Urban renewal and health : the effects of the Neighbourhoods Law on health and health inequalities in Barcelona

Urban renewal interventions aim to improve physical infrastrucutres, promote social integration and increase economic gains. However, they also have the potential to improve the wellbeing of residents. The objective of this dissertation was to better understand how an urban renewal policy, the Neigh...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Mehdipanah, Roshanak
Tipo de recurso: tesis doctoral
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2014
País:España
Institución:CBUC, CESCA
Repositorio:TDR. Tesis Doctorales en Red
OAI Identifier:oai:www.tdx.cat:10803/301438
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10803/301438
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Urban renewal
Health inequalities
Evaluation
Mixed-methods
Concept mapping
Theory-driven
Barcelona
Regeneració urbana
Desigualtats en salut
Quasi-experimental
614
Descripción
Sumario:Urban renewal interventions aim to improve physical infrastrucutres, promote social integration and increase economic gains. However, they also have the potential to improve the wellbeing of residents. The objective of this dissertation was to better understand how an urban renewal policy, the Neighbourhoods Law, could affect health and health inequality in Barcelona, Spain. Using a mixed-methods approach, three studies were produced to better understand this connection. The first study used Concept Mapping techniques to study the perception of neighbours towards changes that had occurred in their intervened neighbourhoods in recent years and their importance for their wellbeing. The second study used the Barcelona Health Survey to analyse poor self-rated health and mental health status in women and men, before and after the intervention in participating neighbourhoods while comparing them to a group of non-intervened neighbourhood but with similar socio-demographic characteristics. The analysis was repeated to introduce the dimension of health inequality using social (occupational) class as a stratifying indicator. The third study used the results attained from previous studies and the existing literature to propose possible mechanisms linking urban renewal to health. The results from these studies indicate that the Neighbourhoods Law had a positive effect on residents’ health and health inequality.