Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This research investigates the relationship among objectively assessed neighborhood SES, subjective perceptions of neighborhood environment, and self-rated physical health among older persons. We further explore the structural and psychosocial mechanisms at the individual level underlying the observed neighborhood effects on health. We conceptualize that individual economic power, social resources, and psychological status are intervening factors rather than confounders on the path from neighborhood to health. The data is from the first wave of Social Isolation and Health Project (SIHP). The SIHP is a currently ongoing five-year longitudinal study of aging, health, and the social contexts funded by the National Institute of Aging. The study sample consists of people aged between 50 and 65.
We find strong evidence that neighborhood environments, whether objectively assessed or subjectively perceived, appear significantly linked to health after controlling for age and gender. The data also suggest that the impact of neighborhood SES on health is mediated through the subjective perception of neighborhood.
The data also show that neighborhood effects on health are mediated by certain individual characteristics. For both the objective and perceptual measures of neighborhood contexts, individual-level income exerts the strongest impact on the neighborhood effects, followed immediately by education. Conversely, social resources do not seem to have an intervening effect on this link no matter how neighborhood condition is measured. As for the three psychological variables, we do not find any significant contribution of perceived social support to the neighborhood effect, but the data strongly indicate that depression and loneliness, as two constructs of negative emotions, mediate the effect of perceived neighborhood quality on self-rated poor health. It is plausible that other individual–level and neighborhood-level factors also contribute to the health-place link.
It is noteworthy that while the individual-level variables as a whole play a significant role in reducing neighborhood effects on health, neighborhood effects are not completely “explained away.” This is particularly true if we measure neighborhood contexts using census data on SES.