Analysis of Small Area Environmental, Socioeconomic and Health Data in Collaboration with Local Communities to Target and Evaluate ‘Triple Win’ Interventions in a Deprived Community in Birmingham UK

• Main Authors: Patrick Saunders, Paul Campbell, Mark Webster, Michael Thawe
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2019-11-01
• Series: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
• Subjects: inequalities; environmental health; small area analysis
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/22/4331

The contemporary environment is a complex of interactions between physical, biological and socioeconomic systems with major impacts on public health. It is well understood that deprived communities are more exposed to negative environmental and social factors, more susceptible to the effects of those exposures, more excluded from access to positive factors, less able to change their circumstances and consequently experience worse health, economic and social outcomes compared to the more affluent. Welsh House Farm estate in Birmingham is one of the most deprived areas in Europe. An alliance between a local charity, City Council Public Health and a University in collaboration with the local community has accessed, analysed and mapped a range of health, social and economic factors at small area level, identifying areas where the community experience is unacceptably worse than other parts of Birmingham and therefore requiring targeted interventions. We make specific recommendations for coordinated action addressing the living, moving and consuming domains of residents’ lives and have also identified positive aspects of life on the estate to celebrate. This pilot demonstrates the utility and cost-effectiveness of local collaboration to identify and target health, environmental and social inequalities informed by local concerns.