Google Street View reveals how built environment correlates with risk of cardiovascular disease
Google Street View reveals how built environment correlates with risk of cardiovascular disease
Researchers have used Google Street View to study hundreds of elements of the built environment, including buildings, green spaces, pavements and roads, and how these elements relate to each other and influence coronary artery disease in people living in these neighborhoods.
That’s cool—but it doesn’t actually give any info. What are the environmental risks found in these images?
This reads like it’s trying to sell something.
Did you read further down?
For instance, features like green space and walkable roads were associated with lower risk, while other features, such as poorly paved roads, were associated with higher risk. However, these findings need further investigation.
Basically they used analysis of street view to figure out what areas are friendly for walking, and compared that to data on health risks for that area.
Seems like a pretty tenuous link to me though.
They really need to correct for income, otherwise they're just finding that poorer areas have worse health outcomes - which is pretty well known.
Yes, I read that. It just seemed very vague.
Here's a link to the actual paper, free to read. Notably, the paper starts with the assumption that other studies have already identified a link between environmental factors and heart disease. The focus is on how useful it is to collect that data through street view analysis as opposed to say sending someone out to survey a neighborhood. Also if image analysis can identify interesting environmental factors that researchers may not have identified previously. I can't comment on their statistics, but they at least claim to be looking for the environmental affect by accounting for age, sex, race, income, and education.
This is one of those posts that could never go on modern-Reddit without a bunch of dudes who peaked in high school saying it’s “bullshit”
This is a very cool fusion of decades of research and technology. There are definitely concerns to be had over its use in the private sector and the general loss of privacy over time as technology develops - but if nothing else it’s really fascinating from an academic and public health approach.
The pictures sure make it look like bullshit.
Here's a depressed, post-industrial area where heart disease is more common.
Here's a suburb full of McMansions where heart disease is less common.
Gutter downspouts, masonry, bars on windows, and cracked pavement are positively correlated with heart disease and tree-lined sidewalks, big lawns and wraparound porches are negatively correlated with heart disease... go figure.
Welcome to the scientific process man: you’ve managed to deduce an obvious correlation. People also understood that living in fetid conditions led to disease for centuries before figuring out how they’re actually related (with several deeply incorrect theories along the way).
This is a way to measure that correlation and use that data for future analysis. The researchers doing this work are investigating things at a much more finite level than “duh-doy being poor is bad!!”
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I think you're on the right track, but have identified the wrong place to insert a law. It shouldn't be illegal to do this work. It should be illegal for insurance companies to abuse it through eligibility, premiums, and claims restrictions.