IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/urbstu/v54y2017i5p1211-1234.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The spatial pattern of premature mortality in Hong Kong: How does it relate to public housing?

Author

Listed:
  • Jens Kandt

    (London School of Economics and Political Science, UK; University College London, UK)

  • Shu-Sen Chang

    (National Taiwan University, Taiwan)

  • Paul Yip

    (The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong)

  • Ricky Burdett

    (London School of Economics and Political Science, UK)

Abstract

Research into understanding the relationship between access to housing, health and wellbeing in cities has yielded mixed evidence to date and has been limited to case studies from Western countries. Many studies appear to highlight the negative effects of public housing in influencing the health of its residents. Current trends in the urban housing markets in cities of advanced Asian economies and debates surrounding the role of government in providing housing underscore the need for more focused research into housing and health. In this paper, we investigate Hong Kong as an example of a thriving Asian city by exploring and comparing the intra-urban geographies of premature mortality and public housing provision in the city. Using a fully Bayesian spatial structural model, we estimate associations between public housing provision and different types of premature mortality. We find significant geographic variations in premature mortality within Hong Kong during the five-year period 2005–2009, with positive associations between the residents of public housing and premature mortality risk. But the associations attenuate or are even reversed for premature mortality of injuries and non-communicable diseases after controlling for local deprivation, housing instability, access to local amenities and other neighbourhood characteristics. The results indicate that public housing may have a protective effect on community health, which contradicts the findings of similar studies carried out in Western cities. We suggest reasons why the association between public housing and health differs in Hong Kong and discuss the implications for housing policy in Hong Kong and other Asian cities.

Suggested Citation

  • Jens Kandt & Shu-Sen Chang & Paul Yip & Ricky Burdett, 2017. "The spatial pattern of premature mortality in Hong Kong: How does it relate to public housing?," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 54(5), pages 1211-1234, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:54:y:2017:i:5:p:1211-1234
    DOI: 10.1177/0042098015620341
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0042098015620341
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0042098015620341?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Chris Hamnett, 2010. "Moving the Poor Out of Central London? The Implications of the Coalition Government 2010 Cuts to Housing Benefits," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 42(12), pages 2809-2819, December.
    2. Cheung, Yee Tak Derek & Spittal, Matthew J. & Pirkis, Jane & Yip, Paul Siu Fai, 2012. "Spatial analysis of suicide mortality in Australia: Investigation of metropolitan-rural-remote differentials of suicide risk across states/territories," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(8), pages 1460-1468.
    3. Hsu, Chia-Yueh & Chang, Shu-Sen & Lee, Esther S.T. & Yip, Paul S.F., 2015. "“Geography of suicide in Hong Kong: Spatial patterning, and socioeconomic correlates and inequalities”," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 190-203.
    4. Hon-Kwong Lui, 2007. "The Redistributive Effect of Public Housing in Hong Kong," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 44(10), pages 1937-1952, September.
    5. P. Taylor, Mark & J. Pevalin, David & Todd, Jennifer, 2006. "The psychological costs of unsustainable housing commitments," ISER Working Paper Series 2006-08, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    6. Dunn, James R. & Hayes, Michael V., 2000. "Social inequality, population health, and housing: a study of two Vancouver neighborhoods," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 51(4), pages 563-587, August.
    7. Burgard, Sarah A. & Seefeldt, Kristin S. & Zelner, Sarah, 2012. "Housing instability and health: Findings from the Michigan recession and recovery study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(12), pages 2215-2224.
    8. Julian Besag & Jeremy York & Annie Mollié, 1991. "Bayesian image restoration, with two applications in spatial statistics," Annals of the Institute of Statistical Mathematics, Springer;The Institute of Statistical Mathematics, vol. 43(1), pages 1-20, March.
    9. Krieger, J. & Higgins, D.L., 2002. "Housing and health: Time again for public health action," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 92(5), pages 758-768.
    10. Jacobs, D.E., 2011. "Environmental health disparities in housing," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 101(SUPPL. 1), pages 115-122.
    11. Claudio O. Delang & Ho Cheuk Lung, 2010. "Public Housing and Poverty Concentration in Urban Neighbourhoods: The Case of Hong Kong in the 1990s," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 47(7), pages 1391-1413, June.
    12. Mary Schooling, C. & Lau, Elaine W.L. & Tin, Keith Y.K. & Leung, Gabriel M., 2010. "Social disparities and cause-specific mortality during economic development," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 70(10), pages 1550-1557, May.
    13. Håvard Rue & Sara Martino & Nicolas Chopin, 2009. "Approximate Bayesian inference for latent Gaussian models by using integrated nested Laplace approximations," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series B, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 71(2), pages 319-392, April.
    14. Meijer, Mathias & Röhl, Jeannette & Bloomfield, Kim & Grittner, Ulrike, 2012. "Do neighborhoods affect individual mortality? A systematic review and meta-analysis of multilevel studies," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(8), pages 1204-1212.
    15. Ray Forrest & Ngai-Ming Yip, 2014. "The Future for Reluctant Intervention: The Prospects for Hong Kong's Public Rental Sector," Housing Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(4), pages 551-565, June.
    16. Dalstra, J.A.A. & Kunst, A.E. & Mackenbach, J.P., 2006. "A comparative appraisal of the relationship of education, income and housing tenure with less than good health among the elderly in Europe," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(8), pages 2046-2060, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Zhe Huang & Emily Ying Yang Chan & Chi Shing Wong & Benny Chung Ying Zee, 2021. "Clustering of Socioeconomic Data in Hong Kong for Planning Better Community Health Protection," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(23), pages 1-21, November.
    2. Zhe Huang & Emily Ying-Yang Chan & Chi-Shing Wong & Sida Liu & Benny Chung-Ying Zee, 2022. "Health Disparity Resulting from the Effect of Built Environment on Temperature-Related Mortality in a Subtropical Urban Setting," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(14), pages 1-17, July.
    3. Chia-Yueh Hsu & Shu-Sen Chang & Paul Yip, 2017. "Individual-, household- and neighbourhood-level characteristics associated with life satisfaction: A multilevel analysis of a population-based sample from Hong Kong," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 54(16), pages 3700-3717, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hoke, Morgan K. & Boen, Courtney E., 2021. "The health impacts of eviction: Evidence from the national longitudinal study of adolescent to adult health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 273(C).
    2. Amy Clair, 2019. "Housing: an Under-Explored Influence on Children’s Well-Being and Becoming," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 12(2), pages 609-626, April.
    3. Fox Zhiyong Hu & Keelee Chou, 2016. "Public housing and educational attainment in Asia's global city: An empirical study of Hong Kong," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 34(8), pages 1867-1894, December.
    4. Shreosi Sanyal & Thierry Rochereau & Cara Nichole Maesano & Laure Com-Ruelle & Isabella Annesi-Maesano, 2018. "Long-Term Effect of Outdoor Air Pollution on Mortality and Morbidity: A 12-Year Follow-Up Study for Metropolitan France," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-8, November.
    5. Mayer Alvo & Jingrui Mu, 2023. "COVID-19 Data Analysis Using Bayesian Models and Nonparametric Geostatistical Models," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-13, March.
    6. Vanessa Santos-Sánchez & Juan Antonio Córdoba-Doña & Javier García-Pérez & Antonio Escolar-Pujolar & Lucia Pozzi & Rebeca Ramis, 2020. "Cancer Mortality and Deprivation in the Proximity of Polluting Industrial Facilities in an Industrial Region of Spain," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(6), pages 1-15, March.
    7. Min Zhou & Wei Guo, 2023. "Self-rated Health and Objective Health Status Among Rural-to-Urban Migrants in China: A Healthy Housing Perspective," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 42(1), pages 1-24, February.
    8. Massimo Bilancia & Giacomo Demarinis, 2014. "Bayesian scanning of spatial disease rates with integrated nested Laplace approximation (INLA)," Statistical Methods & Applications, Springer;Società Italiana di Statistica, vol. 23(1), pages 71-94, March.
    9. Douglas R. M. Azevedo & Marcos O. Prates & Dipankar Bandyopadhyay, 2021. "MSPOCK: Alleviating Spatial Confounding in Multivariate Disease Mapping Models," Journal of Agricultural, Biological and Environmental Statistics, Springer;The International Biometric Society;American Statistical Association, vol. 26(3), pages 464-491, September.
    10. Jonathan Wakefield & Taylor Okonek & Jon Pedersen, 2020. "Small Area Estimation for Disease Prevalence Mapping," International Statistical Review, International Statistical Institute, vol. 88(2), pages 398-418, August.
    11. Julien Riou & Anthony Hauser & Anna Fesser & Christian L. Althaus & Matthias Egger & Garyfallos Konstantinoudis, 2023. "Direct and indirect effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on mortality in Switzerland," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-9, December.
    12. Isabel Martínez-Pérez & Verónica González-Iglesias & Valentín Rodríguez Suárez & Ana Fernández-Somoano, 2021. "Spatial Distribution of Hospitalizations for Ischemic Heart Diseases in the Central Region of Asturias, Spain," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(23), pages 1-10, November.
    13. Johnson, Blair T. & Sisti, Anthony & Bernstein, Mary & Chen, Kun & Hennessy, Emily A. & Acabchuk, Rebecca L. & Matos, Michaela, 2021. "Community-level factors and incidence of gun violence in the United States, 2014–2017," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 280(C).
    14. Maike Tahden & Juliane Manitz & Klaus Baumgardt & Gerhard Fell & Thomas Kneib & Guido Hegasy, 2016. "Epidemiological and Ecological Characterization of the EHEC O104:H4 Outbreak in Hamburg, Germany, 2011," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(10), pages 1-19, October.
    15. Márcio Poletti Laurini, 2017. "A spatial error model with continuous random effects and an application to growth convergence," Journal of Geographical Systems, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 371-398, October.
    16. Radka Jersakova & James Lomax & James Hetherington & Brieuc Lehmann & George Nicholson & Mark Briers & Chris Holmes, 2022. "Bayesian imputation of COVID‐19 positive test counts for nowcasting under reporting lag," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series C, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 71(4), pages 834-860, August.
    17. Lin, Chien-Yu & Hsu, Chia-Yueh & Gunnell, David & Chen, Ying-Yeh & Chang, Shu-Sen, 2019. "Spatial patterning, correlates, and inequality in suicide across 432 neighborhoods in Taipei City, Taiwan," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 222(C), pages 20-34.
    18. Birgit Schrödle & Leonhard Held, 2011. "A primer on disease mapping and ecological regression using $${\texttt{INLA}}$$," Computational Statistics, Springer, vol. 26(2), pages 241-258, June.
    19. Darren J. Mayne & Geoffrey G. Morgan & Bin B. Jalaludin & Adrian E. Bauman, 2018. "Does Walkability Contribute to Geographic Variation in Psychosocial Distress? A Spatial Analysis of 91,142 Members of the 45 and Up Study in Sydney, Australia," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-24, February.
    20. Ana Carolina Carioca da Costa & Cláudia Torres Codeço & Elias Teixeira Krainski & Marcelo Ferreira da Costa Gomes & Aline Araújo Nobre, 2018. "Spatiotemporal diffusion of influenza A (H1N1): Starting point and risk factors," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(9), pages 1-20, September.

    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:sae:urbstu:v:54:y:2017:i:5:p:1211-1234. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/urbanstudiesjournal .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.