Perceived neighborhood factors, health behaviors, and related outcomes in the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos.

Hispanic/Latino populations may experience significant neighborhood disadvantage, but limited research has explored whether these factors affect their health behaviors. Associations between perceived neighborhood factors at Visit 1 and health behaviors and related outcomes at Visit 2 in the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos were evaluated. Multivariable logistic regression assessed cross-sectional and longitudinal relationships between perceived neighborhood social cohesion (NSC, 5 items), and neighborhood problems (NP, 7 items), with cancer screening, current smoking, excessive/binge drinking, hypertension, obesity, physical activity, and poor diet by gender and birthplace. NSC and NP scores were converted into quartiles. Mean age of participants was 42.5 years and 62.1% were women. Perceived NP, but not perceived NSC, differed by gender (p < 0.001). In unstratified models, no significant associations were observed between perceived NSC and any health behavior, whereas greater perceived NP was associated with less adherence to colon cancer screening (moderate level: aOR = 0.68, 95% CI = 0.51, 090) and more physical activity (very high level: aOR = 1.34, 95% CI = 1.06, 1.69) compared to low perceived NP. Women with moderate perceived NP, versus low NP, had a lower odds of colon cancer screening at Visit 1 (aOR = 0.62, 95% CI = 0.43, 0.91) and higher odds of mammogram adherence at Visit 2 (aOR = 2.86, 95% CI = 1.44, 5.68). Men with high perceived NP had a higher odds of excessive or binge drinking at Visit 2 (aOR = 1.99, 95% CI = 1.19, 3.31). We conclude that perceived NP were significantly related to health behaviors among HCHS/SOL individuals. Perceptions of neighborhood environment may be considered modifiable factors of structural neighborhood environment interventions.
Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(Published by Elsevier Inc.)