Assessing Neighborhood Health using GIS: Looking Beyond the Socioeconomic Status

We know that where a person lives has an impact on the person’s health, but how much do we know about the criteria for assessing the health of a neighborhood? Socioeconomic status (SES), derived from census data, is an important factor in measuring the health status of neighborhoods. It is the contention of this paper that for a more accurate measurement, SES should be considered in context with other criteria. Where neighborhood health is concerned, communication among health researchers, communities, urban planners, and policy experts is necessary. With the largest elderly population in the country, Florida faces specific challenges for neighborhood health. This paper is a starting point for identifying neighborhood factors contributing to the health quality of a neighborhood. Further study is needed to evaluate the importance of these neighborhood factors. Assessing the health of neighborhoods can help professionals better target educational programs and allocate resources that could improve health care and reduce costs. This paper proposes the development of a weighted multi-attribute index to be used in conjunction with Geographic Information Systems (GIS), a proven visualization and analysis tool. Analysis using this GIS data can be used to assess a variety of factors determining neighborhood health and inform the development of public health solutions that can more accurately identify specific areas of concern. Introduction The connection between health and housing has been well known for over a century. Florence Nightingale once wrote, “The connection between health and the dwelling of the population is one of the most important that exists” (Hood, 2005). We know that where a person lives has an impact on the person’s health, but how much do we know about the criteria for assessing the health of a neighborhood? Socioeconomic status (SES), derived from census data, is an important factor in determining the health status of neighborhoods, and it is the contention of this paper that a more accurate measurement should consider SES in context with other criteria. This paper examines numerous factors that should be used in context with other criteria when measuring the health of neighborhoods. Expanding factors beyond SES will provide a more complete picture of the health of the area. These resulting factors can be used to create a weighted index to quantify neighborhood health according to selected attributes and their estimated contribution to health. The resulting index can be used in a Geographic Information System (GIS) to help analysts target areas directly regarding their area of specific interests. Furthermore, having well-rounded, contextual information will enable health care professionals to better target education campaigns and allocate resources that could result in improved health care and reduced costs. The research question for this review is: what neighborhood attributes (other than socioeconomic status) could be related neighborhood health? The purpose of this article is two-fold: to provide a discussion of attributes mentioned in the literature as possible contributors to neighborhood health; and to suggest the use of a weighted indexing technique in conjunction with a GIS to assess a variety of factors in measuring neighborhood health.