Access to green space, physical activity and mental health: a twin study

Hannah Cohen-Cline; Eric Turkheimer; Glen E Duncan

doi:10.1136/jech-2014-204667

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Access to green space, physical activity and mental health: a twin study

Journal article

Open access

Peer reviewed

Access to green space, physical activity and mental health: a twin study

Hannah Cohen-Cline, Eric Turkheimer and Glen E Duncan

Journal of epidemiology and community health (1979), Vol.69(6), pp.523-529

06/2015

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2014-204667

Handle:

https://hdl.handle.net/2376/111135

PMCID: PMC4430417

PMID: 25631858

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Abstract

Stress, Psychological - prevention & control

United States

Humans

Mental Disorders - prevention & control

Male

Anxiety - prevention & control

Mental Health

Social Environment

Motor Activity

Socioeconomic Factors

Washington

Protective Factors

Depression - etiology

Multilevel Analysis

Population Density

Adult

Female

Mental Disorders - etiology

Cross-Sectional Studies

Risk Factors

Self Report

Twins, Monozygotic

Depression - prevention & control

Residence Characteristics - statistics & numerical data

Environment Design - statistics & numerical data

Anxiety - etiology

Stress, Psychological - etiology

Increasing global urbanisation has resulted in a greater proportion of the world's population becoming exposed to risk factors unique to urban areas, and understanding these effects on public health is essential. The aim of this study was to examine the association between access to green space and mental health among adult twin pairs. We used a multilevel random intercept model of same-sex twin pairs (4338 individuals) from the community-based University of Washington Twin Registry to analyse the association between access to green space, as measured by the Normalised Difference Vegetation Index and self-reported depression, stress, and anxiety. The main parameter of interest was the within-pair effect for identical (monozygotic, MZ) twins because it was not subject to confounding by genetic or shared childhood environment factors. Models were adjusted for income, physical activity, neighbourhood deprivation and population density. When treating twins as individuals and not as members of a twin pair, green space was significantly inversely associated with each mental health outcome. The association with depression remained significant in the within-pair MZ univariate and adjusted models; however, there was no within-pair MZ effect for stress or anxiety among the models adjusted for income and physical activity. These results suggest that greater access to green space is associated with less depression, but provide less evidence for effects on stress or anxiety. Understanding the mechanisms linking neighbourhood characteristics to mental health has important public health implications. Future studies should combine twin designs and longitudinal data to strengthen causal inference.

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Title: Access to green space, physical activity and mental health: a twin study
Creators: Hannah Cohen-Cline - Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA
Eric Turkheimer - Department of Psychology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA
Glen E Duncan - Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of Washington; and Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Nutritional Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA
Publication Details: Journal of epidemiology and community health (1979), Vol.69(6), pp.523-529
Academic Unit: Nutrition and Exercise Physiology, Department of
Publisher: England
Grant note: R01 AG042176 / NIA NIH HHS
Identifiers: 99900547105301842
Language: English
Resource Type: Journal article