title: Self-reported health in urban-rural continuum: a grid-based analysis of Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the association of self-reported health with residential area type defined by the population density in individual's local environment using a population-based cohort in Finland.
  
  
  METHODS
  Young adults of the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966 (4,201 women and 3,835 men), surveyed by a postal questionnaire in 1997, were linked to population density of their resident grid (1 km(2)) depicting different types of residential areas. Self-reported health was regressed on residential area type using ordinal logistic analysis, adjusting for psychosocial well-being, social relationships, health behaviour, education and residence time.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Cumulative odds ratios (COR) for poor health were lowest in high-rise centres, highest in scattered settlement areas and second highest in transitional zones. Adjustments (especially for education and time of residence) reduced the CORs to insignificance except the persistently high COR for women in scattered settlement areas.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Poor self-reported health is associated with individual's residential area type, with the lowest occurrence in high-rise centres and higher elsewhere. The difference is likely explained, at least partly, by a complex of psychosocial factors, possibly different for women and men.
authors.affiliation: Department of Geography, University of Oulu, PO Box 3000, 90014, Oulu, Finland. tiina.lankila@oulu.fi
authors.forename: Tiina
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Lankila
authors.forename: Simo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Näyhä
authors.forename: Arja
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rautio
authors.forename: Tanja
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nordström
authors.forename: Markku
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Koiranen
authors.forename: Anja
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Taanila
authors.forename: Jarmo
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rusanen
mesh_terms: D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D005387:Finland; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011159:Population Surveillance; D012424:Rural Population; D057566:Self Report; D012737:Sex Factors; D014505:Urban Population