Neighborhood Features Project Essay

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NEIGHBORHOOD FEATURES	POTENTIAL HEALTH IMPACTS
Town, city, community that the features are based on: Bridgeport, Connecticut. Clinical Setting: Harding High School. Student Name: Clinical Instructor Name:
High rates of poverty.	– compromised economic conditions lead to poor nutrition; – people do not have sufficient resources to request medical service; – a lack of money can deprive citizens of the ability to obtain adequate health insurance; – people buy insufficient amounts of medication to cure their conditions.
Poor education because of the lack of staff members.	– people do not receive an adequate understanding of how and why they should take care of their health; – nations with poor education levels tend to show lower vaccination rates (Raghupathi & Raghupathi, 2020); – insufficient education will make people trust non-traditional medicine in the future because it is free of charge.
High crime rates.	– such events can result in various injuries and even deaths; – continuous stress can lead to neurocognitive, developmental, and mental health issues; – the dangerous environment can make medical professionals leave the neighborhood in favor of safer cities or towns, leaving the locals with poor healthcare services.
High unemployment rates.	– many citizens suffer from compromised economic conditions because they do not have money to purchase medications and healthy food; – this problem leads to higher stress levels; – long unemployment times make individuals spend less money on food and health, which results in a lack of vitamins and nutrients; – insufficient income levels force people to postpone visiting a medical professional; – the inability to receive timely care contributes to the development of chronic diseases (asthma, arthritis, and other conditions).
Subtropical and humid continental climate zones.	– cool to cold winters contribute to the spread of flu and other viruses; – long warm and hot periods allow people to improve their health through increased vitamin intake and sunbaths; – a coastal location strengthens health through the salt air and sunshine that are said to effect bodies positively.
A relatively high amount of parks and recreational areas.	– parks enrich the neighborhood with much green that positively affects the environment, leading to cleaner air and people’s better health; – these areas provide citizens with improved opportunities to engage in outdoor physical activity; – parks and recreation zones encourage individuals to walk, which positively affects their health outcomes.
The presence of factories, deep-water port, and airport.	– these employers pollute the air, which can result in asthma development; – working in these organizations can be dangerous because people are subject to injuries at these sites.
A rich network of takeaway facilities.	– these organizations can serve food that is full of harmful elements and does not have many nutrients, which leads to the deficiency of different vitamins in bodies; – however, some takeaway restaurants can offer really high-quality food that provides people with vitamins and minerals necessary for growth and development; – these organizations are requested employers in the area, meaning that they help local individuals earn means of subsistence, and the information above has demonstrated that the lack of financial resources is harmful to health.
A vast system of healthcare facilities.	– hospitals and other medical facilities are mainly located in the downtown, meaning that local people can easily visit an organization and receive timely care; – the healthcare facilities are placed close to transportation hubs, meaning that citizens have many opportunities to access care when they need it; – it can be more challenging for inhabitants of remote areas to reach hospitals on a regular basis, which makes them postpone visiting medical professionals.
Insufficient popularization of a healthy lifestyle in society.	– the absence of widespread advertisement campaigns that would advocate for leading healthy lifestyles, denoting that not many people engage in improving their health; – a failure to engage in regular physical exercise is not considered a negative aspect in the community, which does not make citizens actively invest in taking care of their health; – the local government does not organize sporting events, and people are not forced to engage in regular physical activity; – public health is not going to witness positive changes in the near future, depriving people of the opportunity to improve their health.

Of the features listed on the grid, select one feature and its impact on health, and compare your finding to findings at the state, national and global level.

Among all the features mentioned in the grid above, high poverty rates seem to have the most significant adverse impacts. When individuals have insufficient means of subsistence, there is no doubt that their living conditions are far from ideal. Firstly, economic challenges result in the fact that individuals cannot afford good nutrition. They do not receive the required amounts of vitamins, minerals, and nutrients, which makes their organisms more vulnerable to injuries and diseases. Secondly, financial problems typically result in the fact that people cannot purchase medical insurance. When these individuals come across a health issue, they tend to postpone visiting a healthcare professional. Thirdly, citizens in such conditions are almost deprived of an opportunity to request and obtain high-quality medical services. If they need to purchase medications, they either avoid doing it or buy insufficient doses. Consequently, high poverty rates adversely impact the public health in the selected neighborhood in the short and long runs.

It is worth admitting that poverty rates are rather higher in Bridgeport. According to Scofield (2019), almost 21% of the neighborhood population suffers from this issue. That is why it is impossible to deny the fact that the given problem significantly affects the city. However, the negative state of affairs becomes even more notable when one compares the neighborhood data to that of the state. According to the official statistics, over 10% of Connecticut’s population deals with poverty (Scofield, 2019). This information denotes that the problem under analysis is twice more widespread in the neighborhood than in the entire state. Simultaneously, one should also look at how the selected feature is presented at the national level. According to the Center on Poverty & Social Policy (2022), almost 14.5% of the US population suffers from the given problem in 2022. These findings also reveal that the spread of the issue under analysis is higher in Bridgeport when compared to the entire nation.

Now, it is rational to consider how the problem affects a global scale. The World Bank (2020) stipulates that over 9% of the world’s population suffers from extreme poverty. This finding could allow for concluding that the issue is more widespread in the selected neighborhood than internationally, leading to a false conclusion that Bridgeport is one of the poorest locations in the world. However, a closer analysis reveals that this statement is not true because different conditions are used to define poverty in the United States and internationally. On the one hand, an American citizen is considered poor if their annual income is no more than $12,760, which is approximately $35 per day (Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, 2020). On the other hand, The World Bank (2020) explains that 9% of the global population lives on $1.90 a day, while approximately 3.3 billion people, almost 40%, “live below the $5.50 line (para. 9). These findings reveal that the presence of poverty is significantly higher in the world than it is in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

References

Center on Poverty & Social Policy. 3.4 million more children in poverty in February 2022 than December 2021. Web.

Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation. 2020 poverty guidelines. Web.

Raghupathi, V., & Raghupathi, W. (2020). The influence of education on health: An empirical assessment of OECD countries for the period 1995-2015.Archives of Public Health, 78(20). Web.

Scofield, R. J. (2019). New report ranks this city ‘worst’ in Connecticut. Patch. Web.

The World Bank. (2020). COVID-19 to add as many as 150 million extreme poor by 2021. Web.

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