Associations of neighbourhood greenness with physical and mental health : do walking, social coherence and local social interaction explain the relationships?

Background: Studies have shown associations between health indices and access to “green” environments but the underlying mechanisms of this association are not clear.

Objectives: To examine associations of perceived neighbourhood “greenness” with perceived physical and mental health and to investigate whether walking and social factors account for the relationships.

Methods: A mailed survey collected the following data from adults (n  =  1895) in Adelaide, Australia: physical and mental health scores (12-item short-form health survey); perceived neighbourhood greenness; walking for recreation and for transport; social coherence; local social interaction and sociodemographic variables.

Results: After adjusting for sociodemographic variables, those who perceived their neighbourhood as highly green had 1.37 and 1.60 times higher odds of better physical and mental health, respectively, compared with those who perceived the lowest greenness. Perceived greenness was also correlated with recreational walking and social factors. When walking for recreation and social factors were added to the regression models, recreational walking was a significant predictor of physical health; however, the association between greenness and physical health became non-significant. Recreational walking and social coherence were associated with mental health and the relationship between greenness and mental health remained significant.

Conclusions: Perceived neighbourhood greenness was more strongly associated with mental health than it was with physical health. Recreational walking seemed to explain the link between greenness and physical health, whereas the relationship between greenness and mental health was only partly accounted for by recreational walking and social coherence. The restorative effects of natural environments may be involved in the residual association of this latter relationship.

Are perceptions of the local environment related to neighbourhood satisfaction and mental health in adults?

Background: Perceptions of environmental attributes can influence satisfaction with where people live and mental health status. We examined the association between perceived environmental characteristics, neighbourhood satisfaction, and self-rated mental health.

Methods: We report cross-sectional data from the Physical Activity in Localities and Community Environments (PLACE) study in Australia (n = 2194). Self-report data included socio-demographics, perceived attributes of the environment, neighbourhood satisfaction (NS) and mental health status. Neighbourhood SES was obtained through census data. Factor analysis was used to identify dimensions of NS. Generalized linear models were used to examine associations between NS and perceived environment characteristics and whether aspects of NS were independently associated with mental health.

Results: NS factors identified were safety and walkability, access to destinations, social network, travel network, and traffic and noise. Perceived environmental characteristics of aesthetics and greenery, land use mix – diversity, street connectivity, traffic safety, infrastructure for walking, access to services and barriers to walking were found to be positively associated with these factors. Traffic load and crime were negatively associated. Three NS factors (safety and walkability, social network, and traffic and noise) were independent predictors of mental health.

Conclusions: Neighbourhood satisfaction may mediate the association between perceived environmental characteristics and measures of mental health in adults.

New techniques and issues in assessing walking behavior and its contexts

In the first section of this article, we discuss the metabolic responses to walking by describing the economy of walking during different locomotion velocities. Gender, weight status, and growth effects on metabolic responses to walking are reviewed. In the second section, we examine the use of technology to assess walking patterns and behavior in the community. We use an engineering approach for understanding how to measure objects that move, and these methods are used to assess walking used in transportation. In the third part of the paper, we summarize self-report methods that have been used to assess walking behavior and highlight the strengths and weaknesses of these methods. We illustrate how self-report methods are used to quantify walking behavior in the surveillance systems that are now widely used to ascertain walking prevalence and temporal changes in different populations. In the final section, we discuss ways of measuring the walkability of neighborhoods and the community to understand the influence of the built environment on walking behavior.

Corporate social responsibility, new activism and public relations

Purpose – This paper aims to analyse why some contemporary corporate organisations are reluctant to articulate the effect of their market positioning behaviour on the unwilling communities that oppose their activities. It describes the communicative interactions between several large corporate organisations and the grassroots activist groups opposing their activities, in Victoria, Australia.

Design/methodology/approach – Extensive secondary data were collected, including extensive newspaper and radio transcripts from the campaign periods, web site downloads, letters and other campaign documents. The research design applied to the data, a qualitative, interpretative analysis, drawing on key theoretical frameworks.

Findings – The research findings suggest that powerful protest strategies, combined with the right political and social conditions, and a shift in the locus of politics and expertise, bring to light public concerns about the ethics of corporate practices, such as public relations, used egocentrically by organisations, to harmonise their activities in late modern Western society. It finds that no serious overhaul of business ethics can occur until the unity of public relations is critically scrutinised and reformed. It helps define an alternative holistic communicative approach which could be applied more widely to business practice that helps avoid the limitations and relativism of public relations.

Originality/value – The research flags new ways of thinking expressed in the notion of public communication that could lead to creative and unusual coherences vital to deal with the apparent ecological challenges for society in late modernity.

New activism and communication in Australian risk society : a case study of the Otway Ranges Environment Network

This paper overviews a case study of environmental grassroots activism in Victoria, Australia, between 1995 and 2003. The Otway Ranges Environment Network (OREN) is significant for its successful communication campaign to change forest practices and policy decision-making in the Otway Ranges, and for its intervention in a long-standing and exclusive relationship between government and the timber industry. This paper describes and analyses pivotal parts of the OREN campaign: firstly, the group's strategy to boycott paper and pulp manufacture Kimberly-Clark Australia; and secondly, its decision to participate in the West Victoria Regional Forest Agreement (RFA) process to negotiate the future of Otway forest. Informed by the empirical research and the works of social theorists Ulrich Beck and Jurgen Habermas, this paper outlines a strategic approach to communication that is effective, fair and sustainable, and that can be applied by other non-profits - especially those that operate in politically volatile environments with a grassroots agenda.

Identifying the health and mental health information needs of people with coronary heart disease, with and without depression

Objective:
To identify the health and mental health information needs of people with coronary heart disease (CHD), with and without comorbid depression.

Design and setting:
A qualitative study conducted in Melbourne in 2006, using thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews on the types of health information that patients with CHD considered useful to assist with the management of their illness. Structured clinical interviews were used to assess current and prior depressive episodes in these patients.

Participants:
14 general practice patients (eight with current or prior history of major depression) who had experienced myocardial infarction, coronary artery bypass graft surgery, angioplasty or angina (confirmed via testing).

Results:
Four themes relating to information on how patients could manage their cardiovascular health and improve their psychosocial wellbeing emerged: psychosocial; physical activity; medical; and information for family. The most prominent information needs included identification and management of risk-related physical symptoms, and psychosocial information, most notably to enhance patients’ social support. Patients considered this information important for alleviating health anxiety and negative affect.

Conclusion:
This small patient sample endorsed the need for health and mental health information on a range of psychosocial and physical health topics. Participants desired specific types of information to assist with the self-management of their health and to assuage their health concerns.

The changing face of the Australian teaching profession : new generations and new ways of working and learning

Today’s workforce is characterised by an increasing mix of people with varying career aspirations, work motivators and job satisfiers. This paper discusses the intergenerational nature of today’s workforce, which is currently dominated by the age groups commonly referred to as Baby Boomers and Generation X. The Baby Boomers defined and redefined work during the last quarter of the twentieth century, but as they track towards retirement, GenXers’ valued work patterns and their career and life aspirations are increasingly dominating. This paper draws on a body of literature about a younger generation of workers and the current world of work in today’s knowledge society, and discusses possible implications for the teaching profession, particularly for attracting and retaining young people as teachers.

Why do Australians, New Zealanders and Americans travel to Fiji? Evidence from cointegration, unit roots and parameter stability tests

The aim of this study was to estimate the demand for Fiji’s tourism from its three main source markets—Australia, New Zealand, and the US—using the bounds testing approach to cointegration. Our main finding was that visitor arrivals to Fiji and its key determinants are cointegrated over the 1970–2000 period. We then used the autoregressive distributed lag model to estimate short-run and long-run elasticities and found that income in origin countries, transport costs, and prices were significant determinants of Fiji’s tourism demand. We also found that coups negatively impact visitor arrivals from all markets. In testing for parameter stability, we established that the series were integrated of order one in the presence of a structural break. We then used the Hansen test for parameter stability and found that the parameters of our long-run model are stable over time.

Australia, New Zealand and Pacific security : a constructivist comparison

This thesis presents a comparative analysis of Australian and New Zealand foreign policy in the Pacific with particular emphasis on the Bougainville and Solomon Islands peace interventions. Through a constructivist lens, it argues that New Zealand's policies have been more effective and culturally appropriate than Australia's in recent years.

Study of 'post-critical' thought and religious epistemology : with special reference to Michael Polanyi, Paul Tillich and Thomas F. Torrance

Explores the foundational problem in epistemology posed by Immanuel Kant and illustrates, from the 'post-critical' position, with special reference to Michael Polanyi, Paul Tillich and Thomas F. Torrance, how they serve as alternative philosophical and religious responses to the Kantian critical philosophy.