Neighbourhood street patterns and residents' health amongst adults in Calgary: differences by socioeconomic status and exposure.

Abstract

Background: Street layout is a key urban design element that influences a neighbourhood's street connectivity, providing opportunities for physical activity, social interaction, and risk of environmental exposures. However, its effects across different socioeconomic contexts and varying durations of exposure to the neighbourhood are less explored.

Methods: This study aims to address these gaps by employing ordinal logistic regression models to examine the associations between neighbourhood street patterns and residents' physical and mental health. It also investigates whether these associations vary by neighbourhood socioeconomic status (SES) and length of residence.

Results: The findings showed that grid street patterns were positively associated with self-assessed physical health, particularly in low SES neighbourhoods and amongst longer-term residents. However, no significant associations were observed between street pattern and self-assessed mental health.

Conclusions: Our findings underscore the importance of considering both the social context and duration of residence when investigating the influence of urban design on health.