Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Neighborhoods of Health: Comparing Boundaries for Measuring Contextual Effects on Health in Accra, Ghana

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Spatial Inequalities

Part of the book series: GeoJournal Library ((GEJL,volume 110))

Abstract

The concept of neighborhood is at the forefront of place and health research as an appropriate scale of study (Sampson 2003; Riva et al. 2007). What actually constitutes a neighborhood is subjective at best, but an underlying idea of a geographic unit of limited size with some degree of social interaction is generally acknowledged (Weiss et al. 2007). The last two decades have seen significant evidence that the neighborhood influences health beyond individual characteristics in the developed and developing world (Pickett and Pearl 2001; Sampson et al. 2002; Stafford and Marmot 2003; Montgomery and Hewett 2005; Perera et al. 2009; Diez-Roux 1998; Robert 1999). While there are a number of issues for health and place research, establishing geographical boundaries that define ‘place’ has been the subject of significant debate in the field (Diez Roux 2001; Entwisle 2007; Gauvin et al. 2007).

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Aldstadt, J., & Getis, A. (2006). Using AMOEBA to create a spatial weights matrix and identify spatial clusters. Geographical Analysis, 38, 327–343.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bernard, P., Charafeddine, R., Frohlich, K. L., Daniel, M., Kestens, Y., & Potvin, L. (2007). Health inequalities and place: A theoretical conception of neighbourhood. Social Science & Medicine, 65, 1839–1852.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blakely, T. A., & Subramanian, S. V. (2006). Multilevel studies. In J. M. Oakes & J. S. Kaufman (Eds.), Methods in social epidemiology. San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boadi, K., & Kuitunen, M. (2005). Environmental and health impacts of household solid waste handling and disposal practices in third world cities: The case of the Accra Metropolitan Area, Ghana. Journal of Environmental Health, 68, 32.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bruhn, J. (2009). The group effect: Social cohesion and health outcomes. New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chaix, B., Merlo, J., Evans, D., Leal, C., & Havard, S. (2009). Neighbourhoods in eco-epidemiologic research: Delimiting personal exposure areas. A response to Riva, Gauvin, Apparicio and Brodeur. Social Science & Medicine, 69, 1306–1310.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clapp, J. M., & Wang, Y. (2006). Defining neighborhood boundaries: Are census tracts obsolete? Journal of Urban Economics, 59, 259–284.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cockings, S., & Martin, D. (2005). Zone design for environment and health studies using pre-aggregated data. Social Science & Medicine, 60, 2729–2742.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cummins, S., Curtis, S., Diez-Roux, A., & Macintyre, S. (2007). Understanding and representing place in health research: A relational approach. Social Science & Medicine, 65, 1825–1838.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • de Snyder, V. N. S., Friel, S., Fotso, J. C., Khadr, Z., Meresman, S., Monge, P., & Patil-Deshmukh, A. (2011). Social conditions and urban health inequities: Realities, challenges and opportunities to transform the urban landscape through research and action. Journal of Urban Health, 88, 1183–1193.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Diez Roux, A. V. (2001). Investigating neighborhood and area effects on health. American Journal of Public Health, 91, 1783.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Diez Roux, A. V., & Mair, C. (2010). Neighborhoods and health. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1186, 125–145.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Diez-Roux, A. V. (1998). Bringing context back into epidemiology: Variables and fallacies in multilevel analysis. American Journal of Public Health, 88, 216–222.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Engstrom, R., Ofiesh, C., Rain, D., Jewell, H., & Weeks, J. (2013). Defining neighborhood boundaries for urban health research in developing countries: A case study of Accra, Ghana. Journal of Maps, 9.

    Google Scholar 

  • Entwisle, B. (2007). Putting people into place. Demography, 44, 687–703.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Flowerdew, R., Manley, D. J., & Sabel, C. E. (2008). Neighbourhood effects on health: Does it matter where you draw the boundaries? Social Science & Medicine, 66, 1241–1255.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fotheringham, A. S., & Wong, D. W. S. (1991). The modifiable areal unit problem in multivariate statistical analysis. Environment and Planning A, 23, 1025–1044.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gauvin, L., Robitaille, E., Riva, M., McLaren, L., Dassa, C., & Potvin, L. (2007). Conceptualizing and operationalizing neighbourhoods: The conundrum of identifying territorial units. Canadian Journal of Public Health, 98, S18–S26.

    Google Scholar 

  • Greenland, S. (2002). A review of multilevel theory for ecologic analyses. Statistics in Medicine, 21, 389–395.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Guo, J. Y., & Bhat, C. R. (2007). Operationalizing the concept of neighborhood: Application to residential location choice analysis. Journal of Transport Geography, 15, 31–45.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haynes, R., Daras, K., Reading, R., & Jones, A. (2007). Modifiable neighbourhood units, zone design and residents’ perceptions. Health & Place, 13, 812–825.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jones, A. P., van Sluijs, E. M. F., Ness, A. R., Haynes, R., & Riddoch, C. J. (2010). Physical activity in children: Does how we define neighbourhood matter? Health & Place, 16, 236–241.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kawachi, I., Subramanian, S., & Kim, D. (2008). Social capital and health: A decade of progress and beyond. In Social capital and health (pp. 1–26). New York: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Kearns, A., & Parkinson, M. (2001). The significance of neighbourhood. Urban Studies, 38, 2103–2110.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lupton, R. (2003). Neighbourhood effects: Can we measure them and does it matter? (LSE STICERD Research Paper No. CASE073). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1158964.

  • Macintyre, S., & Ellaway, A. (2003). Neighborhoods and health: An overview. In I. Kawachi & L. F. Berkman (Eds.), Neighborhoods and health (pp. 20–42). New York: Oxford University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • MacQueen, J. (1967). Some methods for classification and analysis of multivariate observations. In L. LeCam & J. Neyman (Eds.), Proceedings of the 5th Berkeley symposium on mathematical statistics and probability (Vol. 14). Berkeley: University of California.

    Google Scholar 

  • Montgomery, M. (2009). Urban poverty and health in developing countries. Population Reference Bureau (PRB), 64(2), 1–15.

    Google Scholar 

  • Montgomery, M., & Hewett, P. C. (2005). Urban poverty and health in developing countries: Household and neighborhood effects. Demography, 42, 397–425.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • National Research Council. (2007). Tools and methods for estimating populations at risk from natural disasters and complex humanitarian crises. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Openshaw, S. (1984). Concepts and techniques in modern geography number 38: The modifiable areal unit problem. Norwick: Geo Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ord, J. K., & Getis, A. (1995). Local spatial autocorrelation statistics: Distributional issues and an application. Geographical Analysis, 27, 286–306.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Parenteau, M. P., Sawada, M., Kristjansson, E. A., Calhoun, M., Leclair, S., Labonté, R., Runnels, V., Musiol, A., & Herold, S. (2008). Development of neighborhoods to measure spatial indicators of health. URISA Journal, 20, 43–55.

    Google Scholar 

  • Perera, B., Østbye, T., & Jayawardana, C. (2009). Neighborhood environment and self-rated health among adults in Southern Sri Lanka. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 6, 2102–2112.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pickett, K. E., & Pearl, M. (2001). Multilevel analyses of neighbourhood socioeconomic context and health outcomes: A critical review. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 55, 111.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Raudenbush, S. W., & Sampson, R. J. (1999). Ecometrics: Toward a science of assessing ecological settings, with application to the systematic social observation of neighborhoods. Sociological Methodology, 29, 1–41.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ridd, M. K. (1995). Exploring a VIS (vegetation-impervious surface-soil) model for urban ecosystem analysis through remote sensing: Comparative anatomy for cities. International Journal of Remote Sensing, 16, 2165–2185.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Riva, M., Gauvin, L., & Barnett, T. (2007). Toward the next generation of research into small area effects on health: A synthesis of multilevel investigations published since July 1998. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 61, 853.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Robert, S. A. (1999). Neighborhood socioeconomic context and adult health: The mediating role of individual health behaviors and psychosocial factors. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 896, 465–468.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Root, E. D. (2012). Moving neighborhoods and health research forward: Using geographic methods to examine the role of spatial scale in neighborhood effects on health. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 102, 986–995.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ross, N. A., Tremblay, S., & Graham, K. (2004). Neighbourhood influences on health in Montreal, Canada. Social Science & Medicine, 59, 1485–1494.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sampson, R. J. (2003). Neighborhood-level context and health: Lessons from sociology. In I. Kawachi & L. F. Berkman (Eds.), Neighborhoods and health. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sampson, R. J., Morenoff, J. D., & Gannon-Rowley, T. (2002). Assessing “neighborhood effects”: Social processes and new directions in research. Annual Review of Sociology, 28, 443–479.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Santos, S. M., Chor, D., & Werneck, G. L. (2010). Demarcation of local neighborhoods to study relations between contextual factors and health. International Journal of Health Geographics, 9, 34.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Songsore, J. (2009). The urban transition in Ghana: Urbanization, national development and poverty reduction. Accra: IIED.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stafford, M., & Marmot, M. (2003). Neighbourhood deprivation and health: Does it affect us all equally? International Journal of Epidemiology, 32, 357.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stafford, M., Duke-Williams, O., & Shelton, N. (2008). Small area inequalities in health: Are we underestimating them? Social Science & Medicine, 67, 891–899.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stoler, J., Fink, G., Weeks, J. R., Otoo, R. A., Ampofo, J. A., & Hill, A. G. (2011). When urban taps run dry: Sachet water consumption and health effects in low income neighborhoods of Accra, Ghana. Health & Place, 18(2), 250–262.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stoler, J., Daniels, D., Weeks, J. R., Stow, D. A., Coulter, L. L., & Finch, B. K. (2012). Assessing the utility of satellite imagery with differing spatial resolutions for deriving proxy measures of slum presence in Accra, Ghana. GIScience & Remote Sensing, 49, 31–52.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stow, D., Lopez, A., Lippitt, C., Hinton, S., & Weeks, J. (2007). Object-based classification of residential land use within Accra, Ghana based on QuickBird satellite data. International Journal of Remote Sensing, 28, 5167–5173.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stow, D. A., Lippitt, C. D., & Weeks, J. R. (2010). Geographic object-based delineation of neighborhoods of Accra, Ghana using QuickBird satellite imagery. Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing, 76, 907.

    Google Scholar 

  • Subramanian, S. V., Jones, K., & Duncan, C. (2003). Multilevel methods for public health research. In I. Kawachi & L. F. Berkman (Eds.), Neighborhoods and health. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tatalovich, Z., Wilson, J. P., Milam, J. E., Jerrett, M., & McConnell, R. (2006). Competing definitions of contextual environments. International Journal of Health Geographics, 5, 55.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • UN-Habitat. (2003). The challenge of slums – Global report on human settlements 2003. Nairobi: UN Habitat.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vlahov, D., Freudenberg, N., Proietti, F., Ompad, D., Quinn, A., Nandi, V., & Galea, S. (2007). Urban as a determinant of health. Journal of Urban Health, 84, 16–26.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ware, J. E., & Sherbourne, C. D. (1992). The MOS 36-item short-form health survey (SF-36): I. Conceptual framework and item selection. Medical Care, 30(6), 473–483.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weeks, J., Hill, A., Stow, D., Getis, A., & Fugate, D. (2007). Can we spot a neighborhood from the air? Defining neighborhood structure in Accra, Ghana. GeoJournal, 69, 9–22.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weeks, J., Getis, A., Hill, A., Agyei-Mensah, S., & Rain, D. (2010). Neighborhoods and fertility in Accra, Ghana: An AMOEBA-based approach. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 100, 558–578.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weiss, L., Ompad, D., Galea, S., & Vlahov, D. (2007). Defining neighborhood boundaries for urban health research. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 32, S154–S159.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This research was funded in part by grant number R01 HD054906 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (“Health, Poverty and Place in Accra, Ghana,” John R. Weeks, Project Director/Principal Investigator). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development or the National Institutes of Health. Additional funding was provided by Hewlett/PRB (“Reproductive and Overall Health Outcomes and Their Economic Consequences for Households in Accra, Ghana,” Allan G. Hill, Project Director/Principal Investigator). The 2003 Women’s Health Study of Accra was funded by the World Health Organization, the US Agency for International Development, and the Fulbright New Century Scholars Award (Allan G. Hill, Principal Investigator).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, San Diego State University, 5500 Campanile Drive, 92182-4493, San Diego, CA, USA

    Marta Jankowska

Authors
  1. Marta Jankowska
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Marta Jankowska .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Department of Geography, San Diego State University, Storm Hall 308, San Diego, 92182-4493, California, USA

    John R. Weeks

  2. , Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, University of Southampton, Murray Building, Highfield 58, Southampton, SO17 1BJ, United Kingdom

    Allan G. Hill

  3. , Dept of Geography and Regional Studies, University of Miami, Memorial Drive 1000, Coral Gables, 33124-2221, Florida, USA

    Justin Stoler

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Jankowska, M. (2013). Neighborhoods of Health: Comparing Boundaries for Measuring Contextual Effects on Health in Accra, Ghana. In: Weeks, J., Hill, A., Stoler, J. (eds) Spatial Inequalities. GeoJournal Library, vol 110. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6732-4_3

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation