Neighborhood Assets and Hypertension in Disadvantaged Communities

Many disadvantaged neighborhoods have been shown to lack the resources available to live a healthy lifestyle and combat chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease. What is less known is how community assets in disadvantaged neighborhood environments impact cardiovascular disease risk factors. The goal of this study is to evaluate the association between the presence of community assets and hypertension prevalence in a low income area. This study used 2003 data from the Exploring Health Disparities in Integrated Communities (EHDIC) study, a household sample of 1408 adults living in a low income neighborhood in Baltimore, Maryland. Trained independent raters collected desirable and undesirable neighborhood characteristics for each respondent's street segment. A Generalized Estimating Equation (GEE) was used to determine associations between presence of community assets and hypertension, while adjusting for having one or more undesirable neighborhood characteristic, socio-demographic variables, health related factors and community duration. The presence of a general store (Odds Ratio(OR): 0.69, CI: 0.50-0.96) and a recreational facility (OR: 0.42, Confidence Interval (CI): 0.23-0.77) on the street segment predicted lower odds of hypertension for those respondents who lived on the street segment as compared to those that did not have these items present on their street segment. Our results show that the presence of a general store and recreational facilities in a respondent's street segment is associated with lower hypertension prevalence. Future studies should address the accessibility and quality of these resources. In addition, research and interventions should be done to help community residents use these community assets.