Houlden Victoria, Weich Scott, Jarvis Stephen
Warwick Institute for Science of Cities, Senate House, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL, UK.
University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK.
BMC Public Health. 2017 May 17;17(1):460. doi: 10.1186/s12889-017-4401-x.
With urbanisation increasing, it is important to understand how to design changing environments to promote mental wellbeing. Evidence suggests that local-area proportions of green space may be associated with happiness and life satisfaction; however, the available evidence on such associations with more broadly defined mental wellbeing in still very scarce. This study aimed to establish whether the amount of neighbourhood green space was associated with mental wellbeing.
Data were drawn from Understanding Society, a national survey of 30,900 individuals across 11,096 Census Lower-Layer Super Output Areas (LSOAs) in England, over the period 2009-2010. Measures included the multi-dimensional Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale (SWEMWBS) and LSOA proportion of green space, which was derived from the General Land Use Database (GLUD), and were analysed using linear regression, while controlling for individual, household and area-level factors.
Those living in areas with greater proportions of green space had significantly higher mental wellbeing scores in unadjusted analyses (an expected increase of 0.17 points (95% CI 0.11, 0.23) in the SWEMWBS score for a standard deviation increase of green space). However, after adjustment for confounding by respondent sociodemographic characteristics and urban/rural location, the association was attenuated to the null (regression coefficient B = - 0.01, 95% CI -0.08, 0.05, p = 0.712).
While the green space in an individual's local area has been shown through other research to be related to aspects of mental health such as happiness and life satisfaction, the association with multidimensional mental wellbeing is much less clear from our results. While we did not find a statistically significant association between the amount of green space in residents' local areas and mental wellbeing, further research is needed to understand whether other features of green space, such as accessibility, aesthetics or use, are important for mental wellbeing.
随着城市化进程的加快，了解如何设计不断变化的环境以促进心理健康变得至关重要。有证据表明，当地绿地的比例可能与幸福感和生活满意度相关；然而，关于此类关联与更广泛定义的心理健康之间的现有证据仍然非常稀少。本研究旨在确定邻里绿地的数量是否与心理健康相关。
数据来自“理解社会”调查，这是一项在2009 - 2010年期间对英格兰11,096个普查下层超级输出区（LSOA）的30,900个人进行的全国性调查。测量指标包括多维的沃里克 - 爱丁堡心理健康量表（SWEMWBS）以及从通用土地利用数据库（GLUD）得出的LSOA绿地比例，并在控制个体、家庭和区域层面因素的同时使用线性回归进行分析。
在未经调整的分析中，居住在绿地比例较高地区的人心理健康得分显著更高（绿地标准差增加时，SWEMWBS得分预期增加0.17分（95%置信区间0.11, 0.23））。然而，在对受访者的社会人口特征和城乡位置进行混杂因素调整后，这种关联减弱至无关联（回归系数B = - 0.01，95%置信区间 - 0.08, 0.05，p = 0.712）。
虽然通过其他研究表明个人所在地区的绿地与心理健康的某些方面如幸福感和生活满意度有关，但从我们的结果来看，与多维心理健康的关联则不太明确。虽然我们没有发现居民所在地区的绿地数量与心理健康之间存在统计学上的显著关联，但需要进一步研究以了解绿地的其他特征，如可达性、美观性或用途，对心理健康是否重要。
