As interest in evaluating neighborhood effects on health increases, researchers explore how best to measure neighborhood effects on health. The first studies on neighborhood effects on health were able to identify health disparities by geographic area but were unable to demonstrate that the places where people lived had effects on health unrelated to the health factors of the people who lived in those areas.
More recently, researchers have used multilevel methods to look at the health of neighborhoods after controlling for the health and other characteristics of individuals. Researchers can investigate the effects of place on health through compositional factors (the characteristics of people in particular places), contextual factors (opportunity structures in the local environment such as access to food and transportation resources), and collective factors (sociocultural and historical features of neighborhoods).
Methodological challenges for researchers wishing to study the effects of place on health include accurately defining neighborhood boundaries; determining the most appropriate level of geography; determining which characteristics of the social and physical environment are most relevant for health; measuring neighborhood characteristics; and determining the relative influence of neighborhood and individual characteristics.
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