Association of neighborhood greenness with depressive symptoms in elderly women

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Epidemiological evidence of the beneficial association between greenness and depression in the elderly is still limited and results of studies are inconsistent. In this study, we aimed to investigate the association between neighbourhood greenness and depression in elderly women. METHODS: We enrolled 821 women (aged 66-80) from the German SALIA cohort for the 2007-2010 follow-up examination. Greenness was assessed for each participant using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) (year 2009) for different circular buffers (100-m, 300-m, 500-m and 1000-m) around the residential address. We used two depression outcomes: self-reported doctor diagnosis of ever depression and the frequency of depressive symptoms by using the 20-items Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CESD-R). Cross-sectional associations were assessed using adjusted logistic and linear regression models. RESULTS:In the adjusted models, a 0.1-point increase in NDVI within 300-m was associated with a decreased odds of prior diagnosis of depression (odds ratios (OR): 0.691, 95% confidence intervals (CI): 0.495, 0.965). Similarly, a 0.1-point increase in NDVI within 1000-m was associated with decreased depressive symptoms assessed with the CESD-R score (-12.5% difference in the mean; 95% CI: -21.2%, -3.7%). The results were not consistent across different buffers even though they were in the same direction. CONCLUSIONS:Urban greening might potentially decrease depression rates in elderly population. KEYWORDS: depression, depressive symptoms, elderly, greenspace, NDVI