## 1 Introduction  
The urban environment plays a crucial role in shaping the health and well-being of individuals. Research into the associations between environmental factors and public health is critical for developing strategies that improve health outcomes. Environmental perceptions, sense of comfort, and their connection to human behaviour significantly impact urban health [1]. Favourable neighbourhood conditions, including opportunities for physical activity (PA), social support, accessible green spaces, and more, are pivotal for positive health effects. Extensive research has stressed the role of housing conditions and neighbourhood quality in public health, with factors such as housing affordability, safety, quality, and access to services being positively associated with well-being [2]. Unequal access to these factors creates housing issues that increase the likelihood of multiple simultaneous health exposures and environmental risks [3]. For instance, the Index of Housing Insults developed in Australia demonstrated how various housing inadequacies affect health across multiple domains: Affordability, Safety, Quality of Dwelling, Quality of Residential Area, and Access to Services and Support [4]. Housing conditions, the quality of infrastructure, and the environment have been associated with perceived physical health in Germany [5]. A cross-sectional study of mortality in Belgium from 1991 to 2020 concluded that one in five deaths could be attributed to inequality in housing conditions [6]. Moreover, self-reported health and perceptions of environmental hazards are good indicators for assessing public health [7]. Environmental conditions are an inescapable part of daily life that can affect human health and play an important role in producing and maintaining health disparities [8]. There is evidence that disadvantaged communities encounter greater exposure to environmental hazards and pollutants. Urban planning, transport systems, and terrain characteristics significantly affect people's health and well-being [9]. By indirectly influencing behaviour and PA levels, they affect health outcomes as well [10]. Research on perceptions of the environment can help to reveal the physiological response to stress, which is associated with both mental and physiological health [11]. It has been demonstrated that the accessibility of, availability of, and attachment to urban green spaces can affect health outcomes [12]. There is strong evidence that risk factors for non-communicable diseases are related to the impact of environmental attributes: living in a disadvantaged area is associated with a higher prevalence of CVD [13]. Multiple research findings have highlighted the importance of living environment and its effects on the risk of coronary heart disease [14], hypertension and triglyceride levels [15], self-reported general and mental health [7], and walking behaviour [16]. The WHO identified a set of diseases associated with the most significant environmental effects on global public health [9]. The top of the list--accounting only for the environmental fraction--included stroke, ischaemic heart disease, diarrhoeal diseases, lower respiratory infections, asthma, cancers, and neonatal conditions. Our study is particularly timely given the concerning public health statistics in Ukraine, notably, the high prevalence of non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular diseases (CVD). With circulatory system diseases alone accounting for a significant number of deaths in Kyiv [17], there is a pressing need to identify factors that may contribute to these health outcomes and develop targeted interventions. In this study, we seek to contribute to this discourse by examining the relationship between environmental factors and urban public health. Our research expands upon previous studies by analysing a comprehensive set of neighbourhood environment characteristics, grouped into three underlying factors.