Journal of urban health : bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine
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Pedal cycling is advocated for increasing physical activity and promoting health and wellbeing. However, whilst some countries have achieved zero cyclist deaths on their roads, this is not the case for Great Britain (GB). A retrospective cross-sectional analysis was conducted of STATS19 cyclist crash data, a dataset of all police-reported traffic crashes in GB. ⋯ Sixteen thousand one hundred seventy pedal cycle crashes were reported during 2018. Severe or fatal cyclist crash injury was associated with increasing age of the cyclist (35-39 years, OR 1.38, 95% CI 1.11 to 1.73; 55-59 years, OR 1.73, 95% CI 1.35 to 2.2; 70 years and over, OR 2.87, 95% CI 2.12 to 3.87), higher road speed limits (50 MPH OR 2.10, 95% CI 1.43 to 3.07; 70 MPH OR 4.12, 95% CI 2.12 to 8.03), the involvement of goods vehicles (OR 2.08, 95% CI 1.30 to 3.33) and the months of May and June (OR 1.34 to 1.36, 95% CI 1.06 to 1.73). Urban planning that includes physical separation of pedal cyclists from other road users, raising awareness around the risks from goods vehicles and reducing road speed should be the urgent focus of interventions to increase the benefits and safety of cycling.
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While SARS-CoV-2 is a novel virus, contagious respiratory illnesses are not a new problem. Limited research has examined the extent to which place- and race-based disparities in severe illness are similar across waves of the COVID-19 pandemic and historic influenza seasons. In this study, we focused on these disparities within a low-income population, those enrolled in Medicaid in New York City. ⋯ Black/white disparities in hospitalization dissipated in the second COVID wave and reversed in the third wave. The commonality of disparities across influenza seasons and the first wave of COVID-19 suggests there are community factors that increase hospitalization risk across novel respiratory illness incidents that emerge in the period before aggressive public health intervention. By contrast, convergence in hospitalization patterns in later pandemic waves may reflect, in part, the distinctive public health response to COVID-19.
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Although shrinking neighbourhoods are places where urban citizens experience negative emotions, some evidence suggests that people in some shrinking neighbourhoods feel less negative emotions than in other areas. Nevertheless, empirical studies that analyse environmental and personal elements that affect people's emotions in a shrinking neighbourhood remain insufficient. This is rather surprising, considering an increasing interest in the effects of negative emotions on individuals' health. ⋯ The results also found that people who had lived or worked in the neighbourhood for a long time and were women experienced more positive emotions than visitors and men. This finding implies that a shrinking neighbourhood can maintain a sense of satisfaction as long as the area is carefully managed. Revealing the emotional effects of environmental and personal characteristics in a shrinking neighbourhood can be used for planning practices and policy-making to create healthy and liveable urban neighbourhoods.