The Effects of Urban Sprawl on Mental Health: A Study of a Municipality in the Seville Metropolitan Area (Spain)

Autor: Jorge Chacón García, Pilar Diaz Cuevas, Olta Braçe, David Gálvez Ruiz, Enrique López Lara, Marco Garrido-Cumbrera
Rok vydání: 2017
Předmět:
Zdroj: Journal of Transport & Health. 5:S77-S78
ISSN: 2214-1405
2015-6685
Popis: Background Mental health disorders are closely associated with poverty, poor education, unemployment, social isolation/exclusion and major life events, but little is known about the influence of urban sprawl. The aim of this study is to determine whether urban sprawl is associated with self-reported psychiatric disorders. Methods Mairena del Aljarafe, a municipality of 44,388 inhabitants located in the Seville Metropolitan Area, was divided into 10 homogeneous areas. Sprawl levels were then calculated for each of the areas using an aggregated sprawl index composed of 7 individual indicators: gross population density, residential density, building coefficient, diversity of land uses, predominant land use, proportion of mixed land use and building year of each of the 10 areas. Weights were assigned to each indicator and the aggregated sprawl index was calculated using the Choquet Integral, which acts as criteria aggregation operator, based on an additive measure. Information on mental health was taken from the 2015 Commuting, Daily Habits and Urban Health Survey of a representative sample of 520 adults (16-64 years old) in the municipality of Mairena del Aljarafe. The survey included the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) as a screening tool that uses the original bi-modal scoring method (0-0-1-1) to detect those likely to have or be at risk of developing psychiatric disorders. Spearman's rho test, which is a suitable test for a small samples (only 10 areas), was used to determine the possible association between the sprawl levels and mental disorders. Results The results show a medium negative correlation (R = -0.515) but without acceptable statistical significance (P = 128). In this study, the population living in urban areas with higher sprawl levels did not present an increased risk of developing psychiatric disorders. Conclusions Urban sprawl levels have been shown not to be a significant risk factor of mental illness. These findings are consistent with previous research suggesting that sprawl does not predict psychiatric disorders. However, further studies are needed to clarify this association. Funding This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness (CSO2015-66855-P / MINECO/FEDER, UE)
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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