The Neighbourhood Built Environment and Trajectories of Depression Symptom Episodes in Adults: A Latent Class Growth Analysis

Abstract

AimTo investigate the effect of the neighbourhood built environment on trajectories of depression symptom episodes in adults from the general Canadian population.Research Design and MethodsWe used 10 years of data collection (2000/01-2010/11) from the Canadian National Population Health Study (n = 7114). Episodes of depression symptoms were identified using the Composite International Diagnostic Interview Short-Form. We assessed the presence of local parks, healthy food stores, fast food restaurants, health services and cultural services using geospatial data. We used latent class growth modelling to identify different trajectories of depression symptom episodes in the sample and tested for the effect of neighbourhood variables on the trajectories over time.ResultsWe uncovered three distinct trajectories of depression symptom episodes: low prevalence (76.2% of the sample), moderate prevalence (19.2%) and high prevalence of depression symptom episodes (2.8%). The presence of any neighbourhood service (healthy food store, fast-food restaurant, health service, except for cultural service) was significantly associated with a lower probability of a depression symptom episode for those following a trajectory of low prevalence of depression symptom episodes. The presence of a local park was also a significant protective factor in trajectory groups with both low and moderate prevalence of depression symptom episodes. Neighbourhood characteristics did not significantly affect the trajectory of high prevalence of depression symptom episodes.ConclusionsFor individuals following a trajectory of low and moderate prevalence of depression symptom episodes, the neighbourhood built environment was associated with a shift in the trajectory of depression symptom episodes. Future intervention studies are recommended to make policy recommendations.

Built Environment and Depression in Low-Income African Americans and Whites

“…Contrary to the current findings, they saw reduced odds of moderate depression symptoms in men living in neighborhoods with higher walkability indices, but not in women. Running counter to the current analysis, Gariepy and colleagues 59 examined the association between built environment factors and depression symptoms over a 10-year period and found that the presence of stores and restaurants was associated with a lower probability of depression symptom episodes among those with a trajectory of low prevalence of depression symptoms.…”

Living environment and its relationship to depressive mood: A systematic review

“…(Maschke & Niemann, 2007, p. 349). Living environment was usually determined at one time point, with three exceptions (Chen, Chen, Landry, & Davis, 2014;Mair et al, 2015;Gariepy et al, 2015).…”

“…(Niemann et al, 2006) a , surrounding area noise (Braubach, 2007) a and severe neighbour noise (Maschke & Niemann, 2007 a ;Niemann et al, 2006) were related to depression, after adjustments for personal characteristics. • • Exposure to indoor noise pollution and neighbourhood noise were related depressive symptoms after adjustments for age, gender, marital status, employment and migratory status (Firdaus & Ahmad, 2014) • • Living in areas with a higher auto commuter density, chronic exposure to traffic noise, was related to more depressive symptoms after adjustments (Miles et al, 2011) Air pollution (2 studies) • • People reporting depression reported air pollution problems more often after multiple adjustments (Piro, Madsen, Naess, Nafstad, & Claussen, 2008 was associated with lower probability of depression for those following a trajectory of low prevalence of depression symptoms episodes, when individual characteristics were included in the model (Gariepy et al, 2015). a When depression measure outcomes also included use of antidepressants, the presence of cultural services was related to lower depression in a fully adjusted model…”

Living Environment and Its Relationship to Depressive Mood: A Systematic Review

“…Nine studies (two of them using the same data) showed statistically significant associations between green areas and depressive mood, while three studies showed no associations (Supplement Table 1, Table 2). For example the presence of parks in two studies using the same data (Gariepy et al, 2015;Gariepy, Blair, Kestens, & Schmitz, 2014) and neighbourhood green space were protective factors for depressive mood (Beyer et al, 2014;Maas et al, 2009) after adjustments for individual characteristics (Supplement Table 1). However, one study reported that individuals with depressive mood were statistically significantly more likely to live in areas with more public green areas, but this was an unadjusted result (Araya et al, 2007).…”