Greenspace and Infant Mortality in Philadelphia, PA

Leah H. Schinasi, Harrison Quick, Jane E. Clougherty, Anneclaire J. De Roos

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

20 Scopus citations

Abstract

Despite mounting evidence that urban greenspace protects against mortality in adults, few studies have explored the relationship between greenspace and death among infants. Here, we describe results from an analysis of associations between greenness and infant mortality in Philadelphia, PA. We used images of the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), derived from processed satellite data, to estimate greenness density in each census tract. We linked these data with census tract level counts of total infant mortality cases (n = 963) and births (n = 113,610) in years 2010–2014, and used Bayesian spatial areal unit, conditional autoregressive models to estimate associations between greenness and infant mortality. The models included a set of random effects to account for spatial autocorrelation between neighboring census tracts. Infant mortality counts were modeled using a Poisson distribution, and the logarithm of total births in each census tract was specified as the offset term. The following variables were included as potential confounders and effect modifiers: percentage non-Hispanic black, percentage living below the poverty line, an indicator of housing quality, and population density. In adjusted models, the rate of infant mortality was 27% higher in less green compared to more green tracts (95% CI 1.02–1.59). These results contribute further evidence that greenspace may be a health promoting environmental asset.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)497-506
Number of pages10
JournalJournal of Urban Health
Volume96
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 15 2019
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank the Drexel University Urban Health Collaborative, who helped to prepare some of the data that they used in these analyses.

Funding Information:
Funding information This work was supported, in part, by a grant from the Commonwealth University Research Enhancement (C.U.R.E.) program, funded by the Pennsylvania Department of Health, 2015 Formula award SAP # 4100072543.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2019, The New York Academy of Medicine.

Keywords

  • Epidemiology
  • Geospatial
  • Greenspace
  • Infant mortality
  • Spatial
  • Urban health
  • Urban landscape

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