People who live in neighbourhoods that offer easy access to healthy food and opportunities for exercise are less prone to getting high blood pressure. To investigate associations between physical and social environments of neighbourhoods and hypertension, researchers in America studied 2,612 adults aged between 45 and 85 years. The participants were surveyed about the conditions surrounding their home, including whether or not they felt safe, whether nearby markets had a good selection of fruits and vegetables, and whether it was easy to walk in the neighbourhood. They were also asked about the neighbourhood's social cohesion, if their neighbours were generally friendly and willing to help each other out. It was found that people who lived in neighbourhoods with better walking paths, availability of healthy food, greater safety, and more social cohesion were about one quarter less likely to have high blood pressure than those in the least pedestrian-friendly, unsafe and unfriendly neighbourhoods. The findings underline the need of policies that improve communities in terms of reducing crime, developing more parks, better food choices, etc. which in turn might help improve people's health.
Epidemiology
July 2008
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