Area-Level Associations between Built Environment Characteristics and Disability Prevalence in Australia: An Ecological Analysis

Nicola Fortune, Ankur Singh, Hannah Badland, Roger J. Stancliffe and Gwynnyth Llewellyn
Additional contact information
Nicola Fortune: Centre of Research Excellence in Disability and Health, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC 3010, Australia
Ankur Singh: Centre of Research Excellence in Disability and Health, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC 3010, Australia
Hannah Badland: Centre of Research Excellence in Disability and Health, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC 3010, Australia
Roger J. Stancliffe: Centre of Research Excellence in Disability and Health, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC 3010, Australia
Gwynnyth Llewellyn: Centre of Research Excellence in Disability and Health, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC 3010, Australia

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 21, 1-15

Abstract: The importance of health-promoting neighborhoods has long been recognized, and characteristics of local built environments are among the social determinants of health. People with disability are more likely than other population groups to experience geographic mobility and cost restrictions, and to be reliant on ‘opportunity structures’ available locally. We conducted an ecological analysis to explore associations between area-level disability prevalence for people aged 15–64 years and area-level built environment characteristics in Australia’s 21 largest cities. Overall, disability was more prevalent in areas with lower walkability and lower local availability of various neighborhood amenities such as public transport, healthier food options, public open space, physical activity and recreation destinations and health and mental health services. These patterns of lower liveability in areas of higher disability prevalence were observed in major cities but not in regional cities. Our findings suggest that geographically targeted interventions to improve access to health-enhancing neighborhood infrastructure could reduce disability-related inequalities in the social determinants of health.

Keywords: disability; liveability; social determinants of health; accessibility; geographic variation (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 (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/21/7844/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/21/7844/ (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:21:p:7844-:d:435006

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 ().