Aims:The urban environment influences health through many pathways. The aim of the present study was to map the distribution of mortality, environmental predictors (distribution of green areas and transport networks), and social predictors (income deprivation) in the mid-sized city of Bologna (Italy), and to analyse the relationship between these variables.Methods:The study employed an ecological cross-sectional design using data from public sources. The units of analysis were the 18 city districts. The percentage of green areas, percentage of transport networks and age-standardised mortality rates were calculated for each district. These variables, and an indicator of income deprivation, were plotted on the city map to analyse their distribution. Simple and multiple linear regressions with mortality as the outcome and environmental and social data as predictors were run.Results:The results showed an unequal distribution of the variables in the city, with the north-eastern districts presenting worse values. Green areas did not result significantly in being related to mortality. The income indicator and transport networks have an impact on mortality in the simple regression, but only transport networks were found to have a statistically significant relation with mortality in the multiple regression.Conclusions:The results suggested that living close to major transport networks could affect mortality rates in the city, but further research is needed. Future studies are also needed to analyse the interaction between environmental exposures and socioeconomic factors in affecting health. These findings can be useful for urban planning and health promotion interventions.

中文翻译：

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城市地区自然和社会环境与死亡率的关联：意大利博洛尼亚市的生态研究

目标：城市环境通过多种途径影响健康。本研究的目的是绘制中等城市博洛尼亚（意大利）的死亡率、环境预测因素（绿地和交通网络的分布）和社会预测因素（收入剥夺）的分布图，并分析其中的关系这些变量之间的关系。方法：该研究采用了生态横断面设计，使用公共来源的数据。分析单位为18个城区。计算了每个地区的绿化面积百分比、交通网络百分比和年龄标准化死亡率。这些变量以及收入剥夺指标被绘制在城市地图上，以分析其分布。以死亡率为结果，以环境和社会数据为预测变量进行简单和多元线性回归。结果：结果显示，城市中变量的分布不均匀，东北地区的值更差。绿色区域与死亡率没有显着相关。在简单回归中，收入指标和交通网络对死亡率有影响，但在多元回归中，仅发现交通网络与死亡率存在统计显着关系。 结论：结果表明，居住在靠近主要交通网络的地方会影响死亡率市内的利率水平，但还需要进一步研究。未来的研究还需要分析环境暴露与影响健康的社会经济因素之间的相互作用。这些发现可用于城市规划和健康促进干预措施。