Exploring how the urban neighborhood environment influences mental well-being using walking interviews

Community environmental healing benefits: A systematic review comparing intervening variables, environments, and outcomes

As the smallest spatial unit in the city, the community should be an important space for healing the urban population. This paper presents a systematic review summarizing studies on community healing environments. The study identified 75 publications. The research findings are as follows: the main intervening variables include restorativeness, emotions and mood, stress, and well-being. Little attention has been paid to the intervening variables including social support, environmental preferences and satisfaction, place attachment, behavior types that respond to personal will, self-fulfillment, and the spirit of personal culture. The various types of natural environments in communities have been given focused attention for a long time. However, the superiority of the natural environment should not be a reason to underestimate the healing benefits of community spaces. The mechanisms by which environmental characteristics are transformed into positive individual influences through intervening variables should be explored.

Sentiment and semantic analysis: Urban quality inference using machine learning algorithms

Sustainable urban transformation requires comprehensive knowledge about the built environment, including people's perceptions, use of sites, and wishes. Qualitative interviews are conducted to understand better people's opinions about a specific topic or location. This study explores the automatization of the interview coding process by investigating how state-of-the-art natural language processing techniques classify sentiment and semantic orientation from interviews transcribed in Swedish. For the sentiment analysis, the Swedish bidirectional encoder representations from transformers (BERT) model KB-BERT was used to perform a multi-class classification task on a text sentence level into three different classes: positive, negative, and neutral. Named entity recognition (NER) and string search were used for the semantic analysis to perform multi-label classification to match domain-related topics to the sentence. The models were trained and evaluated on partially annotated datasets. The results demonstrate that the implemented deep learning techniques are a possible and promising solution to achieve the stated goal.

"I Go Outdoors for Activities Every Day": Go-Along With Seniors With Slow Walking Speeds to Explore Environmental Factors Influencing Mobility

Objectives

This study aims to: 1) Explore the mobility experiences of seniors with slow walking speeds (SSWS) in urban neighborhoods; and 2) Investigate their environmental barriers and supports.

Methods

Go-along interviews were conducted with 36 SSWS residing in urban neighborhoods of Chongqing City, China. The mobility patterns and built environment factors influencing their mobility were revealed through cartographic analysis and thematic analysis.

Results

SSWS primarily focused their activities within a 400-meter radius of their homes. Built environment themes included topography, neighborhood services, sidewalks, seating, traffic safety, weather, greenery, and lighting. Significant mobility barriers included long stairs, steep slopes, fast-moving objects on sidewalks, road crossings, and fast traffic. Available handrails, nearby food-service places, ample seating, and greenery were identified as supportive factors for their mobility.

Conclusion

This study stands out as the first to specifically examine the mobility of SSWS within the built environment. We suggest that SSWS should be taken into account when establishing a benchmark for general design frameworks. These improvements not only contribute to the mobility of slow walkers but also have positive impacts on the broader population.

Using Qualitative Methods to Understand the Interconnections Between Cities and Health: A Methodological Review

Objective: Using different perspectives and methods to investigate the links between the urban phenomenon and health is critical in an urbanizing world. This review discusses qualitative methods in the context of urban health research. Methods: We conducted a narrative review following these steps: We identified the qualitative data collection, analysis and sampling methods that could be more relevant for the problems researched in the urban health field. We conducted searches for methodological articles and other documents about those methods. We included some influential materials and examples of empirical urban health studies using those methods. Results: We included 88 studies and identified several qualitative data gathering, analysis and sampling methods relevant for urban health researchers. We present those methods, focusing their strengths and limitations, and providing examples of their use in the field of urban health. These methods are flexible and allow in-depth analysis of small samples by collecting and analyzing rich and nuanced data. Conclusion: This article should contribute to a better understanding of how, and when, qualitative methods may improve our knowledge on urban health.

Green spaces exposure and the risk of common psychiatric disorders: A meta-analysis

Objective

To explore the effects of green spaces exposure on common psychiatric disorders.

Methods

PubMed, Embase, Web of Science and MEDLINE were screened and articles published prior to November 15, 2023 were included. Analyses were performed on common psychiatric disorders, categorized into depression, anxiety, dementia, schizophrenia, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). And the subgroup analyses were conducted for depression, anxiety, dementia, and schizophrenia.

Results

In total, 2,0064 studies were retrieved, 59 of which were included in our study; 37 for depression, 14 for anxiety, 8 for dementia, 7 for schizophrenia and 5 for ADHD. Green spaces were found to benefit the moderation of psychiatric disorders (OR = 0.91, 95% CI: 0.89 to 0.92). Green spaces positively influence depression (OR = 0.89, 95% CI: 0.86 to 0.93), regardless of the cross-sectional or cohort studies. Green spaces can also help mitigate the risk of anxiety (OR = 0.94, 95%CI:0.92 to 0.96). As an important index for measuring green spaces, a higher normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) level related to a lower level of depression (OR = 0.95, 95%CI:0.91 to 0.98) and anxiety (OR = 0.95, 95%:0.92 to 0.98). The protection was also found in dementia (OR = 0.95, 95% CI: 0.93 to 0.96), schizophrenia (OR = 0.74, 95% CI: 0.67 to 0.82), and ADHD (OR = 0.89, 95% CI: 0.86 to 0.92) results.

Conclusion

Green spaces decrease the risk of psychiatric disorders, including depression, anxiety, dementia, schizophrenia, and ADHD. Further studies on green spaces and psychiatric disorders are needed, and more green spaces should be considered in city planning.

Prioritizing decision-making of health and well-being response tactics: Incorporating organizational and individual shared demands

As a major energy source in China, the occupational health and well-being (OHW) of miners is a priority. Various statistical techniques have been used to identify factors or assess OHW to provide valuable information for the implementation of health promotion activities. The main bottleneck is the limited focus on solutions that address the demands of both organizations and individuals, and scientific and effective decision-making is pending. Therefore, this study describes the OHW mechanism covering both antecedents and consequences through the driving force-pressure-state-impact-response model. A probabilistic model of management tradeoff analysis was established by using a Bayesian decision network. Causal relationships and dependencies between multiple factors are captured visually. The model was verified and applied with samples of miners (N = 816). The results showed that the comprehensive strategy (R5) was the best tactic, and the management effect of stress (R2) and vulnerability (R3) was prominent. This study provides a valuable tool for managers to identify priority management factors. Prioritizing tactics formulated from dual demands of organizational and individual can ensure project feasibility, operability, and effectiveness. This study is a novel attempt to combine theory with practice, which is timely and necessary for management.

Understanding how to create healthier places: A qualitative study exploring the complex system of urban development decision-making

Tackling complex system challenges like creating healthy environments requires understanding priorities and structures affecting multiple actors. This qualitative study, involving 132 multi-sectoral stakeholders spanning the urban development decision-making system, explores how to influence healthier place-making. Using thematic analysis we develop themes around competing stakeholder priorities; structural 'rules' and influential relationships; and justifying a focus on health, requiring greater clarity and consensus around definitions of 'healthy' urban development. Building on the socio-ecological model we highlight how a multi-faceted approach is required for change at multiple levels in the complex system to target individual actor motivations, organisational priorities and structural 'rules'.

Neighborhood Environment and Affective Walking Experience: Cluster Analysis Results of a Virtual-Environment-Based Conjoint Experiment

There is empirical evidence that neighborhood environment characteristics influence individuals' self-reported affective walking experiences. However, much of the research investigates residents' affective walking experiences at the neighborhood level using revealed-preference methodologies, making it difficult to identify the separate impacts of characteristics. In addition, empirical studies have not shown enough evidence that individuals from different sociodemographic backgrounds have distinct affective walking experiences. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to explain how different groups of people perceive the characteristics of a neighborhood differently. To do this, this study conducts a conjoint experiment employing videos of virtual environments involving a sample of 295 respondents. Using a latent-class regression model and a multinomial logit model, we are able to determine how individuals and groups perceive neighborhood characteristics differently based on their different emotions. The results somewhat confirmed the findings of the empirical research, indicating that land use mix, connectivity, road size, open space, and greenery are related to a positive walking experience. The level of affective walking experience that individuals associate with neighborhood environmental characteristics is, however, considerably variable. Therefore, our results show that open space and road width are crucial for a walkable neighborhood since they are most helpful to individuals' subjective well-being.

The Impact of Multi-Quality Renewal Elements of Residence on the Subjective Well-Being of the Older Adults - A Case Study of Dalian

Background

With the expansion of comprehensive renovation projects in China's old residential areas, residents' actual sense of access and well-being has become a source of concern. As the population in old residential areas ages, the results of old renovation will have a significant impact on the older adults quality of life and subjective well-being.

Purpose

To date, most relevant studies have focused on urban and community scales, with little discussion of the impact of neighborhood-level renewal outcomes on the well-being of older adults. As a result, the purpose of this research is to optimize the quality renewal elements of existing old residential areas based on the results of their renovation in order to create a more livable living environment for older adults in existing old residential areas.

Methods

Based on a survey of old neighborhoods in Dalian, the study examines the mediating effect of psychological resilience between multi-quality renewal elements and the subjective well-being of the older adults, and it discusses the influence of multi-quality renewal elements on the subjective well-being of the older adults in different residential types.

Results

According to the findings, multi-quality renewal elements of residence positively predicted the subjective well-being of the older adults; there was a significant mediating effect of psychological resilience between the renewal elements and subjective well-being of the older adults. The study confirms that multiple quality renewal elements can contribute to older people's subjective well-being, and that psychological resilience plays an important role in the selection of multiple quality renewal elements and older people's subjective well-being.

Conclusion

The research provides guidance for the establishment of health-oriented approaches to environmental restoration in residential areas for the sustainable development of communities and cities.

The temporality of geographic contexts: Individual environmental exposure has time-related effects on mood

Research on environmental exposure and its impacts on people's mood has attracted increasing attention. Most studies focus on the spatiality of geographic contexts, but they neglect the influence of temporality in the relationships between environments and mood. To this end, a survey was conducted in January 2019 in Guangzhou, China, and measured data (micro-environments, built environments, EMA records, GPS trajectories, and activity logs) covering a weekday were collected from 125 participants. Then, multiple linear regression models are employed to examine and compare the associations between environments and mood based on three possible types of temporal responses (cumulative response, momentary response, and time-lagged response). The results indicate that there are great differences in environmental mood effects based on different types of temporal responses. Specifically, (i) for three types of temporal responses, exposure to PM_2.5 and noise have mood-blunting effects, whereas exposure to green spaces has mood-augmenting effects. (ii) For two types of temporal responses, higher temperature (in winter) may positively influence individual mood based on cumulative and time-lagged response, and higher POI density can positively affect mood based on cumulative and momentary response. (iii) Relative humidity may not have time-related effects on mood. Although all three types of temporal responses are observed in this study, the most significant manifestation is momentary response. These findings not only enrich theoretical research on environmental mood effects and temporality, but also inform the practice of more refined and humanistic urban planning, environmental governance, and public services.

Impacts of Urban Blue-Green Space on Residents' Health: A Bibliometric Review

Urban blue-green space (UBGS), as an important component of the urban environment, is found to closely relate to human health. An extensive understanding of the effects of UBGS on human health is necessary for urban planning and intervention schemes towards healthy city development. However, a comprehensive review and discussion of relevant studies using bibliometric methods is still lacking. This paper adopted the bibliometric method and knowledge graph visualization technology to analyze the research on the impact of UBGS on residents' health, including the number of published papers, international influence, and network characteristics of keyword hotspots. The key findings include: (1) The number of articles published between 2001 and 2021 shows an increasing trend. Among the articles collected from WoS and CNKI, 38.74% and 32.65% of the articles focus on physical health, 38.32% and 30.61% on mental health, and 17.06% and 30.61% on public health, respectively. (2) From the analysis of international partnerships, countries with high levels of economic development and urbanization have closer cooperation than other countries. (3) UBGS has proven positive effects on residents' physical, mental, and public health. However, the mediating effects of UBGS on health and the differences in the health effects of UBGS on different ages and social classes are less studied. Therefore, this study proposes several future research directions. First, the mediating effect of UBGS on health impacts should be further examined. Furthermore, the interactive effects of residents' behaviors and the UBGS environment should be emphasized. Moreover, multidisciplinary integration should be strengthened. The coupling mechanism between human behavior and the environment should also be studied in depth with the help of social perception big data, wearable devices, and human-computer interactive simulation. Finally, this study calls for developing health risk monitoring and early warning systems, and integrating health impact assessment into urban planning, so as to improve residents' health and urban sustainability.

Association between Campus Walkability and Affective Walking Experience, and the Mediating Role of Walking Attitude

The walkability of a neighborhood is important for alleviating transport problems and improving the social and physical wellbeing of residents. However, it is unclear to what extent high walkability contributes to positive attitudes about walking and walking experiences on university campuses. In addition, little is known about the extent and mechanism by which walking attitude influences the affective walking experiences of students. Therefore, this study aimed to analyze the relationship between campus walkability and students' affective walking experience, as well as to explain the role of walking attitude as a mediator of this relationship. To address these issues, data were collected via questionnaires at a Chinese university and analyzed by using the structural equation model. After controlling for personal characteristics, the results indicated that campus walkability had a positive direct and indirect (through walking attitude) association with affective walking experiences. Our findings have proved that walkable campuses are important because they promote positive walking attitudes and walking emotions, which are beneficial to students' mental health and subjective wellbeing.

Associations between Community Parks and Social Interactions in Master-Planned Estates in Sydney, Australia

There have been growing concerns regarding increased social isolation in Australia, many of which are currently being exacerbated due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Feelings of social isolation may increase the risk of mental issues in people. New Urbanism hypothesizes that neighborhood communal spaces can influence social interaction between residents and, in turn, can promote community sustainability. This study investigated the associations between community parks and social interactions in master-planned estates (MPEs) in Sydney, Australia. Data were obtained from a resident survey conducted in two MPEs in the inner west area of Sydney: Breakfast Point and Liberty Grove (n = 192). Hierarchical multiple regression (HMR) models were used to analyze the relationship between community park use and social interaction. This study found that the factors ‘frequency of community park use’, ‘rest spaces satisfaction’, and ‘pedestrian connectivity with surroundings’ are significantly and positively associated with social interaction between residents in the MPE context. The findings of this study highlight the importance of the community parks in creating social sustainability in MPEs, particularly in the context of COVID-19 pandemic.

Profiling the variability and inequity in the residential environment in Cyprus according to citizens' ratings: a cross-sectional internet-based "Place Standard" survey

Background

The “Place Standard Tool” (PST) offers a practical framework for structuring conversations about physical and social dimensions of Place which impact on health and well-being. The aim of this study was to survey citizens’ perceptions of Place across diverse settings in Cyprus. While the PST has been extensively used in the context of community engagement, its properties as a measurement tool haven’t been explored.

Methods

An open call was addressed to citizens to rate their neighbourhood environment across the 14 PST items (1: large to 7: little room for improvement). Exploratory factor, cluster and regression analyses were used to explore the dimensionality of the scale, depict neighbourhood profiles and explore differences in ratings according to socio-demographic characteristics, area-level census indicators and residents’ assessment of neighbourhood social position (10-step ladder).

Results

With the exception of safety (M = 4.4, SD = 1.7), 492 participants (mean age 42, 50% residents for > 10 years) from 254 postcodes (21.7% islandwide) did not rate other features favourably, with lowest scores for “influence and sense of control” and “public transport”. A stepwise pattern of dissatisfaction was observed along the social position continuum both for features rated less as well as more favourably (e.g. social contact). For instance, among participants who placed their neighbourhood at the three top steps of the ladder, 48.8% gave a low rating for “influence and sense of control”, while the equivalent figure was 81.0% at the bottom three steps (OR = 4.5, 95% CI 2.3, 8.6). A clear dimensionality of Built (6 items, Cronbach’s α = 0.798), Physical (3 items, α = 0.765), Social (2 items, α = 0.749) and Service (3 items, α = 0.58) environment was identified. A social gradient was evident according to census measures of socio-economic disadvantage (e.g. pre-1980 housing, single-parent households) with larger differences in terms of the built than the social environment.

Conclusions

The study profiled the variability and documented the inequity in the health-related neighbourhood environment across Cypriot communities. The readily interpretable dimensionality of the scale supports its construct validity, allowing calculation of composite scores. The PST can be used as measurement tool in research as well as public health practice to advocate for neighbourhood initiatives which support and enhance citizens’ participation.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12889-022-12706-y.

Neighborhood Socioeconomic Deprivation and Depression Symptoms in Adults From the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos (HCHS/SOL)

Socioeconomic factors appear to impact mental health conditions such as depression, but little is known about the relative and combined role of neighborhood and personal socioeconomic deprivation among Hispanics/Latinos. This study examined cross-sectional associations of neighborhood and personal socioeconomic deprivation with depression symptoms in a US Hispanic/Latino population from the San Diego Field Center of the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos (n = 3,851). Depression symptoms were assessed with the ten-item Centers for Epidemiological Studies in Depression Scale. Neighborhood socioeconomic deprivation was a composite of eleven variables (e.g., neighborhood income, education, employment, household crowding). Greater personal socioeconomic deprivation based on education, income, and employment was generally associated with higher depression symptoms, including after adjusting for neighborhood socioeconomic deprivation. Greater neighborhood socioeconomic deprivation was associated with higher depression symptoms in females but not males, but the association in females became non-significant when adjusting for personal socioeconomic deprivation. Neighborhood socioeconomic deprivation did not significantly interact with personal socioeconomic deprivation in relation to depression symptoms. The present findings support the association of personal socioeconomic status with mental health (indicated by depression symptoms) among Hispanic/Latino populations, whereas neighborhood socioeconomic deprivation did not relate to depression beyond the impact of personal indicators.

Association between urban environment and mental health in Brussels, Belgium

Background

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.

Methods

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.

Results

Our results suggest that traffic-related air pollution (black carbon, NO₂, PM₁₀) exposure was positively associated with higher odds of depressive disorders. No association between green surrounding, noise, building morphology and mental health could be demonstrated.

Conclusions

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.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12889-021-10557-7.