2023-05-25 03:29:00
Mental health can be affected by numerous factors, and one of them is urbanism. The way in which cities are distributed and how residential buildings are concentrated may be key to the risk of developing disorders and diseases. A study made in Denmark, and published this Wednesday in the magazine Science Advances, has observed that people who live in the residential neighborhoods of cities have a higher risk of depression than those who live in urban centers or in rural areas. In the research they have analyzed the density of buildings (the built area compared to the open space), the height of these and the diagnoses of depression between 1990 and 2018 (75,650 cases).
The lowest risk was found by the authors in rural areas and in areas of city centers that had open spaces, determining factors in facilitating social interaction. Meeting the neighbors when you go to buy bread, having squares with benches where you can sit down to chat, or having parks to walk through, with equipment for children to play, are elements that not only make meeting possible, but also make to occur, according to epidemiologist Pedro Gullón, professor of public health at the University of Alcalá de Henares.
Karen Chen, from Yale University and lead author of the study, explains that with the results of their work they do not intend to discourage the model of the residential neighborhood and single-family housing, but rather to study how to make these areas more accessible to residents. Spaces that favor socialization. “It’s regarding improving walkability, bikeability and public transportation in areas that were originally car-centric,” she concludes.
Residential neighborhoods, in general, are areas with chalets that are on the outskirts of cities, explains Gullón, and it is not a matter, therefore, of a worse economic level. The epidemiologist, who has not participated in this investigation, affirms that the key lies in the level of socialization: “[El de las zonas residenciales] It is an individualistic model, in which there is almost no interaction between the neighbors”. A pattern that can be related to coping worse with daily problems and worsening mental health.
The authors of the research also highlight the importance of this relationship between the inhabitants to create “a sense of community, reciprocity and trust (social capital)”. They are elements that promote mental well-being and protect once morest depression, they state in the article. However, if an area has a high density of buildings, but not open areas, this can reduce sun exposure and increase the temperature inside, two environmental structures that increase the risk of depressive symptoms, according to this work. .
Chen points out that one of the things they have been able to see is that the best model is the one that combines tall buildings with low density: more open spaces than buildings. The researcher explains that a certain level of density is needed to make “lively communities” that can support commerce and public transport and that allow “restoration with the benefit of green spaces or bodies of water.”
Social cohesion
The lower risk of depression in the rural environment can be attributed to the advantages it has over the urban environment, such as less stress and less noise, among others, according to Gonzalo Martínez-Alés, a researcher at CAUSALab at Harvard University. In addition, it usually allows its inhabitants to be closer to their relatives, so it also has the factor of social cohesion, continues the psychiatrist, who also did not participate in the study.
Gullón and Martínez-Alés point out, however, that one of the weak points of the research is how the concepts of urban, rural and suburban are defined: “It is complicated, because they are relatively local definitions and it is not the same in one country as in another. another”, says the psychiatrist. This, and the idiosyncrasy of each place, makes it difficult to extrapolate the results to other countries, the experts agree.
Even so, the epidemiologist points out that a point in favor of the work is how they have divided the study within the urban area. According to Gullón, we usually talk regarding urban areas as a whole, but talking regarding cities is talking regarding neighborhoods and realities that can be very different. “A city is not a homogeneous environment, there may be areas of a city where there is more risk of mental health problems than others,” he explains.
The professor from the University of Alcalá de Henares also highlights that in a country like Denmark, which has less socioeconomic inequality, the influence of the neighborhood on the lives of its inhabitants can be seen more clearly. In other countries, such as Spain, it is much more complicated because inequality is greater and the area of residence cannot be separated from the economic level. It is more difficult, therefore, “to unravel the effects produced by the physical characteristics of the neighborhood.”
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