Do investments in low-income neighborhoods produce objective change in health-related neighborhood conditions?

Do Publicly Funded Neighborhood Investments Impact Individual-Level Health-Related Outcomes? A Longitudinal Study of Two Neighborhoods in Pittsburgh, PA from 2011 to 2018

Research examining the relationship between a neighborhood's built-environment and resident health or health-related outcomes has largely either focused on static characteristics using a cross-sectional research design or focuses on the neighborhood in its entirety. Such an approach makes it difficult to understand how specific dynamic neighborhood characteristics are associated with individual well-being. In this analysis, we use longitudinal data from the Pittsburgh Research on Neighborhood Change and Health (PHRESH) studies to assess the relationship between publicly funded neighborhood investments occurring across seven years (2011-2018) on five health-related outcomes: food insecurity, stress, perceived neighborhood safety, neighborhood satisfaction, and dietary quality. We additionally utilize this dataset to determine whether the distance between an individual's place of residence and the investment, as measured at the neighborhood, 1 mile, and ½ mile level, effects the magnitude of associations. Using individual and year fixed effects models, we find that when measured at the neighborhood level, a one standard deviation increase in investments (about $130 million dollars) is associated with decreased food insecurity (-0.294 sd), increased safety (0.231 sd), and increased neighborhood satisfaction (0.201 sd) among adults who remain in the study for at least two waves of data collection. We also analyze specific investment types and find that commercial investments are largely driving the changes in food insecurity, safety, and neighborhood satisfaction, while business investments are correlated with the decrease in stress. We find no relationship between investments and dietary quality.

Job loss and psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic: Longitudinal Analysis from residents in nine predominantly African American low-income neighborhoods

While psychological distress is a common sequelae of job loss, how that relationship continued during the COVID-19 pandemic is unclear, for example, given higher health risk to working due to disease exposure. This paper examines changes in psychological distress depending on job loss among a cohort of randomly selected residents living in nine predominantly African American low-income neighborhoods in Pittsburgh PA across four waves between 2013 and 2020. Between 2013 and 2016, we found an increase in psychological distress after job loss in line with the literature. In contrast, between 2018 and 2020 we found change in psychological distress did not differ by employment loss. However, residents who had financial concerns and lost their jobs had the largest increases in psychological distress, while residents who did not have serious financial concerns-potentially due to public assistance-but experienced job loss had no increase in distress, a better outcome even than those that retained their jobs. Using partial identification, we find job loss during the pandemic decreased psychological distress for those without serious financial concerns. This has important policy implications for how high-risk persons within low-income communities are identified and supported, as well as what type of public assistance may help.

Mixed Effects of Neighborhood Revitalization on Residents' Cardiometabolic Health

INTRODUCTION

Despite the growing recognition of the importance of neighborhood conditions for cardiometabolic health, causal relationships have been difficult to establish owing to a reliance on cross-sectional designs and selection bias. This is the first natural experiment to examine the impact of neighborhood revitalization on cardiometabolic outcomes in residents from 2 predominantly African American neighborhoods, one of which has experienced significant revitalization (intervention), whereas the other has not (comparison).

METHODS

The sample included 532 adults (95% African American, 80% female, mean age=58.9 years) from 2 sociodemographically similar, low-income neighborhoods in Pittsburgh, PA, with preintervention and postintervention measures (2016 and 2018) of BMI, diastolic and systolic blood pressure, HbA1c, and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and covariates. Data were collected in 2016 and 2018 and analyzed in 2020.

RESULTS

Difference-in-difference analyses showed significant improvement in high-density lipoprotein cholesterol in intervention residents relative to that in the comparison neighborhood (β=3.88, 95% CI=0.47, 7.29). There was also a significant difference-in-difference estimate in diastolic blood pressure (β=3.00, 95% CI=0.57, 5.43), with residents of the intervention neighborhood showing a greater increase in diastolic blood pressure than those in the comparison neighborhood. No statistically significant differences were found for other outcomes.

CONCLUSIONS

Investing in disadvantaged neighborhoods has been suggested as a strategy to reduce health disparities. Using a natural experiment, findings suggest that improving neighborhood conditions may have a mixed impact on certain aspects of cardiometabolic health. Findings underscore the importance of examining the upstream causes of health disparities using rigorous designs and longer follow-up periods that provide more powerful tests of causality.

Identifying the effect of retail brands on private residential rental prices in Great Britain

This study extends our understanding of the influence of proximity to retail grocery provision on housing rental prices. To achieve this, extensive data on the size and location of retail outlets are combined with neighbourhood rental values for small areas across a two year period, together with varied contextual data for each area. In order to control the influence of many confounding variables in the determination of housing rentals, the technique of propensity score matching is applied. This provides a sophisticated means for the comparison between areas where there is substantial natural variation, rather than manageable controls. For a variety of types of retail brands, only a significant relationship is found between the proximity of a Premium retail outlet and the housing rental value. The findings of this research allow local planning officers to further understand the impact of planning applications on the potential for gentrification and the affordability of neighbouring housing.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10901-021-09904-2.

Pathways linking census tract typologies with subjective neighborhood disorder and depressive symptoms in the Black Women's Experiences Living with Lupus (BeWELL) Study

Depression is a common comorbidity among Black women with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), an understudied autoimmune disease characterized by major racial and gender inequities. Research is needed that examines how area-level factors influence risk of depression in this population. Latent profile analysis revealed four neighborhood typologies among metropolitan Atlanta, Georgia census tracts that participants (n=438) in the Black Women's Experiences Living with Lupus (BeWELL) Study were living in: Integrated/High-SES, Moderately Segregated/Mid-SES, Highly Segregated/Mid-SES, and Highly Segregated/Low-SES. Structural equation models indicated that highly segregated census tracts were associated with the greatest levels of depression via increased subjective assessments of neighborhood disorder. Policies that invest in segregated areas and address physical and social aspects of the environment that contribute to neighborhood disorder may promote mental health among Black women with SLE.

Does Facilitating Human–Place Bonds Alleviate the Negative Effects of Incivilities on Health?

The present study has two purposes—methodological and theoretical. The methodological purpose is to examine a method for the analysis of perceived incivilities and health in urban neighbourhoods. The current study investigates the direct and indirect relationships between the two variables. The theoretical purpose is to measure neighbourhood incivility as a second-order latent variable that represents physical and social incivilities, and investigates place identity and place attachment as mediators in the relationship between incivilities and health. Previous research has focused on a single dimension of incivility. By contrast, the current study considers a multidimensional form of incivility. This quantitative study comprises 265 residents from an urban neighbourhood in Penang, Malaysia. The results of the structural equation modelling suggest that perceptions towards neighbourhood play a mediating role in the relationship between incivility and health. The mediation roles of place identity and place attachment in the relationship between incivilities and health are also supported. Thus, facilitating human–place bonds alleviates the negative effects of incivilities on health in the study neighbourhood. Residents are less attached to neighbourhoods that are perceived as socially and physically deteriorated. Thus, reducing incivilities and improving place attachment may enhance neighbourhood health.