Abstract
Recent studies suggest an association between ambient air pollution and mental well-being, though evidence is mostly fragmented and inconclusive. Research also suffers from methodological limitations related to study design and moderating effect of key demographics (e.g., ethnicity). This study examines the effect of air pollution on reported mental well-being in United Kingdom (UK) using spatial-temporal (between-within) longitudinal design and assesses the moderating effect of ethnicity. Data for 60,146 adult individuals (age:16+) with 349,748 repeated responses across 10-data collection waves (2009-2019) from "Understanding-Society: The-UK-Household-Longitudinal-Study" were linked to annual concentrations of NO2, SO2, PM10, and PM2.5 pollutants using the individuals' place of residence, given at the local-authority and at the finer Lower-Super-Output-Areas (LSOAs) levels; allowing for analysis at two geographical scales across time. The association between air pollution and mental well-being (assessed through general-health-questionnaire-GHQ12) and its modification by ethnicity and being non-UK born was assessed using multilevel mixed-effect logit models. Higher odds of poor mental well-being was observed with every 10μg/m3 increase in NO2, SO2, PM10 and PM2.5 pollutants at both LSOAs and local-authority levels. Decomposing air pollution into spatial-temporal (between-within) effects showed significant between, but not within effects; thus, residing in more polluted local-authorities/LSOAs have higher impact on poor mental well-being than the air pollution variation across time within each geographical area. Analysis by ethnicity revealed higher odds of poor mental well-being with increasing concentrations of SO2, PM10, and PM2.5 only for Pakistani/Bangladeshi, other-ethnicities and non-UK born individuals compared to British-white and natives, but not for other ethnic groups. Using longitudinal individual-level and contextual-linked data, this study highlights the negative effect of air pollution on individuals' mental well-being. Environmental policies to reduce air pollution emissions can eventually improve the mental well-being of people in UK. However, there is inconclusive evidence on the moderating effect of ethnicity.
Highlights
Mental health problems are rising noticeably world-wide causing serious socio-economic losses to the societies manifested in diminished work productivity and contributing to higher rates of criminal activity and lack of trust in governments [1, 2]
Environmental policies to reduce air pollution emissions can eventually improve the mental well-being of people in United Kingdom (UK)
Ambient air pollution is a mixture of particles and gaseous chemicals that are released to the atmosphere from natural processes or from man-made activities including energy production, livestock farming, traffic exhaust, and industrial and mining processes [8, 9]
Summary
Mental health problems are rising noticeably world-wide causing serious socio-economic losses to the societies manifested in diminished work productivity and contributing to higher rates of criminal activity and lack of trust in governments [1, 2]. Exposure to ambient PM2.5 results in depressive responses and increased hippocampal pro-inflammatory cytokines [11], while exposure to PM1 leads to increased inflammation and reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation and impacts learning and memory [12]. In this context, traffic related air pollution (e.g., particulate matter and NO2) have been linked by observational research to increased rates of mental health problems including: autism spectrum disorders [13], schizophrenia [14], dementia [15], psychotic experiences [16, 17], cognitive disabilities [18], anxiety and major depressive disorders [19]. This study examines the effect of air pollution on reported mental well-being in United Kingdom (UK) using spatial-temporal (between-within) longitudinal design and assesses the moderating effect of ethnicity
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