This study investigated the potential relationships between children's health determinants and outcomes and natural areas in Berlin, Germany. This study also explored whether the distribution of natural areas reflected a pattern that could be used to identify health inequalities on a sub-district level within a city.
Child data -- based on the medical check-ups of over 30,000 children (age 5 – 6) -- were obtained from Berlin's Senate Department for Health and Social Issues. This data provided information on a wide variety of children's health indicators (such as obesity and motor problems), social variables (such as household income and single-parent status), and social-environmental conditions of child care (such as smokers in the home and children with their own TV).
Local land-use data came from Berlin's Environmental Atlas project and reflected the composition of the city's blocks. This data included population density and the percentage of areas defined by the city as “simple residential,” meaning less well maintained, having less affluent residences, and having low amounts of green or blue (water) space. For purposes of this study, green and water areas were combined into one variable referred to as “natural areas.” Land-use data also included information about the availability and extent of natural areas in the sub-districts (that is, smaller areas within a larger district) included in this study.
An analysis of the data indicated that, at the sub-district level, natural areas and social health determinants were related – that is, areas with less nature also had more conditions associated with risk factors and outcomes relating to children's health. The results also indicated that there was a certain intra-urban spatial pattern to both natural areas and health determinants – that is, areas with a lower percentage of natural area cover also had a higher percentage of social conditions identified as indicators of intra-urban health inequalities. Based on these findings, the researchers suggest adding natural areas to the list of other identified social indicators of intra-urban health inequalities among children.
These findings are consistent with other research suggesting a relationship between the health of urban populations and the availability of green and water spaces in their daily environment. This study adds to the research base by calling attention to the way in which the distribution of natural area cover tends to spatially overlap with the distribution of other, regularly used indicators of intra-urban health inequalities. According to the researchers, these results reflect the need for further investigation of “green” inequality indicators. Such investigations, the researchers suggest, “could potentially promote policy interventions and governance activities for developing healthy, natural areas in areas where they are most needed, particularly for children.” Such initiatives, they suggest, could play an important role in reducing health inequalities in urban neighborhoods.
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