Does Residents' Satisfaction with the Neighbourhood Environment Relate to Residents' Self-Rated Health? Evidence from Beijing.

Chen Chen,Jones Jones,Stephens Stephens

doi:10.3390/ijerph16245051

Chen Chen, Jones Jones + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16245051

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Abstract

Objective: The aim of this study is to examine the association between satisfaction with two types of green space and residents’ self-rated health by comparing neighbourhood green space (NGS) and community green space (CGS) across spatial dimensions. Method: This study was based on 4291 workers from a large-scale individual survey of inhabitants of Beijing city in 2013. Multilevel ordered logistic regression analysis was used to examine the associations between residents’ satisfaction with the two types of green spaces and residents’ self-rated health. Results: Residents who are more satisfied with NGS and CGS have higher odds of reporting good self-rated health outcomes. Such effects are more pronounced for residents living close to NGS and tend to decline non-linearly over space. Conclusion: Additional results quantify the differentiated effects on self-rated health between urban and suburban residents. The findings of this study suggest that the effects of residents’ satisfaction with different types of green space on health benefits should be taken into account in the land-use design of green space preservation and development policies.

Highlights

3 indicates that residents who are more satisfied with neighbourhood green space (NGS) and Community Green Space (CGS) have higher odds to report good self-rated health outcomes compared to those reports unsatisfied with NGS and CGS
Residents who were more satisfied with NGS were 24.6% more likely to report extremely good health outcomes
Residents who were more satisfied with NGS were more likely to report having good self-rated health outcomes if living within a 500-m margin of their residence compared with residents living between 500 and 1000 m and more than 2000 m from urban greenness

Summary

Introduction

Empirical evidence has found that the interaction with green space using objective measures is associated with better physical health [1,2], physical activity [3,4,5,6,7,8], mental health [9,10,11,12,13,14,15], stress [16,17], and self-reported and self-rated health [18,19,20,21,22]. Other studies have examined a related relationship: the effects of the quality of (perceived) neighbourhood green space and health across different cities [24] and population groups [25], results are mixed. These studies highlight the importance of considering subjective measures of green space quality that may contribute to people’s health status. A related study examined the association between people’s subjective perception of neighbourhood green space (NGS) quality and mental health by asking the question, “How satisfied are you with the quality of green environment, using a five-point range Likert scale as the measurement?”.

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Conclusion