Tackling health inequalities through urban regeneration programs: preliminary results of the Dutch District Approach
Abstract
Purpose: Health problems often concentrate in areas where also the social and physical environment is poor. Such neighbourhoods tend to concentrate socioeconomically disadvantaged groups, like unemployed people living on a low... [ view full abstract ]
Purpose: Health problems often concentrate in areas where also the social and physical environment is poor. Such neighbourhoods tend to concentrate socioeconomically disadvantaged groups, like unemployed people living on a low income. The living conditions in these areas together with the socioeconomic situations of the residents make up the so-called “social determinants of health”. Urban regeneration programs aim to target these social determinants of health. The investigation of urban regeneration programs can therefore be useful to generate evidence about the impact of area-level policies on health and health inequalities.
One such regeneration program is the Dutch District Approach. This approach, which started in 2008 in the 40 most deprived districts of the Netherlands, deployed interventions addressing the social and physical environment and the social position of residents. These interventions thus offered a unique opportunity to examine the health effects of area based investments addressing the social determinants of health. The health impact of urban regeneration programs have been studied previously, also in the Netherlands (URBAN40). The current study will supplement this previous work by using a longer follow-up time, a better selection of the control population and by including more health outcomes.
Method: This study aims to evaluate the longer term health impact of the Dutch Districts Approach, using a quasi-experimental design. Propensity Score Matching (PSM) is used to match control districts with the target districts. We use both neighbourhood characteristics and individual characteristics for matching. Next, the Difference-in-Difference approach is used to compare the health developments (general health, mental health, physical activity, smoking & BMI) in the target districts with the control districts. The results will be presented at the conference.
Conclusion: We anticipate that the results will provide insights in the longer term health impacts of large-scale urban regeneration schemes and their usefulness for tackling geographical health inequalities.
Authors
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Annemarie Ruijsbroek
(National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM))
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Albert Wong
(National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM))
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Karien Stronks
(Academic Medical Centre, University of Amsterdam)
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Anton Kunst
(Academic Medical Centre, University of Amsterdam)
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Hans Van Oers
(National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM))
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Carolien Van Den Brink
(National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM))
Topic Areas
II. Urban Health at the intersection of urban environment, social determinants and places , IV. Urbanism, Health and Wellbeing 4.1 Built environment 4.2 Pollution: air, noise, etc , VII. Urban health policies 7.1 Governance and policy frameworks 7.2 Health in all policies
Session
GH-MT-O-02 » Geography and Urban Health - Methodologies (14:00 - Saturday, 2nd April, TBA)
Paper
Abstract_ICUH.docx
Presentation Files
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