Multiple Contexts of Exposure: Assessing How Activity Spaces Modify Neighborhood Effects on Self-Rated Health

Gregory Sharp, Rice University
Rachel T. Kimbro, Rice University

Although health researchers have made progress in detecting place effects on health, very little is known about how exposure to contexts in which individuals conduct their daily activities (e.g., work, shop, worship) shapes the health impacts of residential context. It is equally salient to understand the temporal dimension of an individual’s exposure to various contexts, yet previous research is largely cross-sectional. In this paper, we employ longitudinal data from the Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey to investigate how activity space exposures influence neighborhood effects on self-rated health. Results show that individuals living in the most disadvantaged neighborhoods perceive their health to be worse when they spend time in more advantaged neighborhoods than in more disadvantaged ones. This finding suggests that being routinely exposed to areas that are markedly more advantaged than individuals’ home environments leads to a sense of relative neighborhood deprivation that might manifest in worse health ratings.