BMC Public Health 2009, 9:221 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/9/221 informal social control. However, a pre-existing high social capital in the neighbourhood seems to be a prereq- uisite for implementation of a successful Neighbourhood Watch program [18,20,59]. In Sweden, the majority of Neighbourhood Watch programs are implemented in wealthy small-scale areas [60]. Therefore, if Neighbour- hood Watch programs are to become an effective method of building safer neighbourhoods, our results suggest that the design of these programs need to be adjusted to make them suitable for introduction in areas with blocks of flats. Study limitations There are important limitations that have to be considered when trying to draw conclusions from this study. A meth- odological limitation is the cross-sectional design, which does not allow causal inferences. Given this study design, and the fact that the variables in the field of study are strongly interrelated, it is not possible to determine if a negative area reputation is a cause or a consequence of low perceived safety. Area reputation appears to be part of a complex pathway through which the effects of crime on perceived safety are mediated. However, our results are only indicative on this matter. A number of variables that could contribute to perceived safety were not included in this study, e.g. health indica- tors, individual and contextual social capital, length of residence, and objective neighbourhood characteristics (concentrated affluence, unemployment rate, outdoor conditions such as lighting in public areas, etc.) [33,61,62]. In previous housing area studies based on postal ques- tionnaires in Scotland [63] and Australia [64], the partici- pation rates were around 50%, similar to the 56% achieved in this study. The pattern of non-response was slightly skewed in the present study according to gender, age and education for some areas. Some findings may therefore have been somewhat overestimated, due to the fact that the participants included a higher proportion of women (Alpha-house) and older persons (Alpha- house, Beta-mix, Beta-flat) compared with the total area popula- tion. Conclusion We have identified environmental, socio-demographic, and personal correlates of safety-related concerns in con- tiguous neighbourhoods in a Swedish community. The results indicate that self-assessed area reputation was important for all dimensions of safety-related concerns among the residents. We also found a difference in crime rates and safety-related concerns between areas with blocks of flats compared with small-scale areas, although these neighbourhoods were close geographically with a shared local centre. Our findings suggest that the implementation of modern Swedish housing policy targeting social integration has resulted in inequalities in safety-related concerns among residents. Future research on whether Neighbourhood Watch programs are an effective way to promote safer neighbourhoods is warranted, as well as the development of methods to implement these programs in areas with blocks of flats. Competing interests The authors declare that they have no competing interests. Authors' contributions AK, KL, TT planned the study. AK was the main author of this paper and was involved in all steps to create the man- uscript. NK designed the statistical analysis. All authors read drafts of the manuscript, made comments and sug- gestions to improve the text before they agreed to submit it for publication. Acknowledgements This study was funded by the Swedish National Rescue Service Agency and The Building Foundation Platen. References 1. 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