Abstract
From the current perspectives of urban health and environmental justice research, health is the result of a combination of individual, social and environmental factors. Yet, there are only few attempts to determine their joint influence on health and well-being. Grounded in debates surrounding conceptual models and based on a data set compiled for the city of Hamburg, this paper aims to provide insights into the most important variables influencing urban health. Theoretically, we are primarily referring to the conceptual model of health-related urban well-being (UrbWellth), which systemizes urban influences in four sectors. The systematization of the conceptual model is empirically confirmed by a principal component analysis: the factors derived from the data correspond well with the deductively derived model. Additionally, a multiple linear regression analysis was used to identify the most important variables influencing the participant’s self-rated health (SRH): rating of one’s social network, rating of neighborhood air quality, rating of neighborhood health infrastructure, heat stress (day/outdoors), cold stress (night/indoors). When controlling for age, income and smoking behavior, these variables explain 12% of the variance of SRH. Thus, these results support the concept of UrbWellth empirically. Finally, the study design helped to identify hotspots with negative impact on SRH within the research areas.
Highlights
Health in urban areas is receiving increasing attention, which requires a clarification of the concepts of health and well-being and an understanding of the influences exerted by the urban environment
The effects of housing on health depend on a third variable: exposure to environmental stressors, which cannot be analyzed without considering social stratification [47]
The conception of public health needs to be accompanied by an understanding of the production of stratification [48,49,50] of a city’s society [30], a context that needs to be in focus in public health research
Summary
Conceptions of Urban Health and Research Design. On a rapidly urbanizing planet, health and well-being in urban areas are of particular concern. While urban dwellers in general do quite well and have higher life expectancy in particular [1], there are drawbacks of life in cities [2]. Urban areas face multiple environmental challenges, such as heat, noise, and pollutants [3]. The joint effects of these multiple stressors can have a large impact on the quality of life and health of the inhabitants. Health in urban areas is receiving increasing attention, which requires a clarification of the concepts of health and well-being and an understanding of the influences exerted by the urban environment
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