The urban development will lead to reduction in green spaces and this in turn will increase in several cardiometabolic risk factors, according to a study.
The study was done by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), a center supported by the “la Caixa” Foundation, and analyzed data on more than 6,000 people living in an area of Hyderabad. The study was important as it was done to ascertain the urbanisation effect in low and middle-income countries.
The study included health data from over 6,000 adults and the authors analyzed changes in land use over a 14-year period. Levels of air pollution were estimated as part of the CHAI project. The cardiometabolic risk factors studied included blood pressure, triglycerides, cholesterol and fasting glucose, and participants answered survey questions about their lifestyle and stress indicators.
The findings, published in Environmental Health Perspectives, showed that a fast increase in built-up land use within 300 m of a person’s residence was associated with an increase in metabolic risk factors. People whose neighborhoods experienced faster urban development compared to those whose neighborhoods did not change had higher blood pressure (both systolic and diastolic), waist circumference and fasting glucose values.
