Neighborhood Social and Built Environment and Disparities in the Risk of Hypertension: A Cross-Sectional Study

Regina Grazuleviciene, Sandra Andrusaityte, Tomas Gražulevičius and Audrius Dėdelė
Additional contact information
Regina Grazuleviciene: Department of Environmental Science, Vytautas Magnus University, K. Donelaicio 58, 44248 Kaunas, Lithuania
Sandra Andrusaityte: Department of Environmental Science, Vytautas Magnus University, K. Donelaicio 58, 44248 Kaunas, Lithuania
Tomas Gražulevičius: Department of Environmental Science, Vytautas Magnus University, K. Donelaicio 58, 44248 Kaunas, Lithuania
Audrius Dėdelė: Department of Environmental Science, Vytautas Magnus University, K. Donelaicio 58, 44248 Kaunas, Lithuania

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 20, 1-16

Abstract: Citizens’ participation in urban environmental quality assessment is important when identifying local problems in the sustainable development and environmental planning policy. The principal aim of this study was to analyze whether any social differences exist between the joint effect of built neighborhood quality and exposure to urban green spaces and the risk of hypertension. The study sample consisted of 580 participants residing in 11 districts in Kaunas city, Lithuania. Using geographic information systems (GIS), individual data on the socioeconomic status (SES) and health were linked to the participants’ perceptions of the environmental quality and exposure to green spaces (NDVI). We used multivariate logistic regression to estimate associations as odds ratios (OR). Those study participants with lower education and those study participants with higher education on low incomes rated their health significantly worse. Low SES persons residing in areas with low exposure to green spaces had a significantly higher risk of hypertension when sex, age, family status, smoking, and income were accounted for (OR 1.83, 95% CI 1.01–3.36). This citizen science study provided evidence that the social environment and the quality of the built environment had a complex effect on disparities in the risk of hypertension.

Keywords: socioeconomic status; neighborhoods; disparities; hypertension; citizen science; epidemiological study (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/20/7696/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/20/7696/ (text/html)

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:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:20:p:7696-:d:432565

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().