Environment Influence on People Health

The environment is the space represented by everything that people can see, breathe, and get involved in. It is defined as the location where people live including neighborhood’s characteristics, as well as atmospheric features regarding climate, humidity, and pollution. The environment is increasingly taken into account by experts to start behavior changes and get good health at the population.

Some authors have described the importance of environments features not only to get sustainable behavior changes about health but, to explain the origin of unhealthy habits even health issues as obesity that are well-known nowadays for their fatal consequences. These investigators have pointed out the government as responsible for ensuring the ideal conditions of each neighborhood to provide all the resources for the population to be healthy.

But, we are afraid that it is more complex than that, it is true that each state has the duty to guarantee that every community has the same possibilities to be healthy regardless of any economic condition, however, the communities have the duty to be aware of the importance to get involve into their neighborhood development as well as the access to better and adequate health choices.

Certainly, there are numerous investigations that have established a positive relationship between neighborhoods which have adequate walk paths, bikeways, recreational areas and landscapes cared with people who are aware of their health and are really involved in physical activities and healthy eating, because have easy access to healthy food through farmer markets and supermarkets, instead convenience stores contributing in this way to reduce the obesity and depression rates.

It looks like as if the neighborhoods named “low and high income” have predefined features according to their socio-economic status and these special characteristics determine how will be conceived their importance in the disease prevention process. The unrighteousness could have been operating during all these years as consequence of an unequal distribution of priorities and the underestimation of people’s need that are less favored and as consequence have to get through worse environmental conditions and poor health.

The predefined features of each neighborhood are established also by social determinants such as educational status, unemployment rate, number of dysfunctional families and violence rate. It is increasingly common to see programs to improve neighborhood environments based on people needs, in fact, there are recent regulations and ordinances related to diversifying the food options at the schools providing to the students healthy choices and encouraging them to do physical activities contributing to improve their health and prevent diseases.

Studies developed into low-income neighborhoods where the appearance of walls, streets, and common areas showed carelessness and deterioration revealed a strong inclination to chronic diseases, mental disorders, and domestic violence, in fact, the highest crime rate, drug abuse, and school dropout. People who live in better environments with an availability of healthy food choices, sidewalks, walkways, and safely common areas can enjoy better health increasing their life expectancy and quality of life.

We can see projects related to improving neighborhood landscapes increasing green areas to invite people to rest, encouraging to physical activities what would help to prevent chronic diseases related to obesity, reducing disability rate improving health at the end.

Nobody can see what they do not know, for that reason is indispensable give to people know the tools how to improve their communities regardless what is their economic status and even more what they really are, because where the people live should not constitute a stigma to define who they are, or even worse what kind of health they should have.

This holistic approach also named ecological approach implies how the surrounding environment can affect the individual and could represent an effective alternative to address not only health situations but all levels of people attention into the communities representing a solution for a better life at the end.

In short, people health would be affected by environmental conditions to the extent the carelessness and deterioration have had more strength and were the apathy, indifference, and ignorance dominate from inside, for that reason it is indispensable the community know about improve their own neighborhoods but above all, their active participation because nobody knows better their communities that people who live in them.

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References

1. LM, Blazer DG. The Impact of Social and Cultural Environment on Health Behavior, and the Social Environment: Moving Beyond the Nature/Nurture Debate. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 2006. 2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK19924/. Accessed October 10, 2017.

2. Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Healthy People 2020. Environmental Health. https://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topics-objectives/topic/environmental-health. Accessed October 10, 2017.

3. Ecological Approach. Violence Prevention Alliance. http://www.who.int/violenceprevention/approach/ecology/en/. Accessed October 10, 2017

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