Neighbourhood characteristics and prevalence and severity of depression: pooled analysis of eight Dutch cohort studies.

A new interesting article has been published in Br J Psychiatry. 2019 Aug;215(2):468-475. doi: 10.1192/bjp.2019.100. Epub 2019 May 6. and titled:

Neighbourhood characteristics and prevalence and severity of depression: pooled analysis of eight Dutch cohort studies.

Authors of this article are:

Generaal E, Hoogendijk EO, Stam M, Henke CE, Rutters F, Oosterman M, Huisman M, Kramer SE, Elders PJM, Timmermans EJ, Lakerveld J, Koomen E, Ten Have M, de Graaf R, Snijder MB, Stronks K, Willemsen G, Boomsma DI, Smit JH, Penninx BWJH.

A summary of the article is shown below:

BACKGROUND: Studies on neighbourhood characteristics and depression show equivocal results.AimsThis large-scale pooled analysis examines whether urbanisation, socioeconomic, physical and social neighbourhood characteristics are associated with the prevalence and severity of depression.METHOD: Cross-sectional design including data are from eight Dutch cohort studies (n = 32 487). Prevalence of depression, either DSM-IV diagnosis of depressive disorder or scoring for moderately severe depression on symptom scales, and continuous depression severity scores were analysed. Neighbourhood characteristics were linked using postal codes and included (a) urbanisation grade, (b) socioeconomic characteristics: socioeconomic status, home value, social security beneficiaries and non-Dutch ancestry, (c) physical characteristics: air pollution, traffic noise and availability of green space and water, and (d) social characteristics: social cohesion and safety. Multilevel regression analyses were adjusted for the individual’s age, gender, educational level and income. Cohort-specific estimates were pooled using random-effects analysis.RESULTS: The pooled analysis showed that higher urbanisation grade (odds ratio (OR) = 1.05, 95% CI 1.01-1.10), lower socioeconomic status (OR = 0.90, 95% CI 0.87-0.95), higher number of social security beneficiaries (OR = 1.12, 95% CI 1.06-1.19), higher percentage of non-Dutch residents (OR = 1.08, 95% CI 1.02-1.14), higher levels of air pollution (OR = 1.07, 95% CI 1.01-1.12), less green space (OR = 0.94, 95% CI 0.88-0.99) and less social safety (OR = 0.92, 95% CI 0.88-0.97) were associated with higher prevalence of depression. All four socioeconomic neighbourhood characteristics and social safety were also consistently associated with continuous depression severity scores.CONCLUSIONS: This large-scale pooled analysis across eight Dutch cohort studies shows that urbanisation and various socioeconomic, physical and social neighbourhood characteristics are associated with depression, indicating that a wide range of environmental aspects may relate to poor mental health.Declaration of interestNone.

Check out the article’s website on Pubmed for more information:

[link-preview url=https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31057126 forceshot=true]

This article is a good source of information and a good way to become familiar with topics such as: Mental health;cohort studies;environment;geographic information systems;neighbourhood.

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