Abstract
The potential health risks for communities that surround railyards have largely been understudied. Mastery and quality of life (QoL) have been associated with self-reported health status in the general population, but few studies have explored this variable among highly vulnerable low-income groups exposed to harmful air pollutants. This study investigates the relationship between self-reported health status and correlates of Heart Disease Risk Factors (HDRF) and Respiratory Illness (RI) with mastery and QoL acting as potential protective buffers. This cross-sectional study of 684 residents residing near a Southern California railyard attempts to address this limitation. Results from three separate hierarchal linear regressions showed that those who reported being diagnosed with at least one type of HDRF and/or RI reported lower perceived health status. For those that lived further from the railyard, mastery and QoL predicted modest increases in perceived health status. Results suggest that mastery and QoL may be helpful as tools in developing interventions but should not solely be used to assess risk and health outcomes as perceived health status may not measure actual health status.
Highlights
Major transportation hubs are notorious for contributing to poor air quality, namely airborne pollutants from diesel exhaust such as particulate matter (PM) and nitrogen oxides (NOx ), which are known carcinogens, according to the Environmental Protection Agency [1]
The findings indicated that members residing near the railyard faced a number of obstacles to their quality of life (QoL) that stemmed from a high level of community violence, economic problems, homelessness, railyard-related noise exposure, and lack of access to healthcare, especially for their children, many of whom suffer from respiratory conditions
The zones were defined across the spatial gradient of air pollution and associated health risks based on the 2008 California Air Resources Board (CARB) Health Risk Assessment (HRA) report [24] that was originally derived through the implementation of computer-based modeling used for estimating the transport and dispersion of diesel emissions from the railyard
Summary
Major transportation hubs are notorious for contributing to poor air quality, namely airborne pollutants from diesel exhaust such as particulate matter (PM) and nitrogen oxides (NOx ), which are known carcinogens, according to the Environmental Protection Agency [1]. Studies show that health impacts on communities in close proximity to major transportation hubs, such as railyards, are not limited in their impact to respiratory diseases such as asthma [2,3] chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD) [4], and lung cancer [5], and increases the risk of premature death [5,6], cancer [7]. Studies suggest that the risk of developing heart disease significantly increases for those who live near railyards due to little to no physical activity and unhealthy diets due to the lack. Public Health 2018, 15, 2765; doi:10.3390/ijerph15122765 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph
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