Objectives. We assessed whether 2 types of public housing—scattered among market-rate housing developments or clustered in small public housing projects—were associated with the perceived health and health behaviors of residents’ social networks.Methods. Leveraging a natural experiment in Montgomery County, Maryland, in which residents were randomly assigned to different types of public housing, we surveyed 453 heads of household in 2011. We asked residents about their own health as well as the perceived health of their network members, including their neighbors.Results. Residents in scattered-site public housing perceived that their neighbors were more likely to exercise than residents of clustered public housing (24.7% of network members vs 14.0%; P < .001). There were no significant differences in the proportion of network members who were perceived to have major health problems, depressed mood, poor diet, or obesity. Having more network members who smoked was associated with a significantly higher likelihood of smoking.Conclusions. Different types of public housing have a modest impact on the health composition of one’s social network, suggesting the importance of housing policy for health.
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机译:目标。我们评估了两种类型的公共住房(散布在市场价格住房发展中或聚集在小型公共住房项目中)是否与居民社交网络的感知健康和健康行为有关。利用马里兰州蒙哥马利县的一项自然实验,在该实验中,居民被随机分配到不同类型的公共住房中,我们在2011年对453个户主进行了调查。我们询问了居民自己的健康状况以及网络成员的感知健康状况,包括他们的邻居。居住在分散地点的公共住房中的居民认为,其邻居比成簇的公共住房的居民更容易锻炼(网络成员的24.7%与14.0%; P <0.001)。被认为有重大健康问题,情绪低落,饮食不良或肥胖的网络成员比例没有显着差异。有更多的网络成员吸烟与吸烟的可能性明显较高有关。不同类型的公共住房对一个人的社交网络的健康构成影响不大,这表明住房政策对健康的重要性。
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