Lucy W. Mortality risk associated with leaving home: recognizing the relevance of the built environment. American Journal of Public Health. 2003; 93(9): 1564-1569.
Summary: In this article the author analyzes traffic fatalities and homicides as risk factors for safe neighborhoods. He highlights how traffic fatalities are generally underappreciated when people consider where to live.
General Concensus: Most students acknowledged that reading this article was their first opportunity to consider how sprawl is a risk factor to health. Many had not considered that the less dense exurbs are the most dangerous parts of the metro areas as reviewed in this study. Many also commented on the fact that traffic injuries are not typically reported on the same level as violent crimes and that plays a large role in our perceived danger. Some Epi students questioned the methodologies and commented that the author should have been more explicit about excluding some types of homicides, such as acquaintances. They also thought the author should have presented a correlation to justify lumping traffic fatalities and homicide data.
Additional Comments:
"I think strong policy is needed to incentivize higher density areas since I do not think that data alone will not convince the majority of Americans to voluntarily live in high-density areas." (EPI)
"I think this paper would have been a lot stronger if the author had only considered traffic fatalities as they relate to population density. I think adding homicide by stranger really only detracted from his findings." (HSERV)
"The author's conclusions suffer from the ecologic fallacy- he makes some individual-level conclusions based on county/city data. The discussion section also appears more oriented to providing commentary on traffic safety in the U.S. more than commenting on the results of a scientific study." (UDPL)