Health starts right where we live: Mac prof
By Steve Buist
The Hamilton Spectator(Feb 13, 2006)

A neighbourhood is more than just the place you live. It can also play a key role in determining how healthy you are.

That message will be at the heart of a free public lecture being delivered tomorrow in The Spectator auditorium by Dr. Bruce Newbold, a McMaster University professor.

Newbold's talk is entitled Healthy Hamilton? Checking up on the City's Health and is part of the Science in the City lecture series, sponsored jointly by McMaster University and The Spectator. Newbold is director of McMaster's Institute of Environment and Health and a member of the university's School of Geography and Earth Sciences.

He'll talk about research conducted by the institute, which studied the health of Hamilton by looking at the effects of social and physical aspects of neighbourhoods.

The researchers conducted health surveys of 1,500 people in four neighbourhoods - downtown, the northeast industrial area, the Chedoke/Aberdeen area in west Hamilton and one Mountain neighbourhood. Residents were asked about their perceptions of their neighbourhoods, from noise, pollution and access to services, to greenery and how safe they feel. They were asked to rate their health in several areas.

Not surprisingly, perhaps, those in the downtown and northeast industrial areas reported poorer health than those in the Chedoke/Aberdeen area or the Mountain. The more social or physical problems people reported within their neighbourhood, the more likely they were to report poorer health.

"We often think of health as being just a doctor and where the hospital is," said Newbold. "Hopefully, they'll see that health is much bigger than that.

"It is a social and a physical and a neighbourhood component and it can be locally determined. It's not just what the federal government or provincial government gives us."

Newbold said the findings can help public health officials begin to pin down to small areas how to best offer services to those who most need help.

"We are starting to work on the form of the neighbourhood and how that can contribute to health," Newbold said.

"Does the area make itself amenable to good health? Is it laid out so you can walk to the corner store or walk to engage in social activities or just walk across the street to talk to your neighbours?''

The lecture is free and open to the public. To register, call 905-525-9140, ext. 24934, or send an e-mail to sciencecity@mcmaster.ca. Doors open at 6:30 and the talk begins at 7 p.m.

sbuist@thespec.com

905-526-3226