Abstract
Nighttime Light Emission (NLE) is associated with diminished mental and physical health. The present study examines how NLE and associated urban features (e.g., air pollution, low green space) impact mental and physical wellbeing. We included 200,393 UK Biobank Cohort participants with complete data. The study was carried out in two steps. In Step1, we assessed the relationship between NLE, deprivation, pollution, green space, household poverty and mental and physical symptoms. In Step2, we examined the role of NLE on environment-symptom networks. We stratified participants into high and low NLE and used gaussian graphical model to identify nodes which bridged urban features and mental and physical health problems. We then compared the global strength of these networks in high vs low NLE. We found that higher NLE associated with higher air pollution, less green space, higher economic and neighborhood deprivation, higher household poverty and higher depressed mood, higher tiredness/lethargy and obesity (Rtraining_mean = 0.2624, Ptraining_mean < .001; Rtest_mean = 0.2619, Ptest_mean < .001). We also found that the interaction between environmental risk factors and mental, physical problems (overall network connectivity) was higher in the high NLE network than in the low NLE network (t = 0.7896, P < .001). In areas with high NLE, economic deprivation, household poverty and waist circumference acted as bridge factors between the key urban features and mental health symptoms. In conclusion, NLE, urban features, household poverty and mental and physical symptoms are all interrelated. In areas with high NLE, urban features associate with mental and physical health problems at a greater magnitude than in areas with low NLE.
Highlights
Fifty-five percent of the world’s population lives in urban areas and this is estimated to increase to 65% by 2050 (Heilig, 2012)
In Step1, we found that Nighttime Light Emission (NLE) is associated with key urban features and diminished individual wellbeing (Rtraining_mean = 0.2624, Ptraining_mean < .001; Rtest_mean = 0.2619, Ptest_mean < .001) (Fig.3)
In the first step of the analysis, we found that NLE and key urban features are associated with higher mental and physical health problems
Summary
Fifty-five percent of the world’s population lives in urban areas and this is estimated to increase to 65% by 2050 (Heilig, 2012). Exposure to green space has been shown to have stressrelieving effects especially within urban areas. Theories posit that these stress-relieving effects are a result of our histories being human beings evolved primarily within nature, and are suggested to be inherently biophilic (attracted to nature; Hartig et al, 2003; Herzog et al, 2003; Kaplan & Kaplan, 1989; Ulrich et al, 1991; Ulrich, 1983). More time spent in green space is associated with better mental health (van den Berg et al, 2016). This has relevance during the COVID-19 pandemic, in which low exposure to nature (i.e. green space) acted as a barrier to psychological resilience, whereas high exposure to nature facilitated psychological resilience (Tanhan, 2020)
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