Health Researchers Assess Impact Of Unsafe Neighborhoods
Elaine Puleo, associate professor of biostatistics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, co-authored the study whose findings were published recently in the journal Public Library of Science Medicine. The study's lead author was Gary G. Bennett and the principal investigator was Karen M. Emmons, both faculty members at the Harvard School of Public Health.
The study looked at residents of 12 urban and predominantly minority public housing communities in metropolitan Boston and is one of several commissioned as part of a colon cancer prevention and awareness program called "Open Doors to Health" launched by the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Boston affordable housing community. The program aims to develop new strategies for increasing physical activity and colorectal cancer screenings in hopes of preventing colon cancer, the second leading cause of cancer deaths for men and women combined in the United States.
According to the study, physical inactivity remains very common among racial and ethnic minorities with low incomes, despite widespread recognition of the benefits of regular exercise. Perceived neighborhood safety has been suggested as a possible cause of this sedentary behavior since the same groups are also the most likely to rate their neighborhoods as unsafe.
The study found that 80 percent of respondents felt safe during the daytime, while only 37 percent felt safe at night, with men tending to report feeling safer at both times of day. While no association was found between feelings of safety and total physical activity for men at any time or women during the day, women who felt unsafe at night were significantly less active than those who felt safe.
To measure physical activity, participants were asked to wear a pedometer at all times except when bathing, showering or sleeping. In addition they filled out surveys about their physical activity and rated how safe they felt walking alone in their neighborhood during the day and at night.
The study also looked at physical activity self-efficacy, which is a person's belief in the ability to become and remain physically active. Participants were asked if they believed they would make time for and continue a regular fitness regimen even if they were tired, depressed, under stress or doing so alone. Compared to those who felt safe in their neighborhoods, men who reported feeling unsafe were 51 percent less likely to have high physical activity self-efficacy whereas women who felt similarly were 32 percent less likely.
The study's authors suggested that the negative consequences of feeling unsafe in one's neighborhood should be a primary consideration when attempting to improve physical activity in low-income areas, concluding that, "Physical activity promotion strategies may be ineffective without considering strategies to assist individuals to identify safe, convenient, and comfortable contexts in which to be physically active."
Puleo, who has worked in the biostatistics department at UMass Amherst since 1995, earned her bachelor's degree from the University of Colorado, a master's degree from Colorado State University and a doctorate from UMass Amherst. Other co-authors of the study are Lorna McNeill of the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center; Gary Bennett, Dustin Duncan and Karen Emmons of the Harvard School of Public Health, and Kathleen Wolin of the Washington University School of Medicine.
The results of this study will be included in the full analysis of the "Open Doors to Health" program, which is scheduled to be completed in spring of 2008.
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