Built Environment Factors Influencing Prevalence of Hypertension at Community Level in China: The Case of Wuhan

Abstract

This paper studies the correlation between built environment factors and the prevalence of hypertension in Wuhan, a typical city in central China. Data were obtained from a regional epidemiological database, which is the 2015 Epidemiological Survey of people under 65 years in 144 communities. The prevalence of hypertension was analyzed in five components based on the WHO framework (land use, transport, accessibility, green space, and socioeconomic status). Results indicated built environment factors have significant correlations with the prevalence of hypertension (p < 0.01). The road network density, gymnasium cost, income, medical facilities cost, walkability index, and land use mix (LUM) were statistically significant. Other indicators did not pass the significance test. The spatial models fit better than the multivariate linear model.

The Association of Midday Napping With Hypertension Among Chinese Adults Older Than 45 Years: Cross-sectional Study

“…The increasing correlation between significant variables might decrease the value of ORs. Second, the great socioeconomic and environmental transformations related to hypertension during 2011-2018, such as dietary patterns, exposure to fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ), built environment factors, and some other confounders, were not controlled in our study [ 52 - 54 ]. Third, the association of midday napping with hypertension might be moderated by other variables such as physical conditions and night sleep duration [ 49 , 55 ].…”

Walkability Indicators in the Aftermath of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Review

“…Another topic of general interest for Public Health is people's physical health, manifested through obesity, overweight and frailty, and generally calculated using the Body Mass Index (BMI) or Waist Circumference (WC) [67][68][69][70][71]. Other studies focus on the correlation between walkability and prevalence of diseases or health complications, such as cancer [72,73], hypertension [30,74], cardiovascular problems [29,75,76], diabetes [32] and dementia [31]. Other topics addressed under this subject include sedentarism [77][78][79] and overall well-being [80].…”

“…In this review, we found a total of 30 studies (47% of the sample) resorting to WS. In terms of countries where the WS was employed, 10 studies were done in the USA [29,38,67,73,86,[88][89][90]93,104], 8 in Japan [78,79,81,92,94,95,105,106], 3 in South Korea [34,82,91], 3 in Canada [65,66,107], and 2 in Australia [31,97], while the following countries have only one study that used WS: China [30], Germany [108], Italy [68], Spain [96], and Taiwan [109]. Regarding the most common research topics, in recent years WS was employed more commonly in Public Health [29][30][31][66][67][68]73,78,79,105,107,109,110] and Socio-economic and Demographics [88][89]…”

“…From the documents analyzed in this review, the WI was employed 3 times in Japan [5,112,113], 2 in the USA [64,87], and once in China [76], New Zealand [84], Portugal [32], Spain [26] and Scotland [26]. As for the research areas where the WI is used, 5 documents are under the subject of Public Health [24,26,30,64,76], 3 concern Transportation [84,87,112], one comes under Socio-economic and Demographics [113] and one under the Environment category [5].…”

“…These indicators allow assessment of the impact of the built environment on different phenomena [24]. Among other topics, researchers have studied the association between objectively measured walkability and physical activity [25][26][27][28], health [29][30][31][32], active commuting [33][34][35], pedestrian safety [36][37][38], pollution [39], and environmental well-being [5]. Hence, walkability indicators represent an efficient tool to support policy makers and urban designers in decision-making, by informing and gauging actions and initiatives [40,41].…”