Journal of urban health : bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine
-
In this study of low-income Hispanic/Latino adults living in 291 individual apartments in the Bronx, New York, the apartment layout was significantly associated with the odds of depressive symptomology. Women living in apartments in which the most central rooms were the living, dining, or kitchen (i.e., rooms commonly used for communal activities) were less likely to have depressive symptomology (OR = 0.44, 95% CI = 0.22-0.86) than women in apartments where the central rooms were lobbies or corridors, adjusting for demographics, health conditions, and housing and neighborhood characteristics. ⋯ We present the logic underlying the use of layout variables in this study and discuss the implications it may have for understanding the role of the home environment on psychological distress among inhabitants. The results of this study show how space syntax analysis can be used to better understanding disparities in the risk of depression and offer an additional opportunity for public health stakeholders to identify those most at risk for depression.
-
Comparative Study
The Costly Consequences of not Being Socially and Behaviorally Ready to Learn by Kindergarten in Baltimore City.
Social, emotional, and behavioral skills are foundational to learning and long-term success. However, poverty and exposure to adverse childhood experiences reduce the chances of children entering kindergarten socially-behaviorally ready to learn. ⋯ Controlling for all other types of school readiness, students not identified as socially-behaviorally ready for kindergarten were more likely to experience all three school outcomes. Findings underscore the importance of early prevention and intervention strategies targeting parents and social-behavioral readiness skills during the first 5 years of life.
-
Universal access to health care requires service availability and accessibility for those most in need of maternal and child health services. Women often bypass facilities closest to home due to poor quality. Few studies have directly linked individuals to facilities where they sought maternal and child health services and examined the role of distance and quality on this facility choice. ⋯ Both poor and non-poor women bypassed to higher quality facilities. Our findings suggest that women in five cities in Kenya prefer public hospitals and are willing to travel further to obtain services at public hospitals, possibly related to free service availability. Over time, it will be important to examine service quality and availability in public sector facilities with reduced or eliminated user fees, and whether it lends itself to a continuum of care where women can visit one facility for multiple services reducing travel burden.
-
This research directly assesses older people's neural activation in response to a changing urban environment while walking, as measured by electroencephalography (EEG). The study builds on previous research that shows changes in cortical activity while moving through different urban settings. The current study extends this methodology to explore previously unstudied outcomes in older people aged 65 years or more (n = 95). ⋯ In both cases, this effect is shown regardless of the order of exposure to these different environments. These results suggest that there are neural signatures associated with the experience of different urban spaces which may reflect the older age of the sample as well as the condition of the spaces themselves. The urban green space appears to have a restorative effect on this group of older adults.