Blues from the Neighborhood? Neighborhood Characteristics and Depression

Abstract

Unipolar major depression ranks among the leading contributors to the global burden of disease. Although established risk factors for depression include a variety of individual-level characteristics, neighborhood etiologic factors have been relatively understudied, with several such attributes (neighborhood socioeconomic status, physical conditions, services/amenities, social capital, social disorder) possessing plausible linkages to depression. Using the PubMed database (1966-2008) and the Social Sciences Citation Index database (1956-2008), the author undertook a systematic review of the published literature on the associations between these characteristics and depression in adults. Across studies, the evidence generally supports harmful effects of social disorder and, to a lesser extent, suggests protective effects for neighborhood socioeconomic status. Few investigations have explored the relations for neighborhood physical conditions, services/amenities, and social capital, and less consistently point to salutary effects. The unsupportive findings may be attributed to the lack of representative studies within and across societies or to methodological gaps, including lack of control for other neighborhood/non-neighborhood exposures and lack of implementation of more rigorous methodological approaches. Establishing mediating pathways and effect-modifying factors will vitally advance understanding of neighborhood effects on depression. Overall, addressing these gaps will help to identify what specific neighborhood features matter for depression, how, and for whom, and will contribute to curtailing the burden of disease associated with this major disorder.

Assessment of dietary habits and nutritional status of depressive patients, depending on place of residence

“…However, the few studies that analyzed the incidence of depression depending on the place of residence have demonstrated ambiguous results. Peen et al found that psychosomatic disorders, including depression, occurred more frequently in city patients; other researchers found a higher incidence of depression among residents of rural areas than the urban areas [4,10].…”

“…It has been estimated that by 2020, depression will be among the three main health problems worldwide [4]. In many studies, depression has appeared to be an independent predictor of cardiovascular diseases, including coronary heart disease, to facilitate body weight gain and increase the percentage of patients with overweight or obesity, especially abdominal obesity and accumulation of metabolically active visceral adipose tissue (VAT) [2,5,6,7].…”

“…As research shows, some socio-demographic factors (including age, education, marital status or place of residence) may differentiate the occurrence of depressive disorders [1,4,9,10,11]. However, the few studies that analyzed the incidence of depression depending on the place of residence have demonstrated ambiguous results.…”

Does conurbation affect the risk of poor mental health? A population based record linkage study

“…For example, an increased drift towards 1 disadvantaged urban environments of people who have suffered a decline in mental health and 2 perhaps an associated slide in social standing (Lapouse et al, 1956), or an outmigration of the more 3 wealthy and healthy from larger conurbations to suburban areas (O'Reilly et al, 2001). No study to 4 date has analysed all three hypotheses concurrently and, of late, studies have begun suggesting 5 other factors which may be affecting health in urban areas including pollution, air traffic noise, social 6 networks and the quality of the built environment (Galea et al, 2005;Kim, 2008). 7 8 This aim of this paper is to determine if (i) urban residence is associated with an increased risk of 9 suffering from common mood disorders such as anxiety and depression (as measured by uptake of 10 anxiolytic and antidepressant medication), and (ii) to determine if this association is independent of 11 psychosocial stressors, area disadvantage and selective migration.…”

Improving the measurement of neighbourhood characteristics through systematic observation: Inequalities in smoking as a case study

“…Moving beyond an individual-based approach to health to one focused on settings where people live, work and play, researchers are attempting to identify neighbourhood characteristics as intervention targets for reducing health inequalities. Exposure to neighbourhood physical and social environments has been linked to health behaviours such as smoking (Frohlich et al, 2002, Chow et al, 2009, Ellaway and Macintyre, 2009, diet (Chow et al, 2009) and physical activity (Chow et al, 2009), and health outcomes including self-rated health (Pickett andPearl, 2001, Riva et al, 2007), cardio-vascular diseases (Riva et al, 2007, Chaix, 2009, Chow et al, 2009, obesity (French et al, 2001) and mental health (Egan et al, 2008, Cohen et al, 2003, Kim, 2008). …”