Green Space Quantity and Mental Health: Evidence on Gender Differences in Relationships and use of Work Status as a Proxy for Exposure
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This document explores the relationship between green space quantity and mental health, with a focus on gender differences and the use of work status as a proxy for exposure in Scotland's disadvantaged urban communities. The findings reveal distinct gender differences in how green space impacts mental health, with significant effects for males and more complex effects for females. The conclusions suggest that gender and exposure levels should be accounted for in future studies, as they can significantly influence mental health outcomes.
Green Space Quantity and Mental Health: Evidence on Gender Differences in Relationships and use of Work Status as a Proxy for Exposure
- 1. Green Space Quantity and Mental Health: Evidence on Gender Differences in Relationships and use of Work Status as a Proxy for Exposure Dr Lynette Robertson, Prof Catharine Ward Thompson, Prof Jenny Roe, Prof Peter Aspinall, Prof David Miller
- 2. Introduction Methods Results - Part 1: Green space quantity (GSQ) effect sizes (Mental Health) (i) gender differences (ii) work status as a proxy for exposure (iii) screening outliers and exceptional cases - Part 2: Factors underlying gender differences in GSQ-MH relationships Discussion Conclusions
- 3. Introduction
- 7. Research objectives 1. Examine gender differences in green space quantity (GSQ) – mental health relationships 2. Explore use of work status as a simple proxy for exposure to the local neighbourhood environment 3. Examine the impact of removal of outliers and exceptional cases on findings
- 8. Research objectives 1. Examine gender differences in green space quantity (GSQ) – mental health relationships 2. Explore use of work status as a simple proxy for exposure to the local neighbourhood environment 3. Examine the impact of removal of outliers and exceptional cases on findings
- 9. Research objectives 1. Examine gender differences in green space quantity (GSQ) – mental health relationships 2. Explore use of work status as a simple proxy for exposure to the local neighbourhood environment 3. Examine the impact of removal of outliers and exceptional cases on findings
- 10. Poverty in Scotland at worst levels in 30 years: 1/3 population living in multiple deprivation (UK Poverty and Social Exclusion Survey 2013)
- 11. 1 in 3 people are estimated to be affected by mental illness in any one year (Scottish Government) Adults living in the most deprived areas are approximately twice as likely to have common mental health problems as those in the least deprived areas (22% versus 11%) – (Health Scotland)
- 12. Methods
- 13. Research Design Cross-sectional CAPI survey 4 disadvantaged urban communities in Scotland (Edinburgh and Dundee) Residents > 16 years June 2010 N = 406
- 14. Measures Health and Wellbeing - Perceived Stress Scale, PSS (Cohen & Williamson, 1988) - Mental wellbeing, SWEMWBS (Steward-Brown et al., 2009) - Physical activity - General Health - Life Satisfaction Green space: objective + subjective - quantity - quality - accessibility - usage
- 15. James Hutton Institute ‘Land Use Class’(S Gov PAN65) Public open space, gardens + roadside trees and grass 300m buffer around the home Measures: Green space quantity
- 16. Study sample 3 communities: n = 305
- 17. Study sample HLUC Green space quantity: n = 206
- 18. Analysis Hierarchical Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) - Block 1: Age, Income Coping, Deprivation (Carstairs Index), Employment, Education, Life partner, Children - Block 2: Physical activity - Block 3: Green space quantity + Moderation by Gender
- 19. Regression analyses 1. Study sample (n = 206) 2. Individuals not in full time work: ‘Subgroup A’ (n = 147) 3. Individuals most likely to spend a greater proportion of their time at home, based on work status: ‘Subgroup B’ (n = 68) (i) looking after the home/family (ii) retired (iii) long term sick and disabled
- 20. Regression analyses 1. Study sample (n = 206) 2. Individuals not in full time work: ‘Subgroup A’ (n = 147) 3. Individuals most likely to spend a greater proportion of their time at home, based on work status: ‘Subgroup B’ (n = 68) (i) looking after the home/family (ii) retired (iii) long term sick and disabled
- 21. Regression analyses (1) Study sample (2) Subgroup A: ‘Not in full time work’ (3) Subgroup B ‘At home most’ By Gender (+ M&F combined) Exceptional adverse life conditions ‘EALC’ filter (sample screened of (i) outliers + (ii) all individuals reporting a sig. negative impact of recent life event)
- 22. Perceived stress (PSS) Mental wellbeing (SWEMWBS)
- 23. Perceived stress (PSS) Mental wellbeing (SWEMWBS)
- 24. Results
- 25. Sample characteristics Ethnicity: White Scottish 96% Other UK 1.6% Non-UK 2.3%
- 26. Perceived stress (PSS): mean = 13.9 (SD = 6.3), males = 13.1, females = 14.4 Mental wellbeing (SWEMWBS): median = 28 (IQR = 5), males = 28, females = 27
- 27. Physical activity: median = 14 (IQR = 15), males = 12, females = 15 Green space quantity mean = 50% (SD = 14), males = 50%, females = 50%
- 28. Perceived stress scale (PSS) – green space quantity relationships
- 29. Mental wellbeing (SWEMWBS) – GSQ relationships
- 30. Gender differences in relationships 1. Distinct gender differences in relationships between GSQ and mental health outcomes - Consistently positive GSQ effect for MH for males - More complex for females (+ve and –ve effects) 2. Gender was not a significant moderator of PSS or SWEMWBS
- 31. Work status as a proxy for exposure GSQ effect sizes increased in strength across analysis groups + strongest for Subgroup B (‘At home most’), particularly for: - Males - Perceived stress
- 32. Screening the sample: ‘EALC’ filter Resulted in: - greater number of sig. green space quantity (GSQ) effects - larger GSQ effects for males - consistent pattern of results between males and females
- 33. Other observations 1. Findings broadly consistent between PSS and SWEMWBS 2. Green space quantity accounted for considerably more variance in PSS (3 – 52%) compared to SWEMWBS (3-12%) 3. Physical activity was not a significant predictor of PSS, but was a significant predictor of SWEMWBS (up to 26% variance for males, 8% for females)
- 34. Discussion
- 35. Discussion Comparison with other studies: any overall pattern? Assumes uniform quality of green space (but lim. Assumes binary gender (but sample is small) Cross-sectional study – residual selection effect (but disadvantaged communities only)
- 37. Discussion Comparison with other studies: any overall pattern? Maybe… Methodology recommendations - routinely stratify analyses by gender - account for exposure - screen sample… - PSS and physical activity - ++++
- 38. Limitations Work status proxy: crude assumptions around time at home + notable differences in some variables imp. for mental health across analysis subgroups e.g. age, physical activity (but…) Assumes uniform quality of green space (but limited variation expec.) Assumes binary gender (but sample is small) Cross-sectional study – selection effects (but disadvantaged communities only)
- 39. Conclusions
- 40. Conclusions Relationships between amount of green space in the environment and mental health can differ significantly by gender, in both direction and/or magnitude Effect sizes for residential green space based on whole study populations may substantially underestimate for gender and other subgroups, such as those with a greater level of exposure (e.g. older people, children)
- 41. Conclusions Work status may serve as a crude but useful proxy for exposure to neighbourhood green space Methodological handling of data (e.g. treatment of outliers and exceptional cases) can have a significant impact on results and their interpretation Further research is needed to confirm findings - use existing datasets
- 42. James Hutton: http://www.hutton.ac.uk/research/projects/green-health OPENspace: http://www.openspace.eca.ed.ac.uk/research-projects/greenhealth l.robertson@gsa.ac.uk | lynette@natureharmonics.co.uk @NatureHarmonics (Twitter)
- 43. James Hutton: http://www.hutton.ac.uk/research/projects/green-health ://www.openspace.eca.ed.ac.uk/research-projects/greenhealth l.robertson@gsa.ac.uk | lynette@natureharmonics.co.uk @NatureHarmonics (Twitter)