Researchers have used Google Street View to study hundreds of elements of the built environment, including buildings, green spaces, pavements and roads, and how these elements relate to each other and influence coronary artery disease in people living in these neighborhoods.
Welcome to the scientific process man: you’ve managed to deduce an obvious correlation. People also understood that living in fetid conditions led to disease for centuries before figuring out how they’re actually related (with several deeply incorrect theories along the way).
This is a way to measure that correlation and use that data for future analysis. The researchers doing this work are investigating things at a much more finite level than “duh-doy being poor is bad!!”