Do social isolation and neighborhood walkability influence relationships between COVID-19 experiences and wellbeing in predominantly Black urban areas?

Abstract

Black Americans have been disproportionately affected by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2 or COVID-19) pandemic. Since the pandemic’s start, we have observed compounded health, social, and economic impacts for communities of color, fueled in part by profound residential segregation in the United States that, for centuries prior to the pandemic, created differences in access to opportunity and resources. Based on a longitudinal cohort of Black residents living in two racially isolated Pittsburgh neighborhoods, we sought to: 1) describe the experiences of behavioral responses to COVID-19 conditions (e.g., closures of businesses, schools, government offices) and illness experiences reported by residents within these disinvested, urban areas and 2) determine if these experiences were associated with perceptions of risk, negative mental health outcomes, and food insecurity; and 3) examine whether any of the associations were explained by social isolation or modified by neighborhood walkability. We found direct associations between residents’ experience with COVID-19-related closures and with the illness, with perceived risk, and change in psychological distress, sleep quality, and food insecurity from pre-COVID-19 levels. Social isolation was a statistically significant mediator of all of these associations, most strongly mediating the pathway to psychological distress. We found neighborhood walkability to be a significant moderator of the association between closure experiences and sleep quality. The results suggest that experiences of COVID-19 closures and illness were associated with serious threats to public health in Black, disinvested, urban neighborhoods, beyond those caused directly by the virus. Outcomes of the pandemic appear very much dependent on the extent to which social and physical resources are available to meet the demands of stress.

Knowledge-based normative safety measure approach: systematic assessment of capabilities to conquer COVID-19

“…While the situation has become a pandemic, there is a reasonable probability for the nations to have an economic effect was published as a case study by [ 3 ]. Finucane et al [ 13 ] examined the social confidence among governments and societies, as well as the role of risk management in the creation of a trust, that could transform from low-trust to high-trust. From day one, countries intense confrontation was examined in depth by [ 16 ] showing the people’s review of sustainable policies, teamwork in maintaining stable hypo-positive situations.…”

“…In addition, [ 2 ] predicts isolation of infected patients or symptoms, the release of healed patients, and deceased patients states help the health care team to focus on relevant disciplines and control steps. A comparison analysis by [ 13 ] shows the difference in public health interventions, protocols, cluster spread, and public and government coordination between the second wave and the third wave of COVID-19. [ 14 ] analyzed herd immunity against COVID-19 multi-fractal formalism on COVID-19 data with power-law growth behavior.…”

Rethinking the Contextual Factors Influencing Urban Mobility: A New Holistic Conceptual Framework

“…Living in larger dwellings, living farther from city centres and near large park areas (Mouratidis, 2020), and other positive neighbourhood features (such as quality of dwellings, availability of sidewalks, etc.) have also been linked with mental health and the ability to handle stress (Finucane et al, 2022;Vatavali et al, 2020;White & Van Der Boor, 2020). These articles highlight that "proximity" is another factor to be considered when addressing the use of public spaces and mobility.…”

“…The Covid-19 pandemic's social and mental health impacts have been found to be more severe on socioeconomically disadvantaged groups in segregated neighbourhoods and non-white communities (Barber et al, 2020;Falchetta & Noussan, 2020;Finucane et al, 2022). As the mental health of the urban population deteriorated due to Covid-19 restrictions on movement, the value of urban public and green spaces significantly increased in people's perceptions of these places (Huerta & Utomo, 2021;Rahman et al, 2021).…”

Public Risk Perception Attribution Model and Governance Path in COVID-19: A Perspective Based on Risk Information

“…Residents' experience is directly related to the public's risk perception level under emergencies. [10][11][12] In terms of external influencing factors, existing studies mostly explore the impact on risk perception from the perspectives of risk information, government trust, social media public opinion, and community environment. Selective reporting of risk information will increase the public's risk perception, and information and related risk consultation activities will affect people's risk perception level.…”