Drukker M, Van Os J. Mediators of neighborhood socioeconomic deprivation and quality of life. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology. 2003;38:698-706.
This study investigated associations between neighborhood socioeconomic status and health-related quality of life in Maastricht, Netherlands. The researchers measured socioeconomic deprivation at the neighborhood level with administrative data on single-parent families, ethnicity, nonvoters, unemployment, unemployment for more than one year, social security, social security for more than three years, mean income, mean income for persons employed 52 weeks a year, percentage high income, percentage low income, and percentage economically inactive. They found that neighborhood socioeconomic deprivation was associated with lower levels of perceived physical and mental health. Modeling of the data suggested that lifestyle variables-smoking, drinking, consumption of fruits and vegetables, body mass index, and daily bicycle use-were mediators in these relationships (i.e., on the pathway connecting neighborhood with physical and mental health). Neighborhood coziness (a combination of closeness, warmth, and friendliness) and social contacts also appeared to be mediators for neighborhood socioeconomic deprivation and perceived health.
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