Fear of crime and its relationship to self-reported health and stress among men.

Abstract

BackgroundFear of crime is a growing social and public health problem globally, including in developed countries such as Sweden. This study investigated the impact of fear of crime on self-reported health and stress among men living in Gävleborg County.Design and MethodsThe study used data collected from 2993 men through a cross sectional survey in the 2014 Health in Equal Terms survey. Descriptive and logistic regression analyses were carried out to study the relationship between fear of crime and self-reported health and stress.ResultsThere was a statistically significant association between fear of crime and self-reported poor health and stress among men residing in Gävleborg County. In the bivariate analysis, men who reported fear of crime had odds of 1.98 (CI 1.47-2.66) and 2.23 (CI 1.45-3.41) respectively. Adjusting for demographic, social and economic variables in the multivariate analysis only reduced the odds ratio for self-reported poor health to 1.52 (CI 1.05-2.21) but not for self-reported stress with odds of 2.22 (1.27-3.86).ConclusionsFear of crime among men was statistically significantly associated with self-reported poor health and stress in Gävleborg County. However, the statistically significant relationship remained even after accounting for demographic, social and economic factors, which warrants further research to better understand the role played by other variables.Significance for public healthFear of crime is a growing public health concern. However the majority of available studies have addressed the impact of fear of crime on health outcomes among women. This study investigated the impact of fear of crime on self-reported health and stress among men living in Gävleborg County, Sweden. Results indicated that fear of crime was associated with poor self-reported health and stress. This suggests that there is a need to further understand how fear of crime impact men’s physical and psychological health as well as their quality of life across different contexts.