Abstract
Citizens’ participation in urban environmental quality assessment is important when identifying local problems in the sustainable development and environmental planning policy. The principal aim of this study was to analyze whether any social differences exist between the joint effect of built neighborhood quality and exposure to urban green spaces and the risk of hypertension. The study sample consisted of 580 participants residing in 11 districts in Kaunas city, Lithuania. Using geographic information systems (GIS), individual data on the socioeconomic status (SES) and health were linked to the participants’ perceptions of the environmental quality and exposure to green spaces (NDVI). We used multivariate logistic regression to estimate associations as odds ratios (OR). Those study participants with lower education and those study participants with higher education on low incomes rated their health significantly worse. Low SES persons residing in areas with low exposure to green spaces had a significantly higher risk of hypertension when sex, age, family status, smoking, and income were accounted for (OR 1.83, 95% CI 1.01–3.36). This citizen science study provided evidence that the social environment and the quality of the built environment had a complex effect on disparities in the risk of hypertension.
Highlights
Over the past years, as the news of the UN program of sustainable development has spread, people’s interest in the quality of the living environment and health issues has increased significantly.Public engagement in the research activities through citizen science could make important contributions to societal transformations and could exert pressure on politicians to solve environmental problems and health disparities [1]
The present citizens’ study attempted to fill this gap by, for the first time, including citizens’ concerns in the study design and the formulation of the research question when investigating the joint effects of education and income on hypertension and studying the impact of the social environment depending on exposure to green spaces
The findings of our study revealed that the residents of Kaunas highly scored the quality of their residential neighborhood, noting that public transport met their needs in the district, and that they had good opportunities for walking to reach the city’s green spaces or parks
Summary
As the news of the UN program of sustainable development has spread, people’s interest in the quality of the living environment and health issues has increased significantly. Public engagement in the research activities through citizen science could make important contributions to societal transformations and could exert pressure on politicians to solve environmental problems and health disparities [1]. It was indicated that both scientists and public participants of citizen science would benefit from public engagement by increasing communities’. Scientists and public partnership would have the potential to influence policy devoted to social environment and citizens’ health [2]. Social determinants of health played an important role in addressing the sustainable development goals targets to promote health and well-being and to reduce disparity [3]. The social environment, comprising personal and societal relationships, institutions, cultures, and physical surroundings—
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