What Types of Greenspaces Are Associated with Depression in Urban and Rural Older Adults? A Multilevel Cross-Sectional Study from JAGES

Miho Nishigaki, Masamichi Hanazato, Chie Koga and Katsunori Kondo
Additional contact information
Miho Nishigaki: Graduate School of Medical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Chiba University, 1-8-1 Inohana, Chuo-ku, Chiba-shi, Chiba 260-8672, Japan
Masamichi Hanazato: Center for Preventive Medical Sciences, Chiba University, 1-33 Yayoi-cyo, Inage-ku, Chiba-shi, Chiba 263-8522, Japan
Chie Koga: Center for Preventive Medical Sciences, Chiba University, 1-33 Yayoi-cyo, Inage-ku, Chiba-shi, Chiba 263-8522, Japan
Katsunori Kondo: Center for Preventive Medical Sciences, Chiba University, 1-33 Yayoi-cyo, Inage-ku, Chiba-shi, Chiba 263-8522, Japan

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 24, 1-16

Abstract: Depression in older adults is a public health challenge. We aimed to clarify the relationship between depression in older adults and three types of neighborhood greenspaces: trees, grasslands, and fields. We utilized data from the Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study (JAGES) performed in 2016. Multilevel logistic regression analysis was used for non-stratified and stratified analyses for the urban–rural regions. The target population comprised 126,878 older adults (age ≥ 65 years) who responded to the depression questions and were living in 881 neighborhoods in Japan. Depression was diagnosed based on a Geriatric Depression Scale score ≥5, and 20.4% of the study population had depression. In the pre-stratification analysis, areas with more greenspaces revealed lower odds of depression (odds ratio (OR) 0.95, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.85–0.95). In urban areas, more trees correlated with lower odds of depression (OR 0.94, 95% CI 0.89–1.00). In rural areas, moderate amounts of grassland were associated with lower odds of depression compared to areas with fewer grasslands (OR 0.91, 95% CI 0.83–1.00). We found that urban areas with higher tree density and rural areas with moderate amounts of grassland were associated with lower odds of depression.

Keywords: older adults; depression; mental health; greenspace; trees; grasslands; fields; built environment; urban; rural (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 (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/24/9276/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/24/9276/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:24:p:9276-:d:460605

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().