Harvard University, United States; University of Brasília, Brazil.
University of Brasília, Brazil.
Environ Int. 2015 Dec;85:334-42. doi: 10.1016/j.envint.2015.09.026. Epub 2015 Oct 30.
Extensive evidence shows that in addition to lifestyle factors, environmental aspects are an important risk factor for human health. Numerous approaches have been used to estimate the relationship between environment and health. For example, the urban characteristics, especially the types of land use, are considered a potential proxy indicator to evaluate risk of disease. Although several studies have used land use variables to assess human health, none of them has used the concept of Urban Morphology by Urban Structure Types (USTs) as indicators of land use. The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between USTs and cardiorespiratory disease risks in the Federal District, Brazil. Toward this end, we used a quantile regression model to estimate risk. We used 21 types of UST. Income and population density were used as covariates in our sensitivity analysis. Our analysis showed an association between cardiorespiratory diseases risk and 10 UST variables (1 related to rural area, 6 related to residential area, 1 recreational area, 1 public area and 1 commercial area). Our findings suggest that the conventional land use method may be missing important information about the effect of land use on human health. The use of USTs can be an approach to complement the conventional method. This should be of interest to policy makers in order to enhance public health policies and to create future strategies in terms of urban planning, land use and environmental health.
大量证据表明，环境因素除了生活方式因素外，也是影响人类健康的一个重要风险因素。人们已经采用了许多方法来估计环境与健康之间的关系。例如，城市特征，尤其是土地利用类型，被认为是评估疾病风险的潜在替代指标。尽管有几项研究使用土地利用变量来评估人类健康，但没有一项研究使用城市形态学的概念来评估土地利用。本研究旨在评估巴西联邦区城市结构类型（USTs）与心肺疾病风险之间的关系。为此，我们使用了分位数回归模型来估计风险。我们使用了 21 种 UST。收入和人口密度被用作敏感性分析中的协变量。我们的分析表明，心肺疾病风险与 10 种 UST 变量（1 种与农村地区相关，6 种与居民区相关，1 种与娱乐区相关，1 种与公共区相关，1 种与商业区相关）之间存在关联。我们的研究结果表明，传统的土地利用方法可能会遗漏土地利用对人类健康影响的重要信息。使用 UST 可以作为补充传统方法的一种手段。这应该引起政策制定者的关注，以便加强公共卫生政策，并在城市规划、土地利用和环境卫生方面制定未来的战略。
