New Home, New Prognosis? Reduced Hypertension Risk after Moving to a High-Walkability Neighborhood

Nancy Averett writes about science and the environment from Cincinnati, OH. Her work has been published in Pacific Standard, Audubon, Discover, E/The Environmental Magazine, and a variety of other publications. About This Article open Citation: Averett N. 2016. New home, new prognosis? Reduced hypertension risk after moving to a high-walkability neighborhood. Environ Health Perspect 124:A112; http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.124-A112 Published: 1 June 2016 PDF Version (232 KB) Related EHP Article Moving to a Highly Walkable Neighborhood and Incidence of Hypertension: A Propensity-Score Matched Cohort Study Maria Chiu, Mohammad-Reza Rezai, Laura C. Maclagan, Peter C. Austin, Baiju R. Shah, Donald A. Redelmeier, and Jack V. Tu The impact of the built environment on health is still a fairly new research field, and many investigations have relied on the use of cross-sectional data, a research model that carries the risk of incorrectly suggesting reverse causation.1 A study in this issue of EHP, however, uses a more robust longitudinal design and reports that residents of Ontario, Canada, who moved from a low-walkability neighborhood to a high-walkability neighborhood had a 54% lower likelihood of developing hypertension than those who moved from one low-walkability neighborhood to another.2 “It’s a very strong study,” says Jana A. Hirsch, a postdoctoral fellow with the Carolina Population Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. That’s especially tr...
Source: EHP Research - Category: Environmental Health Authors: Tags: Featured News Science Selection June 2016 Source Type: research