Neighbourhood structure and health promotion: an introduction

A growing body of literature suggests that neighbourhood context may affect human behaviour both of adults and adolescents. It has been hypothesised that socially disadvantaged areas may induce health risks either directly or through health behaviour and lifestyles, because they are likely to have poorer social and material infrastructure and resources although varying by the resource and national context. Beyond neighbourhood features resulting from social deprivation, it is also relevant to determine which characteristics of the built environment encourage or discourage healthy lifestyles such as parks and green spaces, traffic infrastructure, and housing characteristics. While geographic information system can be used to receive objective data on the built environment and neighbourhood structure, individuals’ perceptions of their environment are also important to understand their lifestyle choices. Therefore data on subjective factors, such as peoples’ perceptions (e.g. the extent to which it is attractive and safe) of their neighbourhood and the quality of facilities that might encourage them to develop and maintain health-relevant behaviours, are also highly relevant