The impact of neighborhood environments on lifestyle, socioeconomic health disparities, and cardiovascular disease

It is well-known that low levels of exercise and poor diet can lead to many chronic diseases. These behaviors may be partly due to the design and features of neighborhoods which may make it harder to achieve healthy habits. This thesis evaluated how unhealthy neighborhood environments can contribute to higher levels of heart disease. Three types of environments that were investigated were the food environment (quality of restaurants and markets nearby), walkability (walking paths and parks), and social cohesion. It was discovered that the food environment did not relate to diet quality or heart disease, though the combined food retailers in the Maastricht region are slightly unhealthy. It was then found that more walkable neighborhoods were related to more physical activity and less sedentary behavior as well as less heart disease. Finally, the more socially connected a neighborhood was, the healthier the residents were in terms of diet and physical activity, as well as lower rates of heart disease.