Race, Ethnicity, Income Concentration and 10-Year Change in Urban Greenness in the United States

105

Residential green and blue spaces and their potential health benefits have received increasing attention in the context of environmental health inequalities, because an unequal social distribution of these resources may contribute to inequalities in health outcomes. This systematic review synthesised evidence of environmental inequalities, focusing on availability and accessibility measures of green and blue spaces. Studies in the World Health Organisation (WHO) European Region published between 2010 and 2017 were considered for the review. In total, 14 studies were identified, where most of them (n = 12) analysed inequalities of green spaces. The majority had an ecological study design that mostly applied deprivation indices on the small area level, whereas cross-sectional studies on the individual level mostly applied single social measures. Ecological studies consistently showed that deprived areas had lower green space availability than more affluent areas, whereas mixed associations were found for single social dimensions in cross-sectional studies on the individual level. In order to gain more insights into how various social dimensions are linked to the distribution of environmental resources within the WHO European Region, more studies are needed that apply comparable methods and study designs for analysing social inequalities in environmental resources.

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social Inequalities in Environmental Resources of Green and Blue Spaces: A Review of Evidence in the WHO European Region

Schüle

Hilz

Dreger

et al. 2019

105

“…Racial composition measures were derived from 2010 Decennial Census data to establish the primary tract-level racial statuses that are associated with cumulative pollution burden in California. Consistent with previous research on spatial patterns of racial residential segregation and environmental inequality outcomes using the census data [ 63 , 64 ], this portion of the analysis used the percent of tract population that identifies as Latina/o and separate measures of the tract population that identify as non-Latina/o and white, black, American Indian, Asian, Pacific Islander, some other racial classification, or multiracial. Bivariate analyses that used these measures of racial composition indicated that the percentile rankings of both the CalEnviroScreen 2.0 and the adjusted cumulative pollution burden scores were only positively correlated with the percent of tract population that identified as Latina/o and the percent of tract population that identified as non-Latina/o black.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Retooling CalEnviroScreen: Cumulative Pollution Burden and Race-Based Environmental Health Vulnerabilities in California

Liévanos

2018

The California Community Environmental Health Screening Tool (CalEnviroScreen) advances research and policy pertaining to environmental health vulnerability. However, CalEnviroScreen departs from its historical foundations and comparable screening tools by no longer considering racial status as an indicator of environmental health vulnerability and predictor of cumulative pollution burden. This study used conceptual frameworks and analytical techniques from environmental health and inequality literature to address the limitations of CalEnviroScreen, especially its inattention to race-based environmental health vulnerabilities. It developed an adjusted measure of cumulative pollution burden from the CalEnviroScreen 2.0 data that facilitates multivariate analyses of the effect of neighborhood racial composition on cumulative pollution burden, net of other indicators of population vulnerability, traffic density, industrial zoning, and local and regional clustering of pollution burden. Principal component analyses produced three new measures of population vulnerability, including Latina/o cumulative disadvantage that represents the spatial concentration of Latinas/os, economic disadvantage, limited English-speaking ability, and health vulnerability. Spatial error regression analyses demonstrated that concentrations of Latinas/os, followed by Latina/o cumulative disadvantage, are the strongest demographic determinants of adjusted cumulative pollution burden. Findings have implications for research and policy pertaining to cumulative impacts and race-based environmental health vulnerabilities within and beyond California.

“…Prior to the park prescription movement, motivating individuals to use parks had been investigated as a function of structural factors such as distance to parks [24], neighborhood characteristics [25], and availability of park amenities or programing [26]. This public health lens has been crucial, as access to nature and disparities in park use mirror socio-economic and health disparities [27,28]. As the field of park visits moves into a clinician's purview, existing research seems to suggest that designing an intervention targeting the individual and family is complicated-how families prioritize outdoor activities is multi-factorial, informed by individual, interpersonal, and structural factors [29].…”

Section: Ofmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Association of Knowledge, Attitudes and Access with Park Use before and after a Park-Prescription Intervention for Low-Income Families in the U.S.

Razani

Hills

Thompson

et al. 2020

We conducted secondary data analyses of pooled data from a clinical trial that prescribed park visits to children and their caregivers in a low-income, urban setting. Data were collected at the prescribing visit (baseline) and at one and three months of follow up from 78 families. Family characteristics were identified at baseline; regression models were used to explore changes during follow up in associations of park use with knowledge, attitudes and perceived access to parks. At baseline, park users differed from non-users in demographics, knowledge of park locations, attitudes about the value of park visits, but not affinity for nature. Park users were also more likely than non-users to feel that their neighborhood was safe for children to play in. Changes in knowledge of park locations, nature affinity, and perceived access to parks were each significantly associated with increased park use by families at one and three months after the park prescription. Adjusting for age, gender, race, poverty, and US birth, increases in knowing the location of parks were associated with an increase of 0.27 weekly park visits (95% CI 0.05, 0.49; p = 0.016); increases in feeling a caregiver had money to visit parks were associated with 0.48 more weekly park visits (95% CI 0.28, 0.69; p < 0.001); increases in perceived money for park outings were associated with 0.24 increased park visits per week (95% CI 0.05, 0.42; p = 0.01); each unit increase in nature affinity was associated with 0.34 more weekly park visits (95% CI 0.09, 0.59; p = 0.007). In other words, knowing where to go, valuing nature, and having time, and money contributed to increased likelihood of visiting a park. We discuss in terms of health behavior theory how demographics, knowledge, attitudes and perceived barriers to park use can inform park prescription interventions.