‘Greening our backyard’- health behavior impacts of the built environment within the overall ecology of active living

ABSTRACT

The Jerusalem Railway Park illustrates the ecology of active living, being an urban infrastructure created with broad citizen engagement. It connects residential and commercial areas housing diverse populations while facilitating active lifestyles. In this study, we sought to understand 55 and above-aged residents’ perceptions regarding an environmental change in their neighborhood, and how it frames their lifestyle choices. Mixed-methods tools were used creating an eight-categorical tree that models the main perceptions raised. That tree can be evaluated and mapped ecologically. Our results show that living in proximity to the park encourages engagement in active lifestyle behaviors. Beyond the latter, the data reveal linkages between the health impact of the park and the ecology of its creation, maintenance, community cohesion, inter-ethnic relations, municipal politics, transportation systems, and environmental concerns in a sometimes tense city. The paper illustrates how health effects interact synergistically with other components of urban systems to improve quality of life.

KEYWORDS:

• Built environment
• parks
• active living
• railway
• older adults
• mixed methods

This article is related to:

Research for city practice

Acknowledgements

This research was done as a fieldwork Thesis for Master in Public Health at the Braun school for Public Health, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel.

We, the authors, wish to acknowledge the members of JRP broad community who participated in this research, and the key personnel in community centers of Bak'a, Gonenim, Patt, Ginot Ha'yir and others- in helping any logistic challenges during data collection process and beyond, and Miss Lina Freage for translation and Arab interviews assistance.

We also wish to acknowledge the support of the Linda Joy Pollin Cardiovascular Wellness Center for Women, Hadassah University Hospital; in particular, Director Dr. Donna Zfat-Zwas, Dr. Elisheva Leiter, Dr. Khaya Eisenberg, and Head of Healthy Cities network Dr. Milka Donchin for their kind help and comments that greatly improved the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Additional information

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Notes on contributors

Iva Greenshtein

Iva Greenshtein, MPH holds a Master’s degree from the school of Public Health, the Hebrew University and Hadassah Hospital, Israel. Her research investigated how Jerusalem Railway Park forged active living and how it influenced perceptions regarding the built environment of the nearby residents aged 55 and over. She works as a community project manager at the Pollin Cardiovascular Wellness Center for Women at Hadassah Hospital, Jerusalem, where she works on bottom-up community programs and employee health promotion. She is also a member of EU Cooperation of Science Technology group, focusing on community engagement and Collaborative Urbanism.

Osnat Keidar

Osnat Keidar, PhD, MPH, B.Ed holds a Master’s degree and a Doctorate from the school of Public Health, the Hebrew University and Hadassah Hospital, Israel. Her research focuses on the planning, implementation and evaluation of health promoting programs in various settings.  She teaches in the School of Public Health at the Hebrew University and is affiliated as Associate Fellow to the African Population and Health Research Center in Nairobi. Osnat currently works as a Senior Research Associate in the Department of Emergency Medicine, Inselspital, Bern university hospital with a research focus on migrant and refugee health.

Chariklia Tziraki

Prof. Chariklia Tziraki is an MD, PhD, expert in Medical Technology Assessment, is affiliated with the Hebrew University, Institute for Gerontological Data Bases, and is the director of the Research and Evaluation Department of MELABEV in Jerusalem Israel. She is on the board of directors of NGO Solidarity which focuses on healthy aging and dementia prevention. She serves on the board of the EU Covenant for Demographic Change, EU Active and Health Aging team. She is also a member of the WHO organization initiative, Healthy Cities, focusing on aging and disabilities populations, and a member of the working group on successful aging for the Israeli Ministry of Health.

David Chinitz

Prof. David Chinitz holds a PhD in Public Policy Analysis from the University of Pennsylvania and is Professor of Health Policy and Management at the School of Public Health of the Hebrew University and Hadassah, Jerusalem. His publications are in the areas of comparative health system reform, healthcare priority setting, mental health policy, impact of quality improvement programs. He has consulted for the World Health Organization, and served as President of the International Society for Health Care, and Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the European Health Management Association, on the editorial boards of Health Economics, Policy and Lawand the Israel Journal of Health Policy Research, has been a Visiting Scholar in Europe and the United States universities.