Journal of urban health : bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine
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Vacant and abandoned buildings are common features in many post-industrial US cities, and are consistent predictors of violence. Demolition programs are regularly employed as an urban land use policy to stabilize housing markets and mitigate public health problems including violence. The objective of this research was to examine the effect of vacant building removals on violent and property crimes in Baltimore, MD from 2014 to 2019. ⋯ The relative reductions in crime, at building removals compared to at control vacant lots, were found among assaults and violent crimes, the crimes of greatest public health concern. Building removals provide co-benefits to their communities, and may be considered part of a crime reduction strategy compatible with other approaches. A systematic effort to understand the role of care for remaining vacant lots could further inform our findings, and efforts to further decrease violence and improve community health.
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Forest trails provide urban residents with contact with nature that improves health and well-being. Vision and hearing are important forms of environmental perception, and visual and auditory stimuli should not be overlooked in forest trail landscapes. This study focused on the health benefits of the audio-visual perception of forest trail landscapes. ⋯ The interaction between FD and FS revealed a pattern of combinations that facilitated stress reduction and positive mood recovery. These results are of theoretical value in that they indicate important audio-visual characteristics of forest trail landscapes. In terms of practical applications, these findings support the construction of urban forest trails to provide health benefits.
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With rapid urbanization, built environment has emerged as a set of modifiable factors of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risks. We conducted a systematic review to synthesize evidence on the associations of attributes of urban built environment (e.g. residential density, land use mix, greenness and walkability) with cardiovascular risk factors (e.g. hypertension and arterial stiffness) and major CVD events including mortality. A total of 63 studies, including 31 of cross-sectional design and 32 of longitudinal design conducted across 21 geographical locations and published between 2012 and 2023 were extracted for review. ⋯ Sixty-seven percent of the studies were rated as "probably high" risk of confounding bias because of inability to adjust for underlying comorbidities/family history of diseases in their statistical models. Forty-six percent and 14% of the studies were rated as "probably high" risk of bias for exposure and outcome measurements, respectively. Future studies with robust design will further help elucidate the linkages between urban built environment and cardiovascular health, thereby informing planning policies for creating healthy cities.
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While past research suggests that urban greenspace is associated with weaker income-based mortality inequities, little is known about associations with racial inequities, which may be distinct owing to historical and contemporary forms of racism. We quantified the extent to which different measures of greenspace modified socioeconomic and racial/ethnic inequities in all-cause and cardiovascular disease mortality. For every residential census tract in Philadelphia, PA (N = 376), we linked counts of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality (years 2008-2015) with measures of greenspace (proportion tree canopy or grass/shrub cover, proportion residents reporting park access, and the normalized difference vegetation index measure of overall greenness) and American Community Survey-based measures of sociodemographic composition (proportion of residents living in poverty, proportion identifying as non-Hispanic Black, and the index of concentration at the extremes (ICE) representing racialized economic deprivation). ⋯ Mortality inequities did not differ substantially by perceived park access, and tree canopy was associated with weaker ICE-based inequities only. In this ecologic analysis, neighborhood greenspace was associated with weaker mortality inequities. However, associations varied across greenspace type and sociodemographic composition metrics, with generally stronger associations with overall greenness and grass/shrub coverage, and for ICE-basedinequities.
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Little is known about the combined impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and other major disasters on mental health. Hurricane Harvey hit the Gulf Coast in 2017, resulting in substantial costs, significant levels of displacement, and approximately 100 deaths, and was followed in 2020 by the COVID-19 pandemic. We randomly sampled 1167 Houstonians from 88 designated super-neighborhoods and surveyed them about their demographics, event-specific traumas and stressors, and symptoms of current depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). ⋯ Overall, we observed evidence for two key findings that are salient for residents of urban environments in the context of multiple disasters. First, stressors were primary influences on depression, whereas both stressors and traumas influenced PTSD. Second, the influences of stressors and traumas on depression and PTSD symptoms faded with time.