title: The impact of area residential property values on self-rated health: A cross-sectional comparative study of Seattle and Paris.
abstract: This study analyzed the impact of area residential property values, an objective measure of socioeconomic status (SES), on self-rated health (SRH) in Seattle, Washington and Paris, France. This study brings forth a valuable comparison of SRH between cities that have contrasting urban forms, population compositions, residential segregation, food systems and transportation modes. The SOS (Seattle Obesity Study) was based on a representative sample of 1394 adult residents of Seattle and King County in the United States. The RECORD Study (Residential Environment and Coronary Heart Disease) was based on 7131 adult residents of Paris and its suburbs in France. Socio-demographics, SRH and body weights were obtained from telephone surveys (SOS) and in-person interviews (RECORD). All home addresses were geocoded using ArcGIS 9.3.1 (ESRI, Redlands, CA). Residential property values were obtained from tax records (Seattle) and from real estate sales (Paris). Binary logistic regression models were used to test the associations among demographic and SES variables and SRH. Higher area property values significantly associated with better SRH, adjusting for age, gender, individual education, incomes, and BMI. The associations were significant for both cities. A one-unit increase in body mass index (BMI) was more detrimental to SRH in Seattle than in Paris. In both cities, higher area residential property values were related to a significantly lower obesity risk and better SRH. Ranked residential property values can be useful for health and weight studies, including those involving social inequalities and cross-country comparisons.
authors.affiliation: School of Architecture, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, United States.
authors.forename: Junfeng
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jiao
authors.affiliation: Center for Public Health Nutrition, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States.
authors.forename: Adam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Drewnowski
authors.affiliation: Urban Form Lab, College of Built Environments, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States.
authors.forename: Anne Vernez
authors.initials: AV
authors.lastname: Moudon
authors.affiliation: Center for Public Health Nutrition, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States.
authors.forename: Anju
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Aggarwal
authors.affiliation: the Nutrition Epidemiology Unit, Paris 13 University, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Jean-Michel
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Oppert
authors.affiliation: The Institute of Urbanism of Paris, Paris 12 Val de Marne University, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Helene
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Charreire
authors.affiliation: Pierre Louis Institute of Efpidemiology and Public Health, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Basile
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Chaix
keywords: Adult population; BMI; Health disparities; Socioeconomic status