Abstract
The aim of this study is to assess the impacts of urban green space on depressive symptoms among Chinese urban residents aged 45 and older. In total, 7397 urban respondents were included in this study. Each respondent participated in the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study Wave 3 (2015). Environmental-level variables were retrieved from the National Bureau of Statistics database. Both unadjusted and adjusted methods were used in the multilevel regression analysis. Almost one-third of the sample population suffered from depressive symptoms (31.20%). The multilevel logistic regression model showed that green coverage ratio of city-built districts is negatively associated with the prevalence of depressive symptoms among urban mid-aged (OR = 0.79, p < 0.05) and elderly (OR = 0.75, p < 0.05) residents, and the public recreational green space helps to reduce elderly people’s depressive symptoms (OR = 0.77, p < 0.05). This study adds insights about the impact of green space and other environmental factors on depressive symptoms among mid-aged and elderly urban dwellers. It is important to provide enough and accessible overall urban green spaces; additionally, attention should also be paid to specific green space forms such as public recreational green space.
Highlights
Depression, one of the most common mental disorders in many countries, affects approximately 7% of the elderly population worldwide [1]
China has about 60% of its population living in urban areas in 2018 [12], and the percentage of the elderly population living in cities rose from 26.3% in 2006 to 52.0% in 2015 [13,14]
Given that elderly urban residents are at high risk of developing depressive symptoms, more attention should be paid to the mental health status of the ever-increasing aging population in urban areas
Summary
Depression, one of the most common mental disorders in many countries, affects approximately 7% of the elderly population worldwide [1]. The situation among the midaged population is not optimistic; prevalence of depression among females and males aged 45–59 is more than 7% and 5%, respectively [2]. Depression contributes greatly to daily function impairment and increases the suicide rate [3,4]. There is some evidence to suggest that prevalence of depressive disorders among urban residents in high-income countries is higher than their rural counterparts [5,6]. The situation in China has been reported to be exactly the opposite [7,8], the rate of depressive symptoms among. Chinese urban populations is dramatically higher than in other low- and middle-income countries and Asian countries [9–11]. The depressive problems of urban residents need particular attention in China
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