Physical and social environment indicators obtained by Systematic Social Observation: distinguishing between health inequities and health inequalities
Abstract
Purpose: The public health concern turns increasingly to the integration of individual, family and neighborhood processes, integrating them into measures of the health status of populations. The place of residence is strongly... [ view full abstract ]
Purpose: The public health concern turns increasingly to the integration of individual, family and neighborhood processes, integrating them into measures of the health status of populations. The place of residence is strongly shaped by social position, indicating that neighborhood characteristics can be important contributors to health inequalities. Thus, this study aims to build indicators of the physical and social characteristics environment in an urban context from the variables obtained by Systematic Social Observation (SSO).
Methods: The SSO instrument was developed in order to know the characteristics of the physical and social environment of the residents of two health districts of Belo Horizonte City, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Data collection took place between April and June 2011. The final sample consisted of 1,295 segments of streets with average length of 100m, nestled in 147 neighborhoods. The selection of the segments was carried out by systematic sampling. The selected variables were organized according to the following domains: physical environment and transport, pedestrian displacement, physical activity and recreation, characterization of properties, aesthetic, physical and social disorder, security and services. For each domain it was built an indicator through the principal components analysis by covariance matrix aiming to estimate the score. The percentage of explanation of the indicators rangesfrom 48.4% to 86.2%. In assessing the internal consistency, Cronbach's alpha ranged from 0.558 and 0.820. The heterogeneity of the indicators was evaluated in relation to the distribution of the Health Vulnerability Index (HVI), – a complex GIS indicator of social vulnerability - stratified into four categories (low, medium, high, very high). HVI was significantly associated to all domains but physical activity.
Conclusions: Physical and social characteristics of the neighborhood define the urban context. The associations here in found may help to substantiate that neighborhood characteristics are important contributors to understand health inequities as unjust inequalities.
Authors
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Dario Costa
(Federal University of Minas Gerais – UFMG, Belo Horizonte Observatory for Urban Health - OSUBH, School of Medicine)
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Sueli Mingoti
(Federal University of Minas Gerais - UFMG,)
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Amanda Andrade
(Federal University of Minas Gerais – UFMG, Belo Horizonte Observatory for Urban Health - OSUBH, School of Medicine)
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Fernando Proietti
(Federal University of Minas Gerais – UFMG, Belo Horizonte Observatory for Urban Health - OSUBH, School of Medicine)
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César Xavier
(osub)
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Amelia Friche
(Federal University of Minas Gerais - UFMG,)
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Waleska Caiaffa
(osub)
Topic Area
V. Health indicators, spatial analysis and mapping: new tools, new methods 5.1 Spatial ana
Session
PS-3 » POSTER SESSION 3 (12:15 - Sunday, 3rd April, TBA)
Paper
Physical_and_social_environment_indicators_obtained_by_Systematic_Social_Observation_distinguishing_between_health_inequities_and_health_inequalities.docx
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