

IJERPH, 2017, vol. 14, issue 2, 1-17

Abstract: An underrepresentation of stakeholder perspectives within urban health research arguably limits our understanding of what is a multi-dimensional and complex relationship between the built environment and health. By engaging a wide range of stakeholders using a participatory concept mapping approach, this study aimed to achieve a more holistic and nuanced understanding of the built environments shaping disease risk, specifically cardiometabolic risk (CMR). Moreover, this study aimed to ascertain the importance and changeability of identified environments through government action. Through the concept mapping process, community members, researchers, government and non-government stakeholders collectively identified eleven clusters encompassing 102 built environmental domains related to CMR, a number of which are underrepresented within the literature. Among the identified built environments, open space, public transportation and pedestrian environments were highlighted as key targets for policy intervention. Whilst there was substantive convergence in stakeholder groups’ perspectives concerning the built environment and CMR, there were disparities in the level of importance government stakeholders and community members respectively assigned to pedestrian environments and street connectivity. These findings support the role of participatory methods in strengthening how urban health issues are understood and in affording novel insights into points of action for public health and policy intervention.

Keywords: built environment; cardiometabolic risk; concept mapping; community participation; policy; researcher perspectives (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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