Self-reported mental distress under the shifting daylight in the high north

Hansen, Vidje; Lund, Eiliv; Smith-Sivertsen, Tone

doi:10.1017/s0033291797006326

Cited by 36 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…For example, both Hansen, Lund, and Smith-Sivertsen (1998) and Walch et al (2005) concluded that daylight has a positive impact on health. However, Hansen et al (1998) was a self-report survey, while Walch et al (2005) was a quasi-experiment-controlled clinical trial. In this case, Walch et al was reviewed in detail.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Healing built-environment effects on health outcomes: environment–occupant–health framework

Zhang

Tzortzopoulos

Kagioglou

2018

Building Research & Information

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An investigation examined the structured scientific evidence on healthcare facilities (the healing built environment -HBE) and its impact on patients' health outcomes under a holistic conceptual evaluative framework. The integrative review considered 127 papers (of which 59 were review papers). It found there was no adequate framework that could integrate existing research findings holistically. Such a holistic framework needs to demonstrate the cumulative and interactive effects of various HBE characteristics on patients' health outcomes and wellbeing. An environment-occupant-health (E-O-H) framework is proposed, taking a holistic perspective to identify and evaluate different HBE characteristics. The E-O-H framework should support future research by (1) identifying the HBE characteristics that affect health outcomes; (2) defining appropriate future research designs; and (3) understanding the need for holistic analysis of the integrated effects of diverse HBE characteristics on health outcomes.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Healing built-environment effects on health outcomes: environment–occupant–health framework

Zhang

Tzortzopoulos

Kagioglou

2018

Building Research & Information

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“…SSAD is a condition in which an individual experiences mild difficulties with seasonal changes (82). Other mental disturbances, such as seasonality (mood changes that correspond to the seasons of the year), sleep disturbances, and anxiety, have also been commonly reported (79)(80)(81)(82)(83)(84)(85)(86). Increased depression and sleep disturbances have also been observed in Antarctic workers (87)(88)(89).…”

Section: Mental Health In Circumpolar Regionsmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…The extreme environment of the Arctic has been hypothesized to contribute to an increased rate of mental distress when compared to more temperate climates (79,80). The most common circumpolar mental illnesses are depression, seasonal affective disorder (SAD), subsyndromal seasonal affective disorder (SSAD) and increased anxiety.…”

Section: Mental Health In Circumpolar Regionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…More isolated circumpolar populations do not have an increase in seasonal mood changes as compared to non-Arctic populations, have less SAD, and have unexpectedly low rates of depression in winter (80,(90)(91)(92). A unique characteristic of these populations is that many have been virtually isolated during the past 1000 years and retain their traditional lifestyles and diets.…”

Section: Circumpolar Peoplesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Diet and mental health in the Arctic: is diet an important risk factor for mental health in circumpolar peoples? - a review

McGrath-Hanna¹,

Greene

Tavernier

et al. 2003

International Journal of Circumpolar Health

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Background. The people living in Arctic and Subarctic environments have adapted to cold temperatures, short growing seasons, and low precipitation, but their traditional ways are now changing due to increased contact with Western society. The rapid alteration of circumpolar cultures has led to generational changes in diet from traditional foods to the processed groceries common in modern stores. Objectives. Develop a link between changing traditional diets and mental health that may have substantial consequences for circumpolar peoples. Methods. Review of English language literature pertaining to the northern circumpolar environments of the world that consist of the Arctic and Subarctic areas. Electronic resources such as ISI Web of Science and PubMed were utilized, using keywords such as arctic, circumpolar, diet, omega-3 fatty acids, mental health, seasonal affective disorder, and suicide. In addition, we used the cited references of obtained articles and the extensive University of Alaska Fairbanks library collections to identify additional publications that were not available from the electronic resources. The years covered were not restricted to any particular period, although 83% of the sources were published in the last 16 years. Conclusion. The change in traditional diets has already led to increased health problems, such as obesity, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes, while the mental health of circumpolar peoples has also declined substantially during the same time period. The decline in mental health is characterized by increased rates of depression, seasonal affective disorder, anxiety, and suicide, that now often occur at higher rates than in lower-latitude populations. Studies in non-circumpolar peoples have shown that diet can have profound effects on neuronal and brain development, function, and health. Therefore, we hypothesize that diet is an important risk factor for mental health in circumpolar peoples.

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“…Moreover, most local residents prefer some snow during the polar night, as it lightens up the landscape. Northern residents tend to be more depressive and have more sleep disorders during the darkest period of winter (Hansen et al 1998;Johnsen et al 2012), which may become more frequent during rainy winters.…”

Section: B Winter Warming Trends In the Twenty-first Centurymentioning

confidence: 99%

Changes in Winter Warming Events in the Nordic Arctic Region

et al. 2016

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In recent years extreme winter warming events have been reported in arctic areas. These events are characterized as extraordinarily warm weather episodes, occasionally combined with intense rainfall, causing ecological disturbance and challenges for arctic societies and infrastructure. Ground-ice formation due to winter rain or melting prevents ungulates from grazing, leads to vegetation browning, and impacts soil temperatures. The authors analyze changes in frequency and intensity of winter warming events in the Nordic arctic region-northern Norway, Sweden, and Finland, including the arctic islands Svalbard and Jan Mayen. This study identifies events in the longest available records of daily temperature and precipitation, as well as in future climate scenarios, and performs analyses of long-term trends for climate indices aimed to capture these individual events. Results show high frequencies of warm weather events during the 1920s-30s and the past 15 years , causing weak positive trends over the past 90 years . In contrast, strong positive trends in occurrence and intensity for all climate indices are found for the past 50 years with, for example, increased rates for number of melt days of up to 9.2 days decade 21 for the arctic islands and 3-7 days decade 21 for the arctic mainland. Regional projections for the twenty-first century indicate a significant enhancement of the frequency and intensity of winter warming events. For northern Scandinavia, the simulations indicate a doubling in the number of warming events, compared to 1985-2014, while the projected frequencies for the arctic islands are up to 3 times higher.

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Self-reported mental distress under the shifting daylight in the high north

Abstract: In the high north, one-third of the women and one-fifth of the men experience problems with sleep, mood or energy related to season. The prevalence of self-reported depression was surprisingly low in winter considering the lack of daylight.

Cited by 36 publications

References 16 publications

Healing built-environment effects on health outcomes: environment–occupant–health framework

Healing built-environment effects on health outcomes: environment–occupant–health framework

Diet and mental health in the Arctic: is diet an important risk factor for mental health in circumpolar peoples? - a review

Changes in Winter Warming Events in the Nordic Arctic Region

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