Is a View of Green Spaces from Home Associated with a Lower Risk of Anxiety and Depression?
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Study Area
2.2. Survey
- (1)
- Sociodemographic variables: age group (18–31, 32–48, and 49–64 years old); gender (male and female); marital status (married, single, divorced, living as a couple, and widowed); educational level (uneducated, primary school, high school, and university); and job status (employed, unemployed, temporary sick leave, retired, student, and homemaker).
- (2)
- Lifestyle variables: smoker (yes/no); alcohol intake (yes/no); physical activity (yes/no); and number of hours of sleep per day (<6 h, 6–7 h, 7–8 h and >8 h).
- (3)
- Self-perceived health status: motor impairment (yes/no); and perceived health status over the past year (very good, good, fair, poor, and very poor).
- (4)
- Anxiety and depression variables: measured through the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). HADS is a reliable self-assessment screening instrument for detecting possible cases of anxiety and depression; it consists of seven questions related to anxiety and seven questions related to depression based on the following scoring system: 0–7 = no case, 8–10 = borderline case, and 11–21 = case of anxiety or depression [38,39].
- (5)
- Green space variables: view of urban green spaces from home referred to the possibility of viewing green spaces from any of the home windows and was assessed with the following question: “From your home, are you able to see any green space (parks or gardens)?” (yes/no). A second variable recorded frequency of green spaces visits (daily/not daily) with the category not daily composed of “never”, “rarely”, “1–2 days a week”, and “3–4 days a week” options.
2.3. Statistical Analyses
3. Results
4. Discussion
Relevance of the Findings to Policy-makers and Practitioners
5. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Sociodemographic Characteristics | Lifestyle Habits, Self-Perceived Health Status and Hads | ||
---|---|---|---|
Variables | Mean ± SD/n (%) | Variables | n (%) |
Age-group (N = 479) | 43.0 ± 13.6 | Smoker (n = 476), Yes | 150 (31.5) |
18–31 years | 117 (24.4) | Alcohol intake (N = 479), Yes | 312 (65.1) |
32–48 years | 168 (35.1) | Physical activity (n = 478), Yes | 439 (91.8) |
49–64 years | 194 (41.0) | View of green spaces from home (n = 478), Yes | 116 (24.3) |
Frequency of visits to green spaces (n = 461), Daily | 123 (26.7) | ||
Gender (N = 479), Males | 239 (49.9) 240 (50.1) | No. hours of sleep/day (n = 478) | |
Females Marital status (N = 479) | 239 (49.9) 240 (50.1) 279 (58.2) | <6 h | 80 (16.7) |
Married | 6–7 h | 215 (45.0) | |
Single | 157 (32.8) | 7–8 h | 157 (32.8) |
Divorced | 21 (4.4) | >8 h | 26 (5.4) |
Living as a couple | 19 (4.0) | Motor impairment (n = 477), Yes | 46 (9.6) |
Widowed | 3 (0.6) | Self-perceived health status (N = 479) | |
Educational level (n = 478) | Very good | 56 (11.7) | |
Uneducated | 60 (13.0) | Good | 296 (61.8) |
Primary school | 214 (45.0) | Regular | 91 (19.0) |
High school | 136 (29.0) | Poor | 27 (5.6) |
University | 69 (14.4) | Very poor | 9 (1.9) |
Job status (n = 477) | Anxiety—HADS (n = 471) | ||
Employed | 196 (41.1) | No case | 281 (59.7) |
Unemployed | 143 (30.0) | Borderline case | 125 (26.5) |
Temporary sick leave | 17 (3.6) | Case | 65 (13.8) |
Retired | 37 (7.8) | Depression—HADS (n = 466) | |
Student | 61 (12.8) | No case | 423 (90.8) |
Homemaker | 23 (4.8) | Borderline case | 27 (5.8) |
Case | 16 (3.4) |
Variables | View of Urban Green Space | ||
---|---|---|---|
Yes n (%) | No n (%) | p-Value | |
Anxiety (N = 470) | |||
No case | 77 (66.4) | 204 (57.6) | 0.163 |
Borderline case | 23 (19.8) | 101 (28.5) | |
Case | 16 (13.8) | 49 (13.8) | |
Depression (N = 465) | |||
No case | 102 (90.3) | 320 (90.9) | 0.784 |
Borderline case | 6 (5.3) | 21 (6.0) | |
Case | 5 (4.4) | 11 (3.1) |
Coefficients | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Model | Non-Standardized Coefficients | Standardized Coefficients | t-Score | p-Value | |
Beta | Deviation Error | Beta | |||
Age, Older 1 | 0.056 | 0.013 | 0.325 | 4.281 | <0.001 |
Gender, Female 2 | 1.286 | 0.373 | 0.115 | 3.449 | 0.001 |
Educational level, High 3 | 0.396 | 0.187 | 0.133 | 2.119 | 0.035 |
Marital status, Single 4 | 0.546 | 0.400 | 0.095 | 1.365 | 0.173 |
Job status, Unemployed 5 | 0.500 | 0.358 | 0.096 | 1.394 | 0.164 |
View of green spaces from home, No 6 | 0.897 | 0.368 | 0.207 | 2.435 | <0.015 |
Frequency of green spaces visits, Daily 7 | 0.057 | 0.081 | 0.018 | 0.708 | 0.480 |
Coefficients | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Model | Non-standardized Coefficients | Standardized Coefficients | t-Score | p-Value | |
Beta | Deviation Error | Beta | |||
Age, Older 1 | 0.012 | 0.012 | 0.139 | 1.011 | 0.313 |
Gender, Female 2 | 0.233 | 0.347 | 0.041 | 0.672 | 0.502 |
Educational level, High 3 | −0.200 | 0.173 | −0.133 | −1.157 | 0.248 |
Marital status, Single 4 | −0.546 | 0.370 | −0.187 | −1.475 | 0.141 |
Job status, Unemployed 5 | 1.158 | 0.334 | 0.440 | 3.462 | 0.001 |
View of green spaces from home, No 6 | 0.854 | 0.341 | 0.389 | 2.505 | 0.013 |
Frequency of green spaces visits, Daily 7 | 0.054 | 0.076 | 0.033 | 0.717 | 0.474 |
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Braçe, O.; Garrido-Cumbrera, M.; Foley, R.; Correa-Fernández, J.; Suárez-Cáceres, G.; Lafortezza, R. Is a View of Green Spaces from Home Associated with a Lower Risk of Anxiety and Depression? Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020, 17, 7014. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17197014
Braçe O, Garrido-Cumbrera M, Foley R, Correa-Fernández J, Suárez-Cáceres G, Lafortezza R. Is a View of Green Spaces from Home Associated with a Lower Risk of Anxiety and Depression? International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2020; 17(19):7014. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17197014
Chicago/Turabian StyleBraçe, Olta, Marco Garrido-Cumbrera, Ronan Foley, José Correa-Fernández, Gina Suárez-Cáceres, and Raffaele Lafortezza. 2020. "Is a View of Green Spaces from Home Associated with a Lower Risk of Anxiety and Depression?" International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 17, no. 19: 7014. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17197014