Understanding Relationships between Health, Ethnicity, Place and the Role of Urban Green Space in Deprived Urban Communities.

Jenny Roe,Peter Aspinall,Catharine Ward Thompson

doi:10.3390/ijerph13070681

Abstract

Very little is known about how differences in use and perceptions of urban green space impact on the general health of black and minority ethnic (BME) groups. BME groups in the UK suffer from poorer health and a wide range of environmental inequalities that include poorer access to urban green space and poorer quality of green space provision. This study used a household questionnaire (n = 523) to explore the relationship between general health and a range of individual, social and physical environmental predictors in deprived white British and BME groups living in ethnically diverse cities in England. Results from Chi-Squared Automatic Interaction Detection (CHAID) segmentation analyses identified three distinct general health segments in our sample ranging from “very good” health (people of Indian origin), to ”good” health (white British), and ”poor” health (people of African-Caribbean, Bangladeshi, Pakistani origin and other BME groups), labelled ”Mixed BME” in the analyses. Correlated Component Regression analyses explored predictors of general health for each group. Common predictors of general health across all groups were age, disability, and levels of physical activity. However, social and environmental predictors of general health-including use and perceptions of urban green space-varied among the three groups. For white British people, social characteristics of place (i.e., place belonging, levels of neighbourhood trust, loneliness) ranked most highly as predictors of general health, whilst the quality of, access to and the use of urban green space was a significant predictor of general health for the poorest health group only, i.e., in ”Mixed BME”. Results are discussed from the perspective of differences in use and perceptions of urban green space amongst ethnic groups. We conclude that health and recreation policy in the UK needs to give greater attention to the provision of local green space amongst poor BME communities since this can play an important role in helping address the health inequalities experienced by these groups.

Highlights

Several reviews have recently synthesised evidence showing the public health benefits of contact with green space across a variety of international contexts [1,2] but evidence of benefits by race/ethnicity is a notable gap
This study aims to fill this gap in a sample of white British and black and minority ethnic (BME) groups living in deprived urban locations in England
With the exception of age, our ethnicity groups significantly varied on all demographic and General health and levels of daily physical activity significantly varied between groups: people of Bangladeshi, Pakistani, African-Caribbean origin and Other BME groups had significantly lower levels of general health; people of Bangladeshi and African-Caribbean origin had significantly lower levels of physical activity than average, with especially low levels in people of African-Carribbean origin (3.6 days/month compared to mean of 7.4 days/month for the sample)

Summary

Introduction

Several reviews have recently synthesised evidence showing the public health benefits of contact with green space across a variety of international contexts [1,2] but evidence of benefits by race/ethnicity is a notable gap. Using a self-rated general measure of health [32], this study explores individual, social and environmental predictors of general health in six ethnic groups living in the three of England’s most ethnically mixed conurbations (i.e., London, Manchester and the Wolverhampton and Coventry area) with a particular interest in understanding the dynamics of place (i.e., social perceptions and physical attributes of place) and their relationship to general health It builds on earlier research commissioned by CABE [18,19] carried out by the authors in conjunction with Heriot Watt University, which highlighted inequalities in access to green space amongst those living in deprived inner-city areas in England. This study showed that in areas most densely populated by black and minority ethnic groups (i.e., comprising 40% plus of population in a ward), there is less green space, but it is of poorer quality (i.e., neglected, offering limited recreational facilities and suffering from poor general maintenance)

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion