Faysal Kabir Shuvo

Objective: Higher neighbourhood walkability would be expected to contribute to better health, but the relevant evidence is inconsistent. This may be because residents’ dietary attributes, which vary with socio-economic status (SES) and influence their health, can be related to walkability. We examined associations of walkability with dietary attributes and potential effect modification by area-level SES.Design: The exposure variable of this cross-sectional study was neighbourhood walkability, calculated using residential density, intersection density and destination density within 1-km street-network buffer around each participant’s residence. The outcome variables were dietary patterns (Western, prudent and mixed) and total dietary energy intake, derived from a FFQ. Main and interaction effects with area-level SES were estimated using two-level linear regression models.Setting: Participants were from all states and territories in Australia.Participants: The analytical sample included 3590 participants (54 % women, age range 34 to 86).Results: Walkability was not associated with dietary attributes in the whole sample. However, we found interaction effects of walkability and area-level SES on Western diet scores (P < 0·001) and total energy intake (P = 0·012). In low SES areas, higher walkability was associated with higher Western dietary patterns (P = 0·062) and higher total energy intake (P = 0·066). In high SES areas, higher walkability was associated with lower Western diet scores (P = 0·021) and lower total energy intake (P = 0·058).Conclusions: Higher walkability may not be necessarily conducive to better health in socio-economically disadvantaged areas. Public health initiatives to enhance neighbourhood walkability need to consider food environments and socio-economic contexts.

Unverified information concerning COVID-19 can affect mental health. Understanding perceived trust in information sources and associated mental health outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic is vital to ensure ongoing media coverage of the crisis does not exacerbate mental health impacts. A number of studies have been conducted in other parts of the world to determine associations between information exposure relating to COVID-19 and mental health. However, the mechanism by which trust in information sources may affect mental health is not fully explained in the developing country context. To address this issue, the present study examined associations between perceived trust in three sources of information concerning COVID-19 and anxiety/stress with the mediating effects of COVID-19 stress in Bangladesh. An online cross-sectional study was conducted with 744 Bangladeshi adults between 17 April and 1 May 2020. Perceived trust in traditional, social, and health media for COVID-19 information, demographics, frontline service status, COVID-19-related stressors, anxiety (GAD-7), and stress (PSS-4) were assessed via self-report. Linear regression tested for associations between perceived trust and mental health. Mediation analyses investigated whether COVID-19-related stressors affected perceived trust and mental health associations. In fully adjusted models, more trust in social media was associated with more anxiety (B = 0.03, CI = 0.27–0.97) and stress (B = 0.01, CI = −0.34–0.47), while more trust in traditional media was associated with more anxiety (B = 0.09, CI = 0.17–2.26) but less stress (B = −0.08, CI = −0.89–0.03). Mediation analyses showed that COVID-19-related stressors partially explained associations between perceived trust and anxiety. These findings suggest that trusting social media to provide accurate COVID-19 information may exacerbate poor mental health. These findings also indicate that trusting traditional media (i.e., television, radio, and the newspaper) may have stress-buffering effects. We recommend that responsible authorities call attention to concerns about the trustworthiness of social media as well as broadcast positive and authentic news in traditional media outcomes based on these results.

Wetland ecosystems provide a wide range of ecosystem services that are often neglected in the decision-making process, resulting in the overexploitation of resources. Quantification of the services generated by this dynamic landscape is critical to developing appropriate conservation priorities for wetland management. The biggest challenge is the lack of adequate knowledge on the economic value of wetland services and proper understanding of potential revenue opportunities associated with it. This chapter introduces an application of an open source tool for estimating the value of freshwater wetland ecosystem services. The Semi-Automatic Classification Plugin (SCP) integrated into the management infrastructure of Quantum Geographic Information Systems (QGIS) can facilitate the supervised classification of multi-spectral satellite images. Thus, a case study of Beel Dakatia, a freshwater wetland of southwest coastal Bangladesh, has been demonstrated to quantify the ecosystem services value (ESV) using the “value transfer method.” This study estimated the total ESV of the wetland by combining Landsat-8 images using land use land cover (LULC) datasets of the year 2020 with its previously published global value coefficients. The LULC was prepared using SCP of QGIS. The study estimated a total ESV of US$42.16 million for Beel Dakatia. The study also found that the more natural ecosystems, e.g., water body and vegetation, contributed the highest (96%) amount of ESV. Regarding ecosystem functions, water regulation contributed the highest (56.13%) ESV, followed by water supply (21.85%) and waste treatment (7.21%). These findings will help policymakers to adopt a sustainable conservation policy for the coastal freshwater wetlands of Bangladesh.

Background: The existing environment literature separately emphasizes the importance of neighborhood walkability and greenness in enhancing health and wellbeing. Thus, a desirable neighborhood should ideally be green and walkable at the same time. Yet, limited research exists on the prevalence of such “sweet spot” neighborhoods. We sought to investigate this question in the context of a large metropolitan city (i.e., Sydney) in Australia. Methods: Using suburb level normalized difference vegetative index (NDVI), percentage urban greenspace, Walk Score^® (Walk Score, Seattle, WA, USA), and other data, we explored the global and local relationships of neighborhood-level greenness, urban green space (percent park area) with walkability applying both non-spatial and spatial modeling. Results: We found an overall negative relationship between walkability and greenness (measured as NDVI). Most neighborhoods (represented by suburbs) in Sydney are either walkable or green, but not both. Sweet spot neighborhoods that did exist were green but only somewhat walkable. In addition, many neighborhoods were both less green and somewhat walkable. Moreover, we observed a significant positive relationship between percentage park area and walkability. These results indicate walkability and greenness have inverse and, at best, mixed associations in the Sydney metropolitan area. Conclusions: Our analysis indicates an overall negative relationship between greenness and walkability, with significant local variability. With ongoing efforts towards greening Sydney and improving walkability, more neighborhoods may eventually be transformed into becoming greener and more walkable.

Association between urban green space quality and older adult outdoor recreation may vary across contrasting community contexts, but few international comparisons have been made. Data on older adult outdoor recreation and the quality of thirty-two (32) green spaces were collected using established tools (Systematic Observation of Play and Recreations in the Community and the Community Park Audit Tool) adapted for the cities of Sydney, Singapore and Dhaka between February to May 2017. Descriptive statistics and Poisson regressions were used to analyse the association between older adult recreation and measures of green space quality in each city. Higher quality green space was associated with more sedentary activity (β = 0.02, p < 0.005) and walking (β = 0.034, p < 0.005) after adjusting for differences between cities. Further tests suggested both sedentary activity and walking were higher in parks scoring more favourably on safety. Vigorous recreational activities were more common in parks scoring more favourably on accessibility, safety and landscape quality. Differences in associations between older adult recreation with each quality indicator were observed between cities. Interestingly, the expected association between quality and recreational activity could be different where high-quality urban green spaces are abundant (e.g. Singapore).

Urban green space use is often associated with improved physical and mental health and lower noncommunicable disease (NCDs) burdens. Factors that influence green space visits have been documented in cities of the Global North, but evidence of urban green space use patterns for cities in the Global South is scarce. The aim of this study is to investigate factors influencing urban green space use patterns in Dhaka, Bangladesh, a megacity of the Global South, with a particular focus on how poor health condition and healthcare professionals’ prescriptions to exercise outdoors (park prescriptions—ParkRx) impact the green space use of middle-aged adults. We collected green space characteristics and use factors (i.e., availability, accessibility, attractiveness, and attachment), health condition, ParkRx, and urban green space use intensity (i.e., frequency and duration) via a self-reported questionnaire from 169 middle-aged residents of Dhaka. We used multivariate modeling to estimate the association of green space characteristics, health condition, and ParkRx with use intensity. We further applied a mediation analysis to determine the influence of ParkRx on the relationship between residents’ poor health conditions and use intensity. We found that green space availability and accessibility did not significantly influence use intensity, but attractiveness was negatively associated with use intensity. Green space use intensity was significantly and positively associated with attachment to the green space, poor health condition (i.e., having noncommunicable diseases), and ParkRx. ParkRx significantly mediated the relationship between health condition and use intensity. We observed limited supply, poor access, and low attractiveness when studying the urban green spaces in Dhaka, but these qualities did not affect use intensity, as found in many case studies in the Global North. In contrast, urban green space use intensity in our case study is mostly dependent on poor health condition and park prescriptions.