Submitter and Co-author information

Sydney Chapados, University of WindsorFollow

Standing

Graduate Student

Type of Proposal

Visual Presentation (Poster, Installation, Demonstration)

Faculty

Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences

Proposal

This theoretically based paper explores how living in a low-income neighborhood influences both individual and population health. While health has been dominated by biological and psychological understandings, one’s interactions with the built and constructed environment have serious implications for one’s health. Using a social determinants of health approach, this paper determines that increased experiences of stigma, poor infrastructure and access to resources, and exposure to negative health behaviours can all be a direct result of the place in which one resides. Ethnographic examples, qualitative data and biological explanations are used to demonstrate these negative effects. However, groups which do live in low-income neighborhoods participate in a variety of activities in order to negotiate their position for survival. The paper concludes that health models that exclude social or physical location are insufficient, while providing suggestions for future policy.

Location

University of Windsor

Grand Challenges

Viable, Healthy and Safe Communities

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Host-Agent-Neighbourhood? How Social and Physical Location Influences Health and Well-Being

University of Windsor

This theoretically based paper explores how living in a low-income neighborhood influences both individual and population health. While health has been dominated by biological and psychological understandings, one’s interactions with the built and constructed environment have serious implications for one’s health. Using a social determinants of health approach, this paper determines that increased experiences of stigma, poor infrastructure and access to resources, and exposure to negative health behaviours can all be a direct result of the place in which one resides. Ethnographic examples, qualitative data and biological explanations are used to demonstrate these negative effects. However, groups which do live in low-income neighborhoods participate in a variety of activities in order to negotiate their position for survival. The paper concludes that health models that exclude social or physical location are insufficient, while providing suggestions for future policy.