EXW450 Assignment Built Environment Analysis

Name

EXW 450: Soc Deter of Health and Beh

Arizona State University

Dr. Hogan

9/25/2022

Detroit is Michigan’s largest city. Detroit earned the moniker “Motor City” because it has long been acknowledged as the historical center of the American automobile industry. The state’s auto sector established the mass production standard that other industries later embraced. Detroit is a multicultural metropolis with sizable populations of whites and African Americans. One is exposed to a great deal of factors affecting one’s physical, mental, and emotional health when living in Detroit’s largely black Paradise Valley neighborhood. There are extremely few White and Hispanic citizens, and the majority of the population is Black. The following paper is an analysis of Detroit built environment including the effects that the observed features have on behavioral, mental, and emotional health, the effects of observed features on physical health, the neighborhood’s negative effects on health behaviors, and intervention programs to improve the built environment.

Living in this neighborhood exposes someone to lots of factors which can expose someone to mental and emotional illnesses. One such factor is the lack of enough green spaces and parks. According to studies, enjoying free time in greens spaces and parks is great for one’s cognitive health (Xie at al., 2020). Depression is much less likely to occur, and stress is simpler to recover from. The negative impact of stressful circumstances on wellbeing can be buffered by green spaces. A Dutch study found that persons who live within a radius of three kilometers with more green areas were better at managing stressful life situations, which have become prevalent recently as a result of COVID-19’s effects. The absence of sufficient social and recreational facilities, such as football and basketball fields, public gyms, swimming pools, community centers, and gathering places, is another contributing factor. These locations are crucial for fostering interpersonal relationships. Social isolation results from the absence of such amenities. Studies have shown that social isolation and loneliness increase the likelihood of having various health issues, such as poor cardiovascular and mental health (Alun & Murphy, 2019). Furthermore, the absence of convenient access to grocery stores in the neighborhood contributes to emotional and mental anguish. Due to their inability to get fresh foods, many individuals now eat manufactured foods that can be kept for a long time. Previous research has discovered evidence of links between eating foods that have undergone extreme processing and poor mental health. One’s behavioral health is likewise endangered by the neighborhood’s high levels of insecurity. Individuals who live in unsafe locations are more likely to report mental health issues, such as depression and psychological discomfort, according to CRESH (Center for research on environment, society, and health). CRESH has also discovered some evidence of heightened levels of anxiety and psychotic symptoms among people living in areas with high levels of insecurity.

The neighborhood is not diverse in terms of socio-economic status and race. Most of its residents are African Americans. Although the number of White is less compared to other races, they occupy the largest part of the neighborhood with their houses located in vast compounds with perimeter walls. This lack of diversity in SES can be attributed to the systemic racism that was very adamant in the last century. Long-standing racial wealth and financial inequities, particularly between white and Black households, are a result of systemic racism in the housing system in the United States. The predominance of African Americans is as a result of the resettlement of Blacks who occupied the majority of Black Bottom area in Detroit which was next to this neighborhood. The Black Bottom area was declared a slum and thus demolished in 60s.

As aforementioned, the neighborhood lacks enough social amenities and recreational facilities like public gyms and swimming pools. This factor has a negative effect on the physical health of the community members. Heart disease, stroke, and high blood pressure are common among residents of the area as a result of the lack of these amenities. The absence of playgrounds has an impact on both adults and children in the neighborhood. Most kids spend all of their time in their tiny backyards, excluding when they are in school. Children in the area now have greater rates of obesity, weaker bones and muscles, an increased danger of developing type 2 diabetes, and high blood pressure. The worsening levels of air and noise pollution have also had a negative impact on people’s physical health. Residents of the neighborhood have noticed a rise in lung cancer cases, as well as heart and respiratory illness cases.

The neighborhood has a negative effect on health behaviors. The area has inadequate facilities where people can exercise physically. The playgrounds and public gyms are not enough for everyone. One may talk about jogging on the streets as an exercise. Well due to the high rates of insecurity in the region, people are discouraged to jog at dawn and at dusk, the times when most individuals are free, due to the risk of being robbed. Also, the streets are not lit properly at night. Getting to the farmer’s markets and the grocery stores is also a hustle that discourages the residents from consuming fresh foods and fruits. Most residents prefer buying processed foods that can be stored for a longer period to reduce the amount of time and transportation costs incurred while shopping for groceries and fresh foods. Lack of adequate public transportation has led to many residents walking up to the nearest ones. This is a positive effect since walking is a form of exercise.

A couple of interventions can avert the situation in this community. One intervention strategy is urban planning and community development. This strategy has been demonstrated to be an effective technique for bringing about changes in community safety, physical activity, and nutrition, which may help enhance health-related behaviors (Thornton et al., 2016). This would be include building of more parks, green spaces and recreational facilities to encourage the residents to partake in physical exercise activities. One’s capacity to carry out everyday duties and their cognitive health can all be enhanced by engaging in physical activity. It can also help one maintain a healthy weight. Community development and urban planning would also entail establishment of free farmers market areas. This would encourage the residents to consume fresh foods as it would be easier to access them. In addition, increasing awareness and educating the residents on important factors would have a huge impact. The consumer’s food buying habits and nutritional knowledge would be improved by these awareness programs.

In summary, the features of a built environment can either affect one’s physical, emotional and mental health positively or negatively. Features of a built environment include facilities like green parks, green spaces, public playgrounds, public gyms, etc. Urban planning is a good intervention program towards changing the built environments and averting the effects of these built environments on one’s health. This paper has analyzed the built environment of a predominantly black neighborhood in Detroit, taking into account the neighborhood’s detrimental effects on health behaviors, the observed features' effects on physical health, the behavioral, mental, and emotional health of residents, and intervention programs aimed at improving the built environment.

References

Alun, J., & Murphy, B. (2019). Loneliness, social isolation and cardiovascular risk. British Journal of Cardiac Nursing, 14(10), 1-8.

Thornton, R. L., Glover, C. M., Cené, C. W., Glik, D. C., Henderson, J. A., & Williams, D. R. (2016). Evaluating Strategies For Reducing Health Disparities By Addressing The Social Determinants Of Health. Health affairs (Project Hope), 35(8), 1416–1423. https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2015.1357

Xie, J., Luo, S., Furuya, K., & Sun, D. (2020). Urban parks as green buffers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sustainability, 12(17), 6751.