Neighbourhood Disorder and its Influence on Resident's Health A Case Study of Azamgarh City

There is a rising awareness that explanations of causes of health issues that are based on only individual's characteristics are inadequate and unable to capture important factors of diseases. Thus, there is a requirement to study not only individual's characteristics but characteristics of neighbourhoods too, in order to understand the distribution of health and diseases. Neighbourhood disorder can be illustrated by actions in public spaces such as drunk people on the streets, drug dealing, clashes and fighting, people loitering, rowdy groups and gang activity as well as street prostitution. The consistent stress related with living in a neighbourhood where threat, crime, misconduct, trouble and incivility are regular phenomenon, may damage health. Present study is an attempt to examine prevalence of neighbourhood disorder and mental health of the residents in Azamgarh city. The study is based on primary sources of data collected through questionnaire, interviews from respondents belonging to different neighbourhoods in city. Neighbourhood disorder has been measured by resident's perception of prevalence and fear of crime. The most common forms of disorder as reported by residents in city are theft, public drinking, abusing, rowdy groups and street fighting as well as street prostitution with a spatial concentration in low income neighbourhoods of inner city. Residents in these areas have reported incidence of stress and anxiety due to deteriorating environmental condition in their neighbourhood.