Author
Listed:
- Parga, João Pedro Figueira Amorim
- Tiznado-Aitken, Ignacio
- Jamal, Shaila
- Farber, Steven
- Yu, Anton
- Higgins, Christopher
Abstract
Addressing inadequate accessibility in suburban areas is crucial for reducing inequalities in transportation and improving suburbanites’ well-being. Afterall, insufficient accessibility to health is linked to worse health conditions. Moreover, urban sprawl, subpar transit, and automobile dependency prevail in suburbs, making them loci of inequalities in accessibility and, consequently, of potential worse health outcomes for residents. Due to their predictive capacity, subjective health indicators have been extensively researched. Knowledge on Self-Rated Health’s (SRH) link to accessibility in suburbs, however, is incomplete because the field seldom considers individuals’ perceptions. This article examines the association between accessibility and SRH in suburban areas. Using ordinal logistic regressions and data from a survey in Scarborough, Canada, we investigate if accessibility measures estimated from land-use and transportation network data (estimated measures), perceived accessibility, and perceptions of the built environment are associated with SRH. We explore these connections with different domains of SRH (mental, physical and overall). We find that living in areas with higher estimated accessibility measures is positively correlated with better SRH, whereas unsatisfactory perceived accessibility is negatively associated. Additionally, suburbanites who prioritize access to healthcare nearby have lower odds of having better health, meaning that residents who would like to see healthcare access improve are more likely to have worst SRH. Estimated measures are positively associated with self-rated mental health, while reporting difficulty in paying for transport is negatively associated with physical health. These findings stress how multiple components of accessibility – from estimated to perceived measures– can be associated with people’s well-being. Results illuminate the relevance of considering perceptions, often overlooked, in accessibility and health analysis. Finally, the results put into question if suburbanites’ heterogenous needs are recognized in urban design in a context of recent suburbanization of poverty.
Suggested Citation
Parga, João Pedro Figueira Amorim & Tiznado-Aitken, Ignacio & Jamal, Shaila & Farber, Steven & Yu, Anton & Higgins, Christopher, 2024.
"Perceived accessibility and self-rated health: Examining subjective well-being in the suburbs of Scarborough, Canada,"
Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
Handle:
RePEc:eee:transa:v:190:y:2024:i:c:s0965856424003094
DOI: 10.1016/j.tra.2024.104261
Download full text from publisher
As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.
Corrections
All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:transa:v:190:y:2024:i:c:s0965856424003094. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.
If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.
We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .
If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.
For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/547/description#description .
Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through
the various RePEc services.