Tag: Neighbourhood

Neighbourhood & Mental Health During Covid-19: Any Link?

Published on by Andrew MarshallLeave a comment

Research Paper Title

Examine the associations between perceived neighbourhood conditions, physical activity, and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background

This study examined how neighbourhood conditions changed and how neighbourhood conditions were associated with physical activity and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic among Americans.

Methods

The major outcomes were stratified by the neighbourhood’s poverty and regression models were used to assess the associations between neighbourhood conditions and their change during the pandemic and the outcomes of physical activity and mental health.

Results

The results show that low-poverty neighbourhoods had more health-promoting neighbourhood conditions before the outbreak and more positive changes during the outbreak. Health-promoting neighbourhood conditions were associated with higher physical activity and moderate physical activity and lack of negative neighbourhood conditions such as crime/violence and traffic were associated with a lower risk of mental health problems including loneliness, depression, and anxiety. Mental health problems were also significantly associated with the COVID-19 infection and death and household income level.

Conclusions

The findings suggest that it is plausible that the disparities of physical activity and mental health by neighbourhood exacerbate due to the pandemic and people who are living in socioeconomically disadvantaged neighbourhoods bear increasingly disproportionate burden.

Reference

Yang, Y. & Xiang, X. (2021) Examine the associations between perceived neighborhood conditions, physical activity, and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic. Health & Place. doi: 10.1016/j.healthplace.2021.102505. Online ahead of print.

What is the Impact of Neighbourhood Change & Psychotic Experiences?

Published on by Andrew MarshallLeave a comment

Research Paper Title

Neighborhood change and psychotic experiences in a general population sample.

Background

Social stress caused by the neighbourhood environment may be a risk factor for psychotic experiences (PEs).

However, little information is available on the effect of the perception of the neighbourhood in relation to PEs.

Methods

In a general population study in the United States (N = 974), the researchers examined the relationship between PEs and neighborhood disruption/gentrification.

Results

When adjusted for age, sex, race, income, nativity, city, marital status, and common mental disorders, higher disruption scores were significantly associated with higher odds for any PE (odds ratio = 1.09, 95% CI = 1.05-1.12).

The same pattern of associations was observed for individual PEs including delusional mood, delusion of reference and persecution, delusion of control, and hallucination.

Conclusions

This study suggests that subjectively perceived neighbourhood change may be a factor contributing to the occurrence of PEs.

There was no significant relationship between PE and gentrification.

Having a low income and racial minority status did not modify this association.

Future studies can employ comparative longitudinal analyses of individuals/neighbourhoods/cities, geographical information systems, and ethnography, to examine the impact of neighbourhood change on mental health.

Reference

Narita, Z., Knowles, K., Fedina, L., Oh, H., Stickley, A., Kelleher, I. & DeVylder, J. (2019) Neighborhood change and psychotic experiences in a general population sample. Schizophrenia Research. pii: S0920-9964(19)30543-2. doi: 10.1016/j.schres.2019.11.036. [Epub ahead of print].

The Ill Effect of Problematic Neighbourhood Environments on Spousal/Partner Relationships & Mental Health and Psychological Well-being

Published on by Andrew MarshallLeave a comment

Research Paper Title

Perceived neighbourhood disorder and psychological distress among Latino adults in the United States: Considering spousal/partner relationship.

Background

It has been well-established that neighbourhood disorder and disadvantage are detrimental to mental health and psychological well-being.

There has been growing research interest in minority stress issues, however, less is known about how perceived neighbourhood disorder matters for psychological well-being among Latino adults in the United States.

Methods

Analysing data from National Latino Asian American Study, 2002-2003, the present study investigates the relationships among perceived neighbourhood disorder, spousal/partner relationships (i.e., spousal/partner strain and support), and psychological distress.

Results

The findings indicated that perceived neighbourhood disorder and spousal/partner strain were positively associated with increased psychological distress, whereas spousal/partner support had no protective effect against psychological distress.

Moreover, mediation analysis showed that the association between perceived neighbourhood disorder and psychological distress was partially mediated by spousal/partner strain (i.e., 15.13%), not spousal support.

Finally, moderation analysis revealed that the presence of spousal/partner strain exacerbated the relationship between perceived neighbourhood disorder and psychological distress. Conversely, the absence of spousal/partner strain appeared to buffer the adverse impact of neighbourhood disorder on psychological distress.

Conclusions

These findings highlighted the ill effect of problematic neighbourhood environments on the quality of the spousal/partner relationship and subsequently Latino’s psychological well-being.

Reference

Kwon, S. (2019) Perceived neighborhood disorder and psychological distress among Latino adults in the United States: Considering spousal/partner relationship. Journal of Community Psychology. doi: 10.1002/jcop.22288. [Epub ahead of print].