Greener neighbourhoods, healthier lives? Evidence from Britain

Abstract presented at Be Active 2012, 31 October-3 November 2012, Sydney, Australi

Is neighborhood green space protective against associations between child asthma, neighborhood traffic volume and perceived lack of area safety? Multilevel analysis of 4447 Australian children

Heavy traffic is a source of air pollution and a safety concern with important public health implications. We investigated whether green space lowers child asthma risk by buffering the effects of heavy traffic and a lack of neighborhood safety. Multilevel models were used to analyze affirmative asthma cases in nationally representative cross-sectional data from 4447 children aged 6-7 years old in Australia. Case-finding was based upon a triangulation of affirmative responses to three questions on doctor-diagnosed asthma, asthma-related medications and illness with wheezing lasting for at least 1 week within the 12 months prior. Among children considered to be exposed to high traffic volumes and areas with 0 to 20% green space quantity, the odds ratio of affirmative asthma was 1.87 (95% CI 1.37 to 2.55). However, the association between heavy traffic and asthma was significantly lower for participants living in areas with over 40% green space coverage (odds ratio for interaction 0.32, 95% CI 0.12 to 0.84). No association between affirmative asthma and green space coverage was observed for participants not exposed to heavy traffic, nor for the area safety variable. Protecting existing and investing in new green space may help to promote child respiratory health through the buffering of traffic-related air pollution

Green space and child weight status : does outcome measurement matter? Evidence from an Australian longitudinal study

Taren Sanders is supported by an Australian Postgraduate Award. Thomas Astell-Burt is supported by a Fellowship with the National Heart Foundation of Australia.Objective. To examine whether neighbourhood green space is beneficially associated with (i) waist circumference (WC) and (ii) waist-to-height ratio (WtHR) across childhood. Methods. Gender-stratified multilevel linear regressions were used to examine associations between green space and objective measures of weight status in the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children, a nationally representative source of data on 4,423 children aged 6 y to 13 y. WC and WtHR were measured objectively. Percentage green space within the local area of residence was calculated. Effect modification by age was explored, adjusting for socioeconomic confounding. Results. Compared to peers with 0-5% green space locally, boys and girls with >40% green space tended to have lower WC (βboys -1.15, 95% CI -2.44, 0.14; βgirls -0.21, 95% CI -1.47, 1.05) and WtHR (βboys -0.82, 95% CI -1.65, 0.01; βgirls -0.32, 95% CI -1.13, 0.49). Associations among boys were contingent upon age (p valuesage green space40% green space at 73.85 cm and 45.75% compared to those with 0-5% green space at 75.18 cm and 46.62%, respectively. Conclusions. Greener neighbourhoods appear beneficial to alternative child weight status measures, particularly among boys.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Does rising crime lead to increasing distress? Longitudinal analysis of a natural experiment with dynamic objective neighbourhood measures

Identifying ‘neighbourhood effects’ to support widespread beliefs that where we live matters for our health remains a major challenge due to the reliance upon observational data. In this study we reassess the issue of local crime rates and psychological distress by applying unobserved bias models to a sample of participants who remain in the same neighbourhoods throughout the study. Baseline data was extracted from the 45 and Up Study between 2006 and 2008 and followed up as part of the Social Economic and Environmental Factors (SEEF) Study between 2009 and 2010. Kessler 10 scores were recorded for 25 545 men and 29 299 women reported valid outcomes. Annual crime rates per 1,000 (including non-domestic violence, malicious damage, break and enter, and stealing, theft and robbery) from 2006 to 2010 inclusive were linked to the person-level data. Change in exposure to crime among participants in this study, therefore, occurs as a result of a change in the local crime rate, rather than a process of neighbourhood selection. Gender stratified unobserved bias logistic regression adjusting for sources of time-varying confounding (age, income, employment, couple status and physical functioning) indicated that an increase in the risk of experiencing psychological distress was generally associated with an increase in the level of neighbourhood crime. Effect sizes were particularly high for women, especially for an increase in malicious damage (Odds Ratio Tertile 3 vs Tertile 1 2.40, 95% Confidence Interval 1.88, 3.05), which may indicate that damage to local built environment is an important pathway linking neighbourhood crime with psychological distress. No statistically significant association was detected for an increase in non-domestic violence, although the effect was in the hypothesised direction. In summary, the application of unobserved bias models to analyse data that takes into account the temporally dynamic characteristics of where people live warrants further investigation.PostprintPeer reviewe

The Integrated Mental Health Atlas of South Western Sydney

Partners in Recovery South Western Sydne

The Integrated Mental Health Atlas of South Western Sydney

Partners in Recovery South Western Sydne

Augmenting cancer registry data with health survey data with no cases in common : the relationship between pre-diagnosis health behaviour and post-diagnosis survival in oesophageal cancer

Background: For epidemiological research, cancer registry datasets often need to be augmented with additional data. Data linkage is not feasible when there are no cases in common between data sets. We present a novel approach to augmenting cancer registry data by imputing pre-diagnosis health behaviour and estimating its relationship with post-diagnosis survival time. Methods: Six measures of pre-diagnosis health behaviours (focussing on tobacco smoking, ‘at risk’ alcohol consumption, overweight and exercise) were imputed for 28,000 cancer registry data records of US oesophageal cancers using cold deck imputation from an unrelated health behaviour dataset. Each data point was imputed twice. This calibration allowed us to estimate the misclassification rate. We applied statistical correction for the misclassification to estimate the relative risk of dying within 1 year of diagnosis for each of the imputed behaviour variables. Subgroup analyses were conducted for adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma separately. Results: Simulated survival data confirmed that accurate estimates of true relative risks could be retrieved for health behaviours with greater than 5% prevalence, although confidence intervals were wide. Applied to real datasets, the estimated relative risks were largely consistent with current knowledge. For example, tobacco smoking status 5 years prior to diagnosis was associated with an increased age-adjusted risk of all cause death within 1 year of diagnosis for oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma (RR = 1.99 95% CI 1.24,3.12) but not oesophageal adenocarcinoma RR = 1.61, 95% CI 0.79,2.57). Conclusions: We have demonstrated a novel imputation-based algorithm for augmenting cancer registry data for epidemiological research which can be used when there are no cases in common between data sets. The algorithm allows investigation of research questions which could not be addressed through direct data linkage

The Motivation for Active Travel to School Survey (MATSS): Instrument development and initial validity evidence

Abstract presented at Be Active 2014, 15-18 October 2014, Canberra, Australi

Visiting Urban Green Space and Orientation to Nature Is Associated with Better Wellbeing during COVID-19 : International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

The COVID-19 pandemic has severely challenged mental health and wellbeing. However, research has consistently reinforced the value of spending time in green space for better health and wellbeing outcomes. Factors such as an individual’s nature orientation, used to describe one’s affinity to nature, may influence an individual’s green space visitation behaviour, and thus influence the wellbeing benefits gained. An online survey in Brisbane and Sydney, Australia (n = 2084), deployed during the COVID-19 pandemic (April 2021), explores if nature experiences and nature orientation are positively associated with personal wellbeing and if increased amounts of nature experiences are associated with improvement in wellbeing in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. We found that both yard and public green space visitation, as well as nature orientation scores, were correlated with high personal wellbeing scores, and individuals who spent more time in green space compared to the previous year also experienced a positive change in their health and wellbeing. Consistently, people with stronger nature orientations are also more likely to experience positive change. We also found that age was positively correlated to a perceived improvement in wellbeing over the year, and income was negatively correlated with a decreased change in wellbeing over the year, supporting other COVID-19 research that has shown that the effects of COVID-19 lifestyle changes were structurally unequal, with financially more established individuals experiencing better wellbeing. Such results highlight that spending time in nature and having high nature orientation are important for gaining those important health and wellbeing benefits and may provide a buffer for wellbeing during stressful periods of life that go beyond sociodemographic factors.Peer reviewe