Ross C E
Ohio State University, Department of Sociology, Columbus 43210, USA.
Soc Sci Med. 2000 Jul;51(2):265-74. doi: 10.1016/s0277-9536(99)00451-7.
Neighborhood context could affect health behaviors because of structure or contagion. We expected that residents of US neighborhoods where a high percentage of residents are poor and do not have college degrees would be more likely to smoke and less likely to walk and exercise. We examined the hypotheses using multi-level data in which survey information from a representative sample of Illinois residents is linked to census-tract information about poverty and education in their neighborhood. Contrary to expectations we found that residents of poor neighborhoods were more likely to walk than those in less disadvantaged places, adjusting for individual poverty, household income, education, race, ethnicity, sex, age, and marital status. This was the case despite the fact that residents of poor neighborhoods were more afraid to leave the house and feared being victimized on the streets. Consistent with expectations we found that residents of neighborhoods where a high percentage of residents are college educated are more likely to walk. Thus, the two aspects of neighborhood socioeconomic status had opposite effects on walking. Neighborhood context had no effect on the likelihood of exercising strenuously. Men in poor neighborhoods were more likely to smoke than those in less disadvantaged places, but neighborhood context had no significant effect on women's likelihood of smoking.
邻里环境可能由于结构或传染效应而影响健康行为。我们预计，在美国那些贫困居民比例高且没有大学学历的社区中，居民吸烟的可能性更大，而步行和锻炼的可能性更小。我们使用多层次数据检验了这些假设，其中来自伊利诺伊州居民代表性样本的调查信息与他们所在社区关于贫困和教育的普查区信息相关联。与预期相反，我们发现，在调整了个人贫困状况、家庭收入、教育程度、种族、民族、性别、年龄和婚姻状况后，贫困社区的居民比处境不那么不利的地方的居民更有可能步行。尽管贫困社区的居民更害怕出门，担心在街上受到侵害，但情况依然如此。与预期一致，我们发现居民中大学学历比例高的社区的居民更有可能步行。因此，邻里社会经济地位的两个方面对步行有相反的影响。邻里环境对剧烈运动的可能性没有影响。贫困社区的男性比处境不那么不利的地方的男性更有可能吸烟，但邻里环境对女性吸烟的可能性没有显著影响。
