By Daniel Meza
The “built environment” is a term for the man made parts of the world that people interact with while going on with their day to day activities. It includes everything from parks and green spaces to buildings and roads.
People who live close to parks are 20% more likely to meet or exceed their daily recommended exercise than those who don’t (1). In 2017, 74% percent of non white people in the US lived in nature deprived areas, three times higher than 23% of white people2. Additionally, the parks that are found in neighborhoods of color are half the size and five times as crowded as those in white neighborhoods (2). Having much less park space per person makes it harder for people of color to get all the benefits of the parks in their areas. This is especially a problem during the ongoing COVID 19 pandemic.
Adults who live in close proximity to heavy vehicle traffic are 40 to 80% more likely to develop chronic symptoms (3). In addition, minority and low income households disproportionately live close to heavy traffic. Not only is their air more polluted, but they also are burdened with vehicle noise almost constantly.
Alcohol outlets are any kind of source of alcohol, like bars and liquor stores. For every six outlets, there was one additional violent assault that resulted in at least one overnight stay at the hospital (4). Zip codes with lower median household income and minority populations experienced higher rates of assault (5). Though not necessarily a causational relationship, lower income communities do have more alcohol outlets than higher income communities. The higher rates of assault additionally keep members of the community inside of their homes, making them less likely to get their daily recommended exercise.
These inequalities in the built environments around low and high income communities contribute to larger health disparities. The disparities are epitomized by looking at maps of average income and average life expectancy, with the lower income areas almost perfectly mapping to the areas of shorter life expectancy. If these health disparities are to be addressed, the built environment is a good place to start.
1 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15694519/
2 https://americanprogress.org/article/the-nature-gap/
3 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/aug/05/us-parks-minority-neighborhoods-smaller-more-crowded