Behavioral Sciences, Vol. 13, Pages 26: Public Health Safety in Community Living Circles Based on a Behavioral Motivation Perspective: Theoretical Framework and Evaluation System

1. IntroductionThe daily life activity of community residents is a direct factor that causes public health problems, such as infectious diseases and chronic diseases [1,2,3]. Statistics from the World Health Organization (2018) show that non-communicable diseases, caused by inappropriate daily life activities, cause more than 41 million deaths each year, accounting for 71% of global deaths. The Chinese academicians, Longde Wang (2008) and Nanshan Zhong (2015), pointed out that most of the diseases caused by living habits and behaviors can be prevented by adjusting lifestyles [4,5]. At present, daily life activities not only affect the prevention and control of the COVID-19 epidemic and public health, but are also studied by spatiotemporal geographers and urban planners in the spatial planning of residential areas [6,7]. The “community life circle (CLC)”, which is defined by the temporal and spatial scope of the daily activities of community residents, has been listed as the basic planning unit of the “Planning and Design Standards for Urban Residential Areas” (2018). How to integrate health into CLC [8], and construct healthy or safe CLCs [9,10], has become an issue of high concern for the relevant disciplines, and needs to be solved urgently.Daily life activities in the community directly affect public health safety, and the spatiotemporal and geographical elements, such as the built environment, indirectly affect public health by affecting life behaviors [11]. However, most of the existing studies analyze public health problems from the perspective of indirect influencing factors, such as community resources and the environment [12,13,14,15,16]. From the perspectives of epidemiology, pathology, and psychology, scholars in the fields of health geography and medical geography have studied the impact of the spatial construction of community health care resources and the behavior of community residents on health [17,18,19]. Scholars in the field of urban geography and urban-rural planning mainly focus on the relationship between the built environment of the community and the health of the residents. The research content mainly involves a balanced diet, physical activity, timely medical treatment, and the completeness and accessibility of related facilities [20,21,22,23]. In addition, some scholars have studied the influencing factors of community health behaviors [24,25,26], as well as the influence of certain life behaviors on certain diseases [27,28,29]. However, the systematic theoretical framework of daily life activity in the community and public health issues still needs to be further explored.The evaluation system of community public health safety also needs to be improved. Existing scholarly research has proposed a measurement index system for healthy communities [30]. In 2020, the China Urban Science Research Association also released the “Healthy Community Evaluation Criteria”, which proposed the seven indicators of air, water, comfort, fitness, humanities, service, and innovation [31]. These index systems are not based on the daily life activities of residents, but are established directly from the social environment and physical environment. Therefore, the evaluation objects are still the resources and environmental factors that indirectly affect health. On the other hand, in the evaluation research of community health behavior, the important influence of CLC environment on health behavior is often ignored, and the evaluation model is established; here, individual psychological cognitive factors are the main variables, such as behavioral beliefs [32], behavioral attitudes [33], personal values [34], risk perception [35], interpersonal relationships [36], etc.

Therefore, from the perspective of behavioral motivation, this paper proposes a theoretical framework for the study of daily life activity in the community and public health safety, and clarifies the “planning-activity-health” coupling network of the CLC. In addition, we have established a health behavior evaluation model for the three elements of “space-time geographic environment–daily life activities–public health safety”, and constructed a public health safety evaluation system for the community life circle. It aims to provide a new way of thinking and a new research paradigm for the construction of healthy communities.

5. Conclusions

Different from the existing research ideas and methods, this paper takes the daily life activities of community residents as the evaluation object, from the perspective of behavioral motivation, based on the Protection Motivation Theory of health psychology, establishes a health behavior evaluation model based on the logical chain of “space-time geographical environment–daily life activities–public health safety”, and constructs a public health safety evaluation system for the CLC. The system can not only assess the public health risks faced by the CLC, but also assess its ability to cope with risks; that is, the CLC has a controllable degree of resilience in the face of current risks. In the evaluation process, we must first explore the elements of residents’ life behavior that can increase the risk of health and safety problems, and then analyze the ability to change behavior in response to this health risk. Then, we must explain the establishment mechanism of the health behavior, and intervene in the health risk behavior in a targeted manner, so as to adjust or make decisions. Finally, a closed-loop reaction mechanism of “project–behavior–motivation evaluation feedback–project adjustment” is formed.

This research closely follows the development goal of the “Healthy Community Life Circle”, and establishes a public health safety evaluation system for the CLC, which can provide a scientific evaluation pattern for the urban communities of China to accomplish an optimum transformation. However, it has the following shortcomings: although this research is based on Gehl’s classification of outdoor activities, the detailed classification of daily life activities and the major activity motivations and objectives of it are based on the summary of the existing literature and the research needs, which still leaves something to be desired; limited by the temporal and spatial resolution, and the availability of data, this research only preliminarily determines the variables of the evaluation model, and the selection and definition of the variables still need to be improved. In addition, the theoretical framework and evaluation system constructed in this research remains to be further empirically investigated. Still, based on <“Healthy China 2030” Plan Outline>, <Guidelines on Comprehensively promoting the renovation of old housing estates>, and other relevant policies and regulations issued by the official government of China, it is feasible to apply our solution to the planning and design practice of the community health and safety life circle. It is expected that this research will help the implementation of the major decision-making deployment of the “Healthy China” strategy, and embed public health factors into urban planning and community governance. Ultimately, the goal of building a “healthy community” can be achieved.

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