Urban Nature and Public Health: How Nature Exposure and Sociocultural Background Relate to Depression Risk

Abstract

As the world's population becomes more urbanized, there is an associated decrease in nature exposure and a rise in noncommunicable diseases, including depression. Previous cross-sectional studies examining urban nature exposure and depression have reported favorable associations. However, many of these studies rely primarily on nature exposure metrics that measure the intensity of nature exposure, while other dimensions of urban nature exposure remain understudied. Therefore, in a cross-sectional, questionnaire-based case study targeting a general urban population (n = 282), we examined the relationship between two less commonly studied urban nature exposure variables (i.e., gardening behavior and greenspace visit frequency) and depression risk while also considering sociocultural background (multivariate logistic regression model). Results indicated that being a gardener was significantly associated with a reduced odds of being at risk of depression and that having a family migration history, but not a self-migration history, was associated with increased odds of being at risk of depression. In the examination of neighborhood socialization frequency and depression risk, we did not determine any significant association. The results of this study, therefore, highlight the importance of considering both people's sociocultural backgrounds and urban nature exposure in more detail to help plan for and support healthier cities in the future.

Keywords: depression risk; immigration history; mental health; public health; sociodemographic characteristics; urban gardening behavior; urban nature exposure.

Figure 1

Estimated coefficients and their respective standard errors calculated from the multivariate logistic regression model with ‘at risk of depression’ as the response (n = 282). The odds ratios and their confidence intervals calculated from these estimated coefficients are also provided and visually represented with an odds plot on the right. Two nature exposure variables, ‘gardener’ (baseline: ‘non-gardener’) and ‘visits greenspace several times per week’ (baseline: ‘visits greenspace once per week or less’), are reported. The other predictor variables included in the model are ‘socializes with neighbors at least once per week’ (baseline: ‘socializes with neighbors less than per week’), ‘self-’ and ‘family migration history’ (baseline: ‘no migration history’) and ‘age.’ Marginally significant results (p < 0.1) are denoted with (^), significant results (p < 0.05) with (*) and highly significant results (p < 0.01) with (**).

Figure 2

Mosaic plots depicting bivariate relationships between migration history and gardening behavior, greenspace visit frequency and neighborhood socialization frequency. The width of each bar represents the proportion of respondents (n = 282) in the respective group. The height of the individual-colored sections within each bar represents the proportion of respondents in each group according to the levels within the variable migration history (i.e., no migration history, family migration history and self-migration history). The bivariate relationships depicted in the plots are between migration history and (A) gardening behavior, (B) greenspace visit frequency and (C) neighborhood socialization frequency. Significant bivariate associations according to Chi-squared analyses are denoted with (*) in the individual heading of each plot.