Long-term effects of urban renewal on health and health inequalities: the Neighbourhoods Law in Barcelona, Spain.

Abstract

Introduction: Few studies exist examining the long-term effects of urban renewal programmes on health. The purpose of this study is to examine the long-term effects of an urban renewal programme on the health and health inequality outcomes of residents living in the neighbourhoods intervened in Barcelona city by the Neighbourhoods Law (NL), while comparing them to a comparison group of non-intervention neighbourhoods with similar socioeconomic status.

Methods: The Barcelona Health Survey was used for studying changes in self-rated health, mental health, hypertension and meeting walking requirements set by the WHO in pre (2006) and post (2016) years of neighbourhoods intervened by the NL and a group of comparison neighbourhoods with similar socioeconomic characteristics. We used logistic regression models to examine pre-post differences in health outcomes within intervention or comparison neighbourhoods. A difference-in-difference regression was used to assess the overtime impact of the NL intervention on the health outcomes compared with the comparison groups. All models were adjusted by the highest education level attained and age.

Results: In the intervention neighbourhoods, self-rated health improved for manual workers, hypertension dropped in men and more women met the walking requirements compared with similar groups in the comparison neighbourhoods. Across all groups, mental health worsened.

Conclusions: Our study is among the first to examine the long-term effects of urban renewal programmes. Although there exist complexities in studying these long-term effects, they are critical to ensure urban renewal programmes continue to improve health and reduce inequality among residents.