Print Email Facebook Twitter Covid-19 restrictions Title Covid-19 restrictions: An opportunity to highlight the effect of neighbourhood deprivation on individuals’ health-related behaviours Author Silva, Laura (Sciences Po; Loughborough University) Bezzo, Franco Bonomi (University of Milan; INED) van Ham, M. (TU Delft Urbanism; Pandemic and Disaster Preparedness Center) Department Urbanism Date 2023 Abstract Rationale: Neighbourhood socio-economic deprivation is strongly related to health-risk behaviours, which are predictors of overall health and mortality. During the Covid-19 pandemic, individuals have been forced to spend more time within their residential areas, which might have had an effect on health-risk behaviours. Objective: We assess the consequences of living in a more or less deprived neighbourhood during the pandemic on individual behavioural changes in four health-related outcomes: smoking, drinking, physical activity and healthy eating. We hypothesise that the pandemic and related lock-downs had negative effects on health-related behaviours, but that this negative effect had been stronger for people living in more deprived areas. We additionally explore sex and ethnicity as sources of heterogeneity in these effects. Methods: We use data from four nationally representative cohort studies in England. We perform longitudinal individual and neighbourhood fixed effects estimations focusing on comparing the pre-pandemic period with the first lockdown (May 2020) period and up to one year after the outbreak of the pandemic (March 2021). Results: During the first lockdown, as compared to pre-pandemic levels, on average, people smoked more, drunk more and did more physical activity. However, compared to people in less deprived neighbourhoods, people living in more deprived areas showed a smaller increase in their levels of physical activity, consumed less fruit and vegetables and increased the number of cigarettes smoked. We additionally find that the combined effect of Covid-19 and area deprivation varies significantly by both sex and ethnicity. Conclusion: Results add to evidence on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and associated lockdowns on health-risk behaviours, highlighting the relative contribution of the neighbourhood environment and individual characteristics. We argue that reducing levels of neighbourhood deprivation may contribute to positively influence behaviours, especially for some sub-groups of the population, leading to a reduction of social inequalities in health. Subject EthnicityGenderHealth-related behavioursInequalityNeighbourhood To reference this document use: http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:fe381f19-fd14-4e9e-a4c2-812db645c2c5 DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2023.115917 ISSN 0277-9536 Source Social Science & Medicine, 325 Bibliographical note Corrigendum with DOI 10.1016/j.socscimed.2023.116052 Maarten van Ham is corresponding author instead of Laura Silva Part of collection Institutional Repository Document type journal article Rights © 2023 Laura Silva, Franco Bonomi Bezzo, M. van Ham Files PDF 1_s2.0_S0277953623002745_main.pdf 2.91 MB Close viewer /islandora/object/uuid:fe381f19-fd14-4e9e-a4c2-812db645c2c5/datastream/OBJ/view