Neighborhood Social Resources and Depressive Symptoms: Longitudinal Results from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis

Abstract

The ways in which a neighborhood environment may affect depression and depressive symptoms have not been thoroughly explored. This study used longitudinal data from 5475 adults in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis to investigate associations of time-varying depressive symptoms between 2000 and 2012 (measured using the 20-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D)) with survey-based measures of neighborhood safety and social cohesion (both individual-level perceptions and neighborhood-level aggregates) and densities of social engagement destinations. Linear mixed models were used to examine associations of baseline cross-sectional associations and cumulative exposures with changes over time in CES-D. Econometric fixed effects models were utilized to investigate associations of within-person changes in neighborhood exposures with within-person changes in CES-D. Adjusting for relevant covariates, higher safety and social cohesion and greater density of social engagement destinations were associated with lower CES-D at baseline. Greater cumulative exposure to these features was not associated with progression of CES-D over 10 years. Within-person increases in safety and in social cohesion were associated with decreases in CES-D, although associations with cohesion were not statistically significant. Social elements of neighborhoods should be considered by community planners and public health practitioners to achieve optimal mental health.

The Impact of Neighborhoods on CV Risk

“…Although we found that long-term cumulative exposure to social cohesion, safety, and social engagement destinations were not significantly associated with changes in depressive symptoms over time,[77] there was some evidence that changes to the environment were related to contemporaneous changes in depressive symptoms. Specifically, within-person increases in safety[77] and social cohesion[22, 77] were associated with decreases in CES-D. No significant association was found between changes in social engagement destinations[77] or neighborhood foreclosures and changes in CES-D(Crawford ND et al, unpublished). In other analyses neighborhood poverty and social environments were not consistently related to changes in cortisol over time [74] although these analyses were likely limited by the complexity of measuring changes in cortisol profiles.…”

“…[66, 75–77] Living in neighborhoods with lower levels of social cohesion,[66, 76] lower densities of social engagement destinations, [77] and aesthetic quality, [76] and higher levels of neighborhood problems and violence[66, 76] was found to be associated with higher levels of depressive symptoms. Findings also documented that living in a neighborhood with a higher percentage of residents of the same race/ethnicity was associated with higher Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) scores in African American men, but with lower CES-D scores in Hispanic men and women, possibly reflecting the different environmental correlates of these compositional characteristics in different race/ethnic groups.…”

The Anatomy of Health-Supportive Neighborhoods: A Multilevel Analysis of Built Environment, Perceived Disorder, Social Interaction and Mental Health in Beijing

“…Most studies have relied on two methods of measurement: objective measures of physical settings and subjective evaluations of living environments [8]. It is often the case that objective markers do not align with residents' self-reported exposure, and the latter is found to be more correlated with self-reported psychological problems, such as overstress, depressive symptoms and self-rated mental disorder [28,29]. However, the stronger health effect of environmental appraisals may be spurious.…”

The Role of Community Factors in Predicting Depressive Symptoms Among Chinese Workforce: A Longitudinal study in Rural and Urban Settings

“…However, our study, which used the longitudinal prediction data, indicated that community cohesion could not predict depressive symptoms. This may be because individuals have adapted to the community environment as they reside longer in their community (Moore et al, 2016). Therefore, the long-term effects of community cohesion and community threat on individual emotions are not signi cant.…”

“…However, Moore et al (2016) found that when a person feels safer in the community, the less their depressive symptoms. Similarly, Flórez et al (2016) indicated that the more a person perceives security in their neighborhood, the less their psychological distress.…”