TY - JOUR
T1 - Disparities in exposure to surrounding greenness related to proportion of the population that were immigrants to the United States
AU - Fong, Kelvin C.
AU - Mehta, Neil K.
AU - Bell, Michelle L.
N1 - Funding Information:
This publication was developed under Assistance Agreement No. RD835871 awarded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to Yale University. It has not been formally reviewed by EPA. The views expressed in this document are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Agency. EPA does not endorse any products or commercial services mentioned in this publication. Research reported in this publication was also supported by the National Institute On Minority Health And Health Disparities of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R01MD012769 . The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. This study did not involve experimentation of human or animal subjects.
Funding Information:
This publication was developed under Assistance Agreement No. RD835871 awarded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to Yale University. It has not been formally reviewed by EPA. The views expressed in this document are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Agency. EPA does not endorse any products or commercial services mentioned in this publication. Research reported in this publication was also supported by the National Institute On Minority Health And Health Disparities of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R01MD012769. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Elsevier GmbH
PY - 2020/3
Y1 - 2020/3
N2 - The proportion of the United States (US) population who are immigrants (i.e., foreign-born) has been rising. Compared to the US-born, immigrants have different health risks, and prior studies could not fully explain these differences by diet and socioeconomic status. Surrounding greenness, an environmental exposure linked to better health, potentially contributes to differences in health risks between immigrants and the US-born. Using satellite imagery, we assessed exposure to surrounding greenness, as estimated by the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and enhanced vegetation index (EVI), in US Census tracts in 2000 and 2010. We then investigated the association between the percentage of the population that were immigrants and greenness using spatial error regression. Adjusted for median household income, urbanicity, educational attainment, unemployment, elderly and youth population proportion, and ecozone, Census tracts with ~10% higher overall immigrant percentage points were, on average, ~0.06 NDVI/EVI interquartile range lower, indicating lower greenness. The pattern of negative associations was most consistent when the immigrant country of origin was in Latin America. Conversely, when the immigrant country of origin was in Europe, we found mostly positive associations. Our findings suggest an environmental exposure disparity by immigrant status, motivating future work on environmental contributions to health disparities between immigrants and the US-born.
AB - The proportion of the United States (US) population who are immigrants (i.e., foreign-born) has been rising. Compared to the US-born, immigrants have different health risks, and prior studies could not fully explain these differences by diet and socioeconomic status. Surrounding greenness, an environmental exposure linked to better health, potentially contributes to differences in health risks between immigrants and the US-born. Using satellite imagery, we assessed exposure to surrounding greenness, as estimated by the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and enhanced vegetation index (EVI), in US Census tracts in 2000 and 2010. We then investigated the association between the percentage of the population that were immigrants and greenness using spatial error regression. Adjusted for median household income, urbanicity, educational attainment, unemployment, elderly and youth population proportion, and ecozone, Census tracts with ~10% higher overall immigrant percentage points were, on average, ~0.06 NDVI/EVI interquartile range lower, indicating lower greenness. The pattern of negative associations was most consistent when the immigrant country of origin was in Latin America. Conversely, when the immigrant country of origin was in Europe, we found mostly positive associations. Our findings suggest an environmental exposure disparity by immigrant status, motivating future work on environmental contributions to health disparities between immigrants and the US-born.
KW - Environmental disparity
KW - Green space
KW - Immigrant health
KW - Normalized difference vegetation index
KW - Spatial regression
KW - Surrounding greenness
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U2 - 10.1016/j.ijheh.2019.113434
DO - 10.1016/j.ijheh.2019.113434
M3 - Article
C2 - 31978731
AN - SCOPUS:85076566910
SN - 1438-4639
VL - 224
JO - International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health
JF - International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health
M1 - 113434
ER -