4 ms·

Dementedness is higher in cities then, right? What differences in behavior do we see between city and rural?

by analog8374 1y ago

antisthenes 1y ago
[flagged]
- theoreticalmal 1y ago
  We can’t pretend the endless GMO soybean and corn fields are much better in some rural settings
- n8cpdx 1y ago
  Plenty of cities have good access to nature and green spaces. I grew up in “nature” (aka a forest that emerged from not working farmland iykyk) and every ride to school, the grocery store, a friend’s house, or heaven forbid medical care or a restaurant visit involved 30-45 minutes of driving. That sucks.
  - bobthepanda 1y ago
    Also, the concentration of a place can allow for not using land elsewhere, making overall access to nature a lot easier. From Seattle there are three national parks within an hour or two drive, because the planning laws were put in place to prevent suburbia up to the foothills of the parks.
- lurking_swe 1y ago
  some of us like to live close to friends, family, or work… and some of us prefer not sitting in cars, trucks, or tractors all day. The horror! :-)
  - antisthenes 1y ago
    If you make friends in the country...you'll end up living close to your friends while being in the country. The horror! :-)
    - lurking_swe 1y ago
      The person i replied to had their comment flagged, but it was something to the effect of “anyone that enjoys living in a city probably suffers from mental illness.” I’m a city dweller that thinks there is nothing wrong with the country at all. In fact I can see the charm! It’s not for me, but I can respect that lifestyle. That’s why my reply was a little sassy, FYI.
culi 1y ago
Probably not true per capita. In the suburb I partially grew up with they would kidnap homeless people and bus them to the nearest city. This is quite common throughout California and many red states. Suburbs have more cars per capita, more driving in general, more asphalt,[0] more time commuting/being on the streets to reach common destinations, more exposure to smoke from fires, and sometimes even more exposure to pollutants and pesticides from farming (especially if they have golf courses. Golf courses use about 5x more pesticides than farmland per acre). Suburbs also have more suicides per capita than cities [0] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S030438942402627X https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S03043...
- bobthepanda 1y ago
  AFAIK generally health studies don't distinguish all that much between urban and suburban, partially because that would require you to come up with a consistent definition of both; and even across states in the US, the definition of a "city" is wildly inconsistent and more a reflection however the politics of a place evolved.
Spooky23 1y ago
It’s really hard to study because population is so diffuse and sometimes don’t align with geography. My mom used to work in public health research, and one example that was hard to quantify was suspected cancer clusters around roads that were oiled gravel, where the oil was contaminated with industrial waste products. Basically, people who were outside in the summer near a road seemed to get lung cancer at higher rates due to road dust. Issue was there just weren’t enough people or documentation of the supply chain to really prove it. They were able to stop the process of “donating” waste products to the highway departments. In an urban environment, it’s easy. There are probably 500,000 people living along busy commercial corridors in NYC where you can reliably measure stuff like exposure to diesel particles or whatever.

Dementedness is higher in cities then, right? What differences in behavior do we see between city and rural?

antisthenes 1y ago

[flagged]

theoreticalmal 1y ago
We can’t pretend the endless GMO soybean and corn fields are much better in some rural settings
n8cpdx 1y ago
Plenty of cities have good access to nature and green spaces. I grew up in “nature” (aka a forest that emerged from not working farmland iykyk) and every ride to school, the grocery store, a friend’s house, or heaven forbid medical care or a restaurant visit involved 30-45 minutes of driving. That sucks.
- bobthepanda 1y ago
  Also, the concentration of a place can allow for not using land elsewhere, making overall access to nature a lot easier. From Seattle there are three national parks within an hour or two drive, because the planning laws were put in place to prevent suburbia up to the foothills of the parks.
lurking_swe 1y ago
some of us like to live close to friends, family, or work… and some of us prefer not sitting in cars, trucks, or tractors all day. The horror! :-)
- antisthenes 1y ago
  If you make friends in the country...you'll end up living close to your friends while being in the country. The horror! :-)
  - lurking_swe 1y ago
    The person i replied to had their comment flagged, but it was something to the effect of “anyone that enjoys living in a city probably suffers from mental illness.” I’m a city dweller that thinks there is nothing wrong with the country at all. In fact I can see the charm! It’s not for me, but I can respect that lifestyle. That’s why my reply was a little sassy, FYI.

culi 1y ago

Probably not true per capita. In the suburb I partially grew up with they would kidnap homeless people and bus them to the nearest city. This is quite common throughout California and many red states. Suburbs have more cars per capita, more driving in general, more asphalt,[0] more time commuting/being on the streets to reach common destinations, more exposure to smoke from fires, and sometimes even more exposure to pollutants and pesticides from farming (especially if they have golf courses. Golf courses use about 5x more pesticides than farmland per acre). Suburbs also have more suicides per capita than cities [0] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S030438942402627X https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S03043...

bobthepanda 1y ago
AFAIK generally health studies don't distinguish all that much between urban and suburban, partially because that would require you to come up with a consistent definition of both; and even across states in the US, the definition of a "city" is wildly inconsistent and more a reflection however the politics of a place evolved.

Spooky23 1y ago

It’s really hard to study because population is so diffuse and sometimes don’t align with geography. My mom used to work in public health research, and one example that was hard to quantify was suspected cancer clusters around roads that were oiled gravel, where the oil was contaminated with industrial waste products. Basically, people who were outside in the summer near a road seemed to get lung cancer at higher rates due to road dust. Issue was there just weren’t enough people or documentation of the supply chain to really prove it. They were able to stop the process of “donating” waste products to the highway departments. In an urban environment, it’s easy. There are probably 500,000 people living along busy commercial corridors in NYC where you can reliably measure stuff like exposure to diesel particles or whatever.