Matthew Hobbs is a senior lecturer in Public Well being and Co-Director of the GeoHealth Laboratory on the College of Canterbury.
Lukas Marek is a researcher and lecturer in Spatial Information Science on the College of Canterbury.
ANALYSIS: As councils and central authorities contemplate what cities of the longer term will seem like, a brand new software has been developed to map how varied options of the place we reside affect public well being.
The Healthy Location Index (HLI) breaks down wholesome and unhealthy parts in cities throughout New Zealand. It gives necessary classes for the way we plan and modify our cities to extend bodily exercise ranges and sort out necessary points similar to weight problems and psychological well being.
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The obesogenic atmosphere
New Zealand has one of many highest numbers of adults dwelling with weight problems in the world and the charges aren’t bettering. Information from 2021 confirmed a considerable enhance in each childhood and adult obesity from the earlier yr.
Weight problems is a significant public well being concern that’s estimated to be liable for roughly 5 per cent of all global deaths yearly. The worldwide financial influence of weight problems is estimated at roughly US$2 trillion or 2.8 per cent of worldwide GDP.
Well being points like this are sometimes considered when it comes to personal responsibility. Nonetheless, this method diverts focus away from well being programs, governments and physical environments.
STUFF
Well being consultants say there’s long-term societal price to permitting unhealthy food and drinks advertising to proceed.
The worldwide rise in weight problems since 1980 has occurred too quickly for genetic or biological factors to be its root trigger. As an alternative, it might really simply be a normal response to environments that present quick access to energy-dense, nutrient-poor meals and a variety of unhealthy choices that require us expending little or no vitality.
Give it some thought: sustaining good well being in our present atmosphere requires plenty of effort. Why? As a result of wholesome selections are sometimes harder than handy ones, be that attempting to keep away from fast-food outlets or conveniently positioned liqour stores, the shortage of entry to contemporary fruit and greens, or deciding to cycle fairly than drive the automotive.
This is named an obesogenic environment and it wants to vary.
Ricky Wilson/Stuff
Entry to unhealthy choices in a metropolis can enhance particular person well being issues, together with charges of kind II diabetes.
The Wholesome Location Index
This transformation begins with an understanding of how issues at present stand, which is the place the HLI is available in.
Information utilized in our index contains quantifying entry to 5 “health-constraining” options: fast-food shops, takeaway shops, dairies and comfort shops, alcohol shops and gaming venues.
We additionally quantify 5 “health-promoting” options: inexperienced areas, blue areas (accessible out of doors water environments), bodily exercise amenities, fruit and vegetable shops, and supermarkets.
The index supplies a rank for each neighbourhood in New Zealand primarily based on entry to those optimistic and unfavourable options.
Out of New Zealand’s three main city areas, Wellington reveals extremely accessible health-promoting and health-constraining environments, Auckland gives comparatively balanced environments, and Christchurch reveals a excessive proportion of individuals dwelling in additional health-constraining environments.
Environmental injustice
The larger image created by the HLI helps previous evidence highlighting a disproportionate variety of options that constrain well being, similar to fast-food outlets and liqour stores in socio-economically disadvantaged areas.
Of specific concern in probably the most disadvantaged areas, the space to health-constraining options was half what it was within the least disadvantaged areas, highlighting the persistent over-provision of gambling outlets and liqour stores in some components of the nation.
This phenomenon is nicely generally known as a type of “environmental injustice” which in the end stems from a lack of equity within the improvement, implementation and enforcement of environmental legal guidelines, laws and insurance policies.
The index additionally highlights how areas of New Zealand with fast and quick access to health-constraining options are worse off when it comes to each mental and physical health outcomes similar to despair and kind II diabetes.
Nathan Morton/Stuff
The Wholesome Location Index maps out the prevalence liquor shops, fast-food eating places and playing shops in a group.
Whereas the index reveals clear proof that, on common, probably the most disadvantaged areas of New Zealand usually have entry to health-constraining options, this discovering will not be common. It additionally varies from place to put.
Wellington and Christchurch each have a reducing variety of health-promoting environments, with rising deprivation. Nonetheless, there are remarkably extra health-constraining locations in Christchurch than in Wellington.
Information gives a approach to change
That is solely our first iteration of the index and we intend so as to add extra options sooner or later. However we hope the information supplied within the index can encourage necessary conversations to assist us higher perceive how our cities are formed.
We have to ask whether or not we actually want that extra fast-food outlet or liquor retailer in the identical neighbourhood. We hope the index might help policymakers contemplate methods to form extra health-friendly cities by regulating or including the precise options.
In any case, the safety and promotion of public well being is a core duty of presidency, and it shouldn’t be left to people, households or communities to create such modifications.
Matthew Hobbs is a senior lecturer in Public Well being and Co-Director of the GeoHealth Laboratory on the University of Canterbury and Lukas Marek is a researcher and lecturer in Spatial Information Science on the University of Canterbury
This text is republished from The Conversation underneath a Inventive Commons license. Learn the original article.
