Longitudinal Effects on Mental Health of Moving to Greener and Less Green Urban Areas

Methods:

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Mental Health. Mental health was measured with the short-form twelve item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ), a self-report instrument used to aid diagnosis of disorders such as anxiety and depression. Respondents report how they have felt in the “past few weeks” compared to “usual” for six positive mood states, such as being able to concentrate and make decisions, and six negative mood states, such as feeling under strain and lacking confidence. The dependent variable is GHQ Score, where item responses indicative of distress score 1, and responses indicative of limited or no distress score 0, and these are summed to give a scale score between 0 and 12. Scale scores were reverse coded in the analysis (i.e., Inverse GHQ) so that higher scores represented better mental health.

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Mental Health was measured using the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) that surveys participants about their mood, stress, and confidence. Participants self-report how they have felt over the past few weeks compared to usual. There are six positive mood states and six negative mood states. For the GHQ, the participants would add a score of 1 for each item they where they felt distress, and they would get a score of 0 for low or no distress. At the end they would have a score between 0-12 measuring their level of stress. For this study, the researchers reverse-coded the scores so that higher numbers mean better mental health.

Introduction:

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First, there may be initial improvement in mental health, followed by a decrease in benefits as individuals adapt to their new greener surroundings and the novelty wears off — an adaptation hypothesis. Under this possibility the higher overall average is due only to an increase in the first couple of years. Alternatively, there may be little initial benefit from moving because, for instance, it takes time to get to know where local parks are and to begin to use them. Only as these new opportunities are taken up does mental health improve gradually — a sensitisation hypothesis. In this case the higher overall average is only due to later years. Finally, mental health may improve directly following a move to a greener area and remain at a similar heightened level thereafter — an immediately shifting baseline hypothesis.

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In this study, the same people are followed over several years in the UK to track what happens when someone moves to a greener neighbourhood. The researchers want to find out how mental health changes over time after a move and whether these changes follow one of three patterns:

Adaptation: mental health improves at first, but the benefits are temporary as people settle into their new environment.

Sensitisation: mental health improves gradually as people slowly discover and start using the green spaces.

Shifting Baseline: mental health improves quickly after moving and stays at the higher level.

Results:

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Descriptives. There were some differences in the two groups of movers (Tables 1 and 2). For instance, on average, movers to greener areas were slightly older at T−2(M = 38.87; SD = 15.16) than movers to less green areas (M = 37.28, SD = 15.15), more likely to be married (74.07% vs 62.55%), more likely to be retired (10.61% vs 8.51%), less likely to live in a detached house (10.77% vs 22.77%), and more likely to be noncommuters (29.97% vs 25.74%). Movers to greener areas, who were currently living in less green areas, also had lower mean (inverse) GHQ scores at T−2 (9.78) than movers to less green areas, who were currently living in more green areas, (10.15).

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Before moving, people who relocated to greener areas were slightly older, more likely to be married or retired, land ess likely to commute or to live in detached houses. People moving to greener areas who were currently living in less green areas, also had slightly worse mental health scores compared to those who moved to less green areas after living in more green spaces.

Discussion:

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An important example of the limitations of how constructs are operationalised in this work is the fact that cross-sectional environmental Science & Technology Article estimates of area level factors (at 2005) were distributed to all waves of data (1991−2008), with no correction for changes within areas over time. We assume this to have very limited impact on our estimations, since comparative differences in environmental and socio-demographic aspects of a residential area at different times are assumed to be slight in comparison to those between different residential areas at the same, or different, times. We were also unable to examine mechanisms that might explain how green space could improve mental well-being by, for instance, encouraging greater levels of physical activity or promoting better neighbourhood relations.

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Another limitation was that the data about neighbourhood green space came from a single year (2005) and were applied to all other years, meaning they couldn’t account for how neighbourhoods might have changed over time. It also assumed that everyone in a neighbourhood experienced the same amount of green space, when some people may live live closer to parks and spend more time outside than others. The study also couldn’t directly determine why green space improves mental health, for example it could be due to more exercise, social connection, or less noise.

Future Directions

• What future research should follow up on this work?

The researchers recommend that future studies use larger samples from the UK’s recently completed Understanding Society panel, explore the importance of mover motivations, and track people for longer periods to better understand the relationship between green space, life changes, and mental health.

Difficult Material:

• What did you not understand about this paper that someone else may be able to help you with? Or, if you understood everything, what did you find most challenging to understand?

It’s been a while since I’ve had to read a research paper in detail, so it took me some time to get through it. I understand the paper fully, but I find it difficult to stay focused because of the dense, technical language. Math and statistics are challenging for me, so when I get to the results section, I have to make an effort not to skim and instead really try to absorb the information.