The impact of urban regeneration programmes on health and health-related behaviour: Evaluation of the Dutch District Approach 6.5 years from the start

Abstract

BackgroundLarge-scale regeneration programmes to improve the personal conditions and living circumstances in deprived areas may affect health and the lifestyle of the residents. Previous evaluations concluded that a large-scale urban regeneration programme in the Netherlands had some positive effects within 3.5 years. The aim of the current study was to evaluate the effects at the longer run.MethodsWith a quasi-experimental research design we assessed changes in the prevalence of general health, mental health, physical activity, overweight, obesity, and smoking between the pre-intervention (2003–04 –mid 2008) and intervention period (mid 2008–2013–14) in 40 deprived target districts and comparably deprived control districts. We used the Difference-in-Difference (DiD) to assess programme impact. Additionally, we stratified analyses by sex and by the intensity of the regeneration programme.ResultsChanges in health and health related behaviours from pre-intervention to the intervention period were about equally large in the target districts as in control districts. DiD impact estimates were inconsistent and not statistically significant. Sex differences in DiD estimates were not consistent or significant. Furthermore, DiD impact estimates were not consistently larger in target districts with more intensive intervention programmes.ConclusionWe found no evidence that this Dutch urban regeneration programme had an impact in the longer run on self-reported health and related behaviour at the area level.

Health Benefits of Physical Activity Related to an Urban Riverside Regeneration

“…Previous studies have examined the impacts on health of other types of urban regeneration projects: urban regeneration programs in deprived Dutch districts [31,35] and in Northern Ireland [36]; urban regeneration implying neighborhood demolition and relocation [32]; the regeneration of a port area in a deteriorated region of the Bay of Pasaia—Spain [33]; a vacant lot greening program in Philadelphia U.S. [37]; and the regeneration of a street in the historical centre of Seville—Spain [34]. Results are mixed, with some projects showing positive relationships to health outcomes [31,37]; some reporting little or no benefits [35,36], and others finding inconsistent results [32,33,34]. However, to our knowledge, this is the first study assessing health and health-related economic impacts of an urban riverside park regeneration project.…”

“…Such co-benefits may play an important role in reducing the disease burden associated with aspects of urban living such as air pollution, noise, and lack of natural spaces where people can engage in health-promoting physical activities, sedentary behavior, obesity, poor mental health, and other non-communicable chronic diseases [27,28,29,30]. The regeneration of under-used, inadequately designed, or decayed urban spaces (including natural outdoor environments located in urban areas) is now a relatively common phenomenon globally, but not many studies have estimated the impacts of existing interventions in terms of health and well-being [31,32,33,34,35,36,37].…”

Built environment stakeholders’ experiences of implementing healthy urban development: an exploratory study

“…Cities in Sweden and the Netherlands are often cited as examples of sustainable and healthy urban form, particularly with regards to cycling infrastructure (Creutzig, Mühlhoff, andRömer 2012, Fishman et al 2015). Recently, scholars have investigated the health impacts of urban regeneration in the Netherlands, yet the focus has been predominately on socioeconomic over environmental improvements (Droomers et al 2014, Ruijsbroek et al 2017. The European WHO Healthy Cities programme widely promoted healthy urban planning.…”

Estimating the Impacts of Area Regeneration Programmes in Scotland on Health and Unemployment: a quasi-experimental approach

“…Other researchers however (e.g. Ruijsbroek et al, 2017) argue that time-lags of five or six years can be adequate to observe positive results from regeneration efforts regarding other health outcomes. For example, symptom reduction of conditions such as asthma and depression can feasibly be impacted within shorter time frames.…”