Cities, environmental stressors, ageing and chronic disease

This study attempts to identify any association between length of exposure to urban environmental risk and non-infectious chronic disease in a group of Australian residents who lived in the same location for at least 20 years.

Using Australian survey data, we selected 1256 participants who were 45 years and older and had lived in the same location for at least 20 years. We used logistic regression and survival analysis to identify factors associated with the presence of non-infectious chronic disease at baseline and after 7 years.

Results show that increasing age, living in an urban area and living in an area with a lower socioeconomic status increase the odds of having a long-term health condition.

This study provides empirical evidence that older long-term Australian urban residents are more likely to have a non-infectious chronic disease, which may be associated with environmental exposure, than those living in rural locations.