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Neighbourhood green space, social environment and mental health: an examination in four European cities

International Journal of Public Health volume 62, pages 657–667 (2017)Cite this article

Abstract

Objectives

This study examines the relationship between neighbourhood green space, the neighbourhood social environment (social cohesion, neighbourhood attachment, social contacts), and mental health in four European cities.

Methods

The PHENOTYPE study was carried out in 2013 in Barcelona (Spain), Stoke-on-Trent (United Kingdom), Doetinchem (The Netherlands), and Kaunas (Lithuania). 3771 adults living in 124 neighbourhoods answered questions on mental health, neighbourhood social environment, and amount and quality of green space. Additionally, audit data on neighbourhood green space were collected. Multilevel regression analyses examined the relation between neighbourhood green space and individual mental health and the influence of neighbourhood social environment.

Results

Mental health was only related to green (audit) in Barcelona. The amount and quality of neighbourhood green space (audit and perceived) were related to social cohesion in Doetinchem and Stoke-on-Trent and to neighbourhood attachment in Doetinchem. In all four cities, mental health was associated with social contacts.

Conclusions

Neighbourhood green was related to mental health only in Barcelona. Though neighbourhood green was related to social cohesion and attachment, the neighbourhood social environment seems not the underlying mechanism for this relationship.

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Acknowledgements

On behalf of the PHENOTYPE Consortium, the field workers Magdalena van den Berg, Gemma Hurst, Margarita Triguero-Mas and Sandra Andrusaityte, are gratefully acknowledged. We thank Peter Spreeuwenberg (NIVEL) for his advice on the statistical analysis.

Author information

Affiliations

  1. Centre for Nutrition, Prevention and Health Services, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), Bilthoven, The Netherlands

    Annemarie Ruijsbroek & Sigrid M. Mohnen

  2. Department of Public Health, Academic Medical Center (AMC), University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Mariël Droomers & Karien Stronks

  3. Centre for Sustainability, Environment and Health, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), Bilthoven, The Netherlands

    Hanneke Kruize & Elise van Kempen

  4. Centre for Sport, Health and Exercise Research, Staffordshire University, Staffordshire, UK

    Christopher Gidlow, Daniel Masterson & Naomi Ellis

  5. Vytauto Didžiojo Universitetas, Kaunas, Lithuania

    Regina Gražulevičiene & Sandra Andrusaityte

  6. Department of Social and Organisational Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Education, Vrije Universiteit (VU), Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Jolanda Maas

  7. Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL), Barcelona Biomedical Research Park, Barcelona, Spain

    Mark J. Nieuwenhuijsen & Margarita Triguero-Mas

  8. University Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Barcelona, Spain

    Mark J. Nieuwenhuijsen & Margarita Triguero-Mas

  9. CIBER Epidemiology y Salud Publica (CIBERESP), Barcelona, Spain

    Mark J. Nieuwenhuijsen & Margarita Triguero-Mas

  10. Department of Criminology, Criminal Law and Social Law, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

    Wim Hardyns

  11. Faculty of Law, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium

    Wim Hardyns

  12. NIVEL (Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research), Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Peter P. Groenewegen

  13. Department of Human Geography and Department of Sociology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Peter P. Groenewegen

Authors
  1. Annemarie Ruijsbroek
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  2. Sigrid M. Mohnen
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  3. Mariël Droomers
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  4. Hanneke Kruize
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  5. Christopher Gidlow
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  6. Regina Gražulevičiene
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  7. Sandra Andrusaityte
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  8. Jolanda Maas
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  9. Mark J. Nieuwenhuijsen
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  10. Margarita Triguero-Mas
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  11. Daniel Masterson
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  12. Naomi Ellis
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  13. Elise van Kempen
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  14. Wim Hardyns
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  15. Karien Stronks
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  16. Peter P. Groenewegen
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Annemarie Ruijsbroek.

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Funding

The work was supported by the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013) [Grant Agreement No: 282,996].

Ethical approval

This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors. All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Ruijsbroek, A., Mohnen, S.M., Droomers, M. et al. Neighbourhood green space, social environment and mental health: an examination in four European cities. Int J Public Health 62, 657–667 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-017-0963-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-017-0963-8

Keywords

  • Neighbourhood
  • Green
  • Social environment
  • Mental health