Abstract
This Environment and Human Health project aims to develop a health-based summary measure of multiple physical environmental deprivation for the UK, akin to the measures of multiple socioeconomic deprivation that are widely used in epidemiology. Here we describe the first stage of the project, in which we aimed to identify health-relevant dimensions of physical environmental deprivation and acquire suitable environmental datasets to represent population exposure to these dimensions at the small-area level. We present the results of this process: an evidence-based list of environmental dimensions with population health relevance for the UK, and the spatial datasets we obtained and processed to represent these dimensions. This stage laid the foundations for the rest of the project, which will be reported elsewhere.
Highlights
IntroductionEnvironmental factors with health relevance range from pathogenic (i.e., with potential to damage health), to salutogenic (i.e., with potential to enhance or maintain health)
Different environmental exposures may have additive, synergistic or antagonistic effects on health when experienced in combination [3], identifying areas experiencing multiple environmental deprivation may assist in clarify
Seven factors were included in our wish-list for our summary measure of environmental deprivation (Table 1)
Summary
Environmental factors with health relevance range from pathogenic (i.e., with potential to damage health), to salutogenic (i.e., with potential to enhance or maintain health). Constrained by data limitations and availability, studies of the health effects of the environment often focus on a subset of the environment in isolation [e.g., air pollution: [1]]. Populations are not exposed to single environmental factors in isolation: they simultaneously experience multiple exposures. Evans and Kantrowitz [p.304; [2]] suggest that "... Multiple exposures to a plethora of suboptimal environmental conditions" may help explain socioeconomic inequalities in health. Different environmental exposures may have additive, synergistic or antagonistic effects on health when experienced in combination [3], identifying areas experiencing multiple environmental deprivation may assist in clarify-
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