Conceptualizing and Operationalizing Neighbourhoods: The Conundrum of Identifying Territorial Units

Abstract

Background: Over the past 10 years, there has been a surge of interest in studying smallarea characteristics as determinants of population and individual health. Accumulating evidence indicates the existence of variations in the health status of populations living in areas that differ in affluence and shows that selected small-area characteristics are associated with the occurrence of selected health behaviours. These variations cannot be attributed solely to differential characteristics of populations living within small areas. One vexing problem that confronts researchers is that of conceptualizing and operationalizing neighbourhoods through delineation of small territorial units in health research. Goals and Methods: The aims of this paper are to selectively overview conceptual definitions of neighbourhoods and to illustrate the challenges of operationalizing neighbourhoods in urban areas by describing our attempts to map out small territorial units on the Island of Montreal and in the City of Calgary. Conclusion: We outline guiding principles for the construction of a methodology for establishing small-area contours in urban areas and formulate recommendations for future research. MeSH terms: Residence characteristics, social conditions, social environment, urban health, methods La traduction du résumé se trouve à la fin de l'article.

The relationship between residential proximity to extremely low frequency power transmission lines and adverse birth outcomes

“…SES was assessed using maternal education (no high school diploma, high school graduation, some postsecondary, some university or more, unknown)17 and neighbourhood median household income quartile (neighbourhoods defined as 2001 Census dissemination areas) 18. Covariates included maternal age (<20, 20–34, ≥35 years), marital status (legally married, not legally married), parity (0, 1, 2+ previous deliveries), period (1990–4, 1995–9, 2000–4), birthplace (Canadian-born, foreign-born, unknown), and language spoken at home (English, French, other, unknown) 18.…”

“…Covariates included maternal age (<20, 20–34, ≥35 years), marital status (legally married, not legally married), parity (0, 1, 2+ previous deliveries), period (1990–4, 1995–9, 2000–4), birthplace (Canadian-born, foreign-born, unknown), and language spoken at home (English, French, other, unknown) 18. Birthplace and language were used to indicate ethnicity.…”

Air pollution, neighbourhood and maternal-level factors modify the effect of smoking on birth weight: a multilevel analysis in British Columbia, Canada

“…DAs represent the smallest geographical unit for which census data are available with a spatial coverage ranging between 200 and 800 people depending on the level of urban development. While DAs do not necessarily represent existing neighbourhood communities [29], they can act as proxies for a general catchment area of personal home-life activities [21, 30]. Birth records were identified as being either rural or urban using the Statistics Canada Metropolitan Influence Zone (MIZ) codes which are based on commuting flows of small towns into larger cities and metropolitan areas [31].…”

The socio-spatial neighborhood estimation method: An approach to operationalizing the neighborhood concept

“…Neighborhoods continue to be under-conceptualized in the empirical research on neighborhoods and health (O’Campo, 2003; Diez-Roux, 2007; Riva et al, 2007) and such conceptualization presents a “vexing problem” based in an “elusive consensus” of what a neighborhood is and how it might be best operationalized (Gauvin et al, 2007). There are substantial reasons for researchers to develop a defensible and workable conceptualization.…”

“…Unlike the inclination to separate the social and the geographical dimensions of neighborhoods (O’Campo, 1993; Gauvin et al, 2007; Spielman and Yoo, 2009), these conceptualizations promote the idea that the social and spatial are joined in the entity we call “neighborhoods.” The spatial (e.g., variation in land use and movement between major streets) and social (e.g., interaction and cohesion) processes influence each other in an ongoing fashion to create the uniqueness of each neighborhood. The experience of neighborhood influences, then, is reflexively socio-spatial , a concept with long-standing currency in the discipline of geography (Soja, 1980).…”