Discovery of the Environmental Factors Affecting Urban Dwellers' Mental Health: A Data-Driven Approach

Investigating the Association between Environmental Quality Characteristics and Mental Well-Being in Public Open Spaces

The issues related to the urban environment and mental well-being have become increasingly important in recent decades. Although this association has been mainly investigated in developed countries, there is limited knowledge on whether similar results can be acquired in the urban environments of developing countries like Iran. This study intends to present a new dynamic and active approach to determine the environmental quality characteristics that influence the mental well-being of urban residents and to engage people to healthy urban public environments. In this respect, the research is directed by both qualitative and quantitative surveys in the public open spaces of Kermanshah, Iran. Firstly, the data are collected by Grounded Theory (GT) to identify significant environmental quality characteristics related to mental well-being by applying 24 semi-structured interviews. Secondly, the questionnaire survey based on Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) is applied to examine the association between each characteristic of the developed conceptual framework. The results reveal that the environmental quality characteristics of public open spaces, directly and indirectly, relate to users’ mental well-being. It should be noted that the public open spaces with unique functional and intrinsic features seem to have different impacts on mental well-being.

The Relationship between Internet Use and Population Health: A Cross-Sectional Survey in China

Given the increasing use of the Internet in China, the relationship between Internet use and population health has been receiving increased academic attention. However, the current literature has not yet reached a unified conclusion; thus, further research is very necessary. This study used the 2018 China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) data to explore the relationship between Internet use and the health of the population and to evaluate the possible heterogeneity of the association between different groups and the mediation path. This study revealed that Internet use has a positive association with the subjective health of the population. The results of the heterogeneity analysis revealed that Internet use is more significantly associated with the health of non-agricultural workers and those with higher education levels than that of agricultural workers and those with lower education levels. Further analysis revealed that health behavior is an important mediator between Internet use and population health. These results remain robust even after using propensity score matching (PSM) to eliminate sample selection bias.