Risk and Health Impact Assessment, Sciensano, Rue Juliette Wytsman 14, BE-1050, Brussels, Belgium.
Applied Mathematics, Computer Science and Statistics, Ghent University, Krijgslaan 281, S9, BE-9000, Ghent, Belgium.
BMC Public Health. 2021 Apr 1;21(1):635. doi: 10.1186/s12889-021-10557-7.
Mental health disorders appear as a growing problem in urban areas. While common mental health disorders are generally linked to demographic and socioeconomic factors, little is known about the interaction with the urban environment. With growing urbanization, more and more people are exposed to environmental stressors potentially contributing to increased stress and impairing mental health. It is therefore important to identify features of the urban environment that affect the mental health of city dwellers. The aim of this study was to define associations of combined long-term exposure to air pollution, noise, surrounding green at different scales, and building morphology with several dimensions of mental health in Brussels.
Research focuses on the inhabitants of the Brussels Capital Region older than 15 years. The epidemiological study was carried out based on the linkage of data from the national health interview surveys (2008 and 2013) and specifically developed indicators describing each participant's surroundings in terms of air quality, noise, surrounding green, and building morphology. These data are based on the geographical coordinates of the participant's residence and processed using Geographical Information Systems (GIS). Mental health status was approached through several validated indicators: the Symptom Checklist-90-R subscales for depressive, anxiety and sleeping disorders and the 12-Item General Health Questionnaire for general well-being. For each mental health outcome, single and multi-exposure models were performed through multivariate logistic regressions.
Our results suggest that traffic-related air pollution (black carbon, NO, PM) exposure was positively associated with higher odds of depressive disorders. No association between green surrounding, noise, building morphology and mental health could be demonstrated.
These findings have important implications because most of the Brussel's population resides in areas where particulate matters concentrations are above the World Health Organization guidelines. This suggests that policies aiming to reduce traffic related-air pollution could also reduce the burden of depressive disorders in Brussels.
精神健康障碍在城市地区日益成为一个问题。虽然常见的精神健康障碍通常与人口统计学和社会经济因素有关，但对于与城市环境的相互作用知之甚少。随着城市化的发展，越来越多的人接触到潜在的环境压力源，这可能导致压力增加，损害精神健康。因此，确定影响城市居民心理健康的城市环境特征非常重要。本研究的目的是定义长期暴露于空气污染、噪声、不同尺度的周围绿色环境和建筑形态与布鲁塞尔多种心理健康维度之间的关联。
研究重点是布鲁塞尔首都大区 15 岁以上的居民。这项流行病学研究是基于国家健康访谈调查（2008 年和 2013 年）的数据进行的，特别开发了一些指标来描述每个参与者周围的环境，包括空气质量、噪声、周围绿色环境和建筑形态。这些数据基于参与者居住的地理位置坐标，并使用地理信息系统（GIS）进行处理。通过多个经过验证的指标来评估心理健康状况：症状清单-90-R 子量表用于评估抑郁、焦虑和睡眠障碍，12 项一般健康问卷用于评估整体幸福感。对于每个心理健康结果，通过多变量逻辑回归进行单一和多暴露模型的分析。
我们的结果表明，交通相关的空气污染（黑碳、NO、PM）暴露与更高的抑郁障碍几率呈正相关。周围绿色环境、噪声、建筑形态与心理健康之间没有关联。
这些发现具有重要意义，因为布鲁塞尔的大部分人口居住在颗粒物浓度高于世界卫生组织指南的地区。这表明旨在减少交通相关空气污染的政策也可以减轻布鲁塞尔的抑郁障碍负担。
