title: The interplay between neighbourhood characteristics: The health impact of changes in social cohesion, disorder and unsafety feelings.
abstract: This study examined how the health of Dutch residents in 2012 was influenced by changes in neighbourhood social cohesion, disorder, and unsafety feelings between 2009 and 2011. Multilevel regression analyses on repeated cross-sectional survey data included 43,635 respondents living in 2100 areas. Deteriorating social cohesion and unsafety feelings were negatively associated with general health, while improvement in social cohesion was associated with better general health of the population. When the interplay of neighbourhood features was considered, deteriorating neighbourhood safety appeared decisive for health, i.e. improving social cohesion did not mitigate the health effect of deteriorating neighbourhood safety. Our results show it is important to take concurrent interactions between neighbourhood features into account when examining their health impact.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Nutrition, Prevention and Health Services, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), P.O. Box 1, Bilthoven 3720 BA, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Annemarie
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ruijsbroek
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, Academic Medical Center (AMC), University of Amsterdam, P.O. Box 22660, 1100 DD Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Mariël
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Droomers
authors.affiliation: Department of Criminology, Criminal Law and Social Law, Ghent University, Universiteitstraat 4, 9000 Ghent, Belgium; Faculty of Law, University of Antwerp, Venusstraat 23, 2000 Antwerpen, Belgium.
authors.forename: Wim
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Hardyns
authors.affiliation: NIVEL (Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research), P.O. Box 1568, 3500 BN Utrecht, The Netherlands; Department of Human Geography and Department of Sociology, Utrecht University, P.O. Box 80115, 3508 TC Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Peter P
authors.initials: PP
authors.lastname: Groenewegen
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, Academic Medical Center (AMC), University of Amsterdam, P.O. Box 22660, 1100 DD Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Karien
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Stronks
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003415:Crime / Q000523:psychology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012111:Residence Characteristics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012449:Safety; D012944:Social Support; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: Changes over time; General health; Neighbourhood; Social cohesion; Unsafety