Social Determinants and Their Impact on Urban Health Inequalities
Keywords:
Urban health inequalities, Digital redlining, Labor precarity, Environmental inequity, Community resilienceAbstract
Objective: We aim to investigate the influence of novel social determinants such as digital redlining and connectivity quality (DRCQ), platform job insecurity density (PJID), and thermal–air co-exposure inequity (CTAI) on urban health inequalities, and assess community mutual aid infrastructure (CMAI) as a moderating mechanism of resilience.
Methods: A cross-sectional design including multiple sources of data was implemented, and moderated regression analysis used.
Results: The analysis finds three types of disparity are particularly strongly amplified in the urban space: poor digital connection, precarious platform-based labour and uneven environmental co-exposures. Meanwhile, strong community mutual aid infrastructures also have a direct mitigating effect and dampen the effects of deprivation. These stydies highlight that urban health disparity is not merely a function of traditional factors such as income and education, and is differentially produced in intricate webs of technological, labor and environmental forces.
Novelty: This paper presents a theoretical model that integrates social determinants of health with environmental justice and job demand–resource perspectives, and empirically demonstrates how community resilience buffers the negative impact of exposure to neighbourhood disadvantage. The study pushes conceptual boundaries by expanding further than classical measures and by considering combined multidimensional inequities seldomly addressed at once; thereby providing a new perspective for exploring structural determinants of health disparities.
Implications for Research: The findings highlight the importance of multidimensional, theory-driven approaches that integrate digital inclusion, labour protection, climate adaptation, and community resilience throughout health equity research and policy agendas. By promoting this way of thinking, the analysis contributes to generating evidence that can help to guide global efforts to support urban health systems that are both fairer and more sustainable.
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