Jennifer W Robinette1, Christopher R Beam2. 1. Davis School of Gerontology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles. 2. Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles.
Abstract
OBJECTIVES: To examine whether neighborhood income and neighborhood safety concerns influence multisystem physiological risk after adjusting for genetic and environmental selection effects that may have biased previous tests of this association. METHODS: We used structural equation modeling with a genetically informed sample of 686 male and female twin pairs in the Midlife in the United States Study II (2004). RESULTS: Controlling for additive genetic and shared environmental processes that may have biased neighborhood-health links in previous examinations, higher neighborhood safety concerns were associated with less physiological risk among women but not men. DISCUSSION: Our findings suggest a possible causal role of neighborhood features for a measure of physiological risk that is associated with the development of disease. Efforts to increase neighborhood safety, perhaps through increased street lighting or neighborhood watch programs, may improve community-level health.
OBJECTIVES: To examine whether neighborhood income and neighborhood safety concerns influence multisystem physiological risk after adjusting for genetic and environmental selection effects that may have biased previous tests of this association. METHODS: We used structural equation modeling with a genetically informed sample of 686 male and female twin pairs in the Midlife in the United States Study II (2004). RESULTS: Controlling for additive genetic and shared environmental processes that may have biased neighborhood-health links in previous examinations, higher neighborhood safety concerns were associated with less physiological risk among women but not men. DISCUSSION: Our findings suggest a possible causal role of neighborhood features for a measure of physiological risk that is associated with the development of disease. Efforts to increase neighborhood safety, perhaps through increased street lighting or neighborhood watch programs, may improve community-level health.