COVID-19 Lockdown: Housing Built Environment’s Effects on Mental Health

Andrea Amerio, Andrea Brambilla, Alessandro Morganti, Andrea Aguglia, Davide Bianchi, Francesca Santi, Luigi Costantini, Anna Odone, Alessandra Costanza, Carlo Signorelli, Gianluca Serafini, Mario Amore and Stefano Capolongo
Additional contact information
Andrea Amerio: Department of Neuroscience, Rehabilitation, Ophthalmology, Genetics, Maternal and Child Health (DINOGMI), Section of Psychiatry, University of Genoa, 16132 Genoa, Italy
Andrea Brambilla: Department of Architecture, Built environment and Construction engineering (DABC), Design & Health Lab, Politecnico di Milano, 20133 Milan, Italy
Alessandro Morganti: Department of Architecture, Built environment and Construction engineering (DABC), Design & Health Lab, Politecnico di Milano, 20133 Milan, Italy
Andrea Aguglia: Department of Neuroscience, Rehabilitation, Ophthalmology, Genetics, Maternal and Child Health (DINOGMI), Section of Psychiatry, University of Genoa, 16132 Genoa, Italy
Davide Bianchi: Department of Neuroscience, Rehabilitation, Ophthalmology, Genetics, Maternal and Child Health (DINOGMI), Section of Psychiatry, University of Genoa, 16132 Genoa, Italy
Francesca Santi: Department of Neuroscience, Rehabilitation, Ophthalmology, Genetics, Maternal and Child Health (DINOGMI), Section of Psychiatry, University of Genoa, 16132 Genoa, Italy
Luigi Costantini: Department of Medicine and Surgery, University of Parma, 43121 Parma, Italy
Anna Odone: School of Medicine, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, 20132 Milan, Italy
Alessandra Costanza: Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva (UNIGE), 1206 Geneva, Switzerland
Carlo Signorelli: School of Medicine, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, 20132 Milan, Italy
Gianluca Serafini: Department of Neuroscience, Rehabilitation, Ophthalmology, Genetics, Maternal and Child Health (DINOGMI), Section of Psychiatry, University of Genoa, 16132 Genoa, Italy
Mario Amore: Department of Neuroscience, Rehabilitation, Ophthalmology, Genetics, Maternal and Child Health (DINOGMI), Section of Psychiatry, University of Genoa, 16132 Genoa, Italy
Stefano Capolongo: Department of Architecture, Built environment and Construction engineering (DABC), Design & Health Lab, Politecnico di Milano, 20133 Milan, Italy

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 16, 1-10

Abstract: Since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the coronavirus infectious disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak a pandemic on 11 March, severe lockdown measures have been adopted by the Italian Government. For over two months of stay-at-home orders, houses became the only place where people slept, ate, worked, practiced sports, and socialized. As consolidated evidence exists on housing as a determinant of health, it is of great interest to explore the impact that COVID-19 response-related lockdown measures have had on mental health and well-being. We conducted a large web-based survey on 8177 students from a university institute in Milan, Northern Italy, one of the regions most heavily hit by the pandemic in Europe. As emerged from our analysis, poor housing is associated with increased risk of depressive symptoms during lockdown. In particular, living in apartments <60 m 2 with poor views and scarce indoor quality is associated with, respectively, 1.31 (95% CI: 1046–1637), 1.368 (95% CI: 1166–1605), and 2.253 (95% CI: 1918–2647) times the risk of moderate–severe and severe depressive symptoms. Subjects reporting worsened working performance from home were over four times more likely to also report depression (OR = 4.28, 95% CI: 3713–4924). Housing design strategies should focus on larger and more livable living spaces facing green areas. We argue that a strengthened multi-interdisciplinary approach, involving urban planning, public mental health, environmental health, epidemiology, and sociology, is needed to investigate the effects of the built environment on mental health, so as to inform welfare and housing policies centered on population well-being.

Keywords: COVID-19; lockdown; housing built environment; mental health; evidence-based design (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (45)

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