Effects of urban living environments on mental health in adults

the environMENTAL Consortium; Allan Young

doi:10.1038/s41591-023-02365-w

Effects of urban living environments on mental health in adults

the environMENTAL Consortium, Allan Young

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

86 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Urban-living individuals are exposed to many environmental factors that may combine and interact to influence mental health. While individual factors of an urban environment have been investigated in isolation, no attempt has been made to model how complex, real-life exposure to living in the city relates to brain and mental health, and how this is moderated by genetic factors. Using the data of 156,075 participants from the UK Biobank, we carried out sparse canonical correlation analyses to investigate the relationships between urban environments and psychiatric symptoms. We found an environmental profile of social deprivation, air pollution, street network and urban land-use density that was positively correlated with an affective symptom group (r = 0.22, P _perm < 0.001), mediated by brain volume differences consistent with reward processing, and moderated by genes enriched for stress response, including CRHR1, explaining 2.01% of the variance in brain volume differences. Protective factors such as greenness and generous destination accessibility were negatively correlated with an anxiety symptom group (r = 0.10, P _perm < 0.001), mediated by brain regions necessary for emotion regulation and moderated by EXD3, explaining 1.65% of the variance. The third urban environmental profile was correlated with an emotional instability symptom group (r = 0.03, P _perm < 0.001). Our findings suggest that different environmental profiles of urban living may influence specific psychiatric symptom groups through distinct neurobiological pathways.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1456-1467
Number of pages	12
Journal	Nature Medicine
Volume	29
Issue number	6
Early online date	15 Jun 2023
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-023-02365-w
Publication status	Published - Jun 2023

Keywords

Humans
Adult
Mental Health
Air Pollution/adverse effects
Anxiety/epidemiology
Mood Disorders
Cities

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

10.1038/s41591-023-02365-w

Cite this

@article{860a293518ee4d42bf75e8469b8bdf21,

title = "Effects of urban living environments on mental health in adults",

abstract = "Urban-living individuals are exposed to many environmental factors that may combine and interact to influence mental health. While individual factors of an urban environment have been investigated in isolation, no attempt has been made to model how complex, real-life exposure to living in the city relates to brain and mental health, and how this is moderated by genetic factors. Using the data of 156,075 participants from the UK Biobank, we carried out sparse canonical correlation analyses to investigate the relationships between urban environments and psychiatric symptoms. We found an environmental profile of social deprivation, air pollution, street network and urban land-use density that was positively correlated with an affective symptom group (r = 0.22, P perm < 0.001), mediated by brain volume differences consistent with reward processing, and moderated by genes enriched for stress response, including CRHR1, explaining 2.01% of the variance in brain volume differences. Protective factors such as greenness and generous destination accessibility were negatively correlated with an anxiety symptom group (r = 0.10, P perm < 0.001), mediated by brain regions necessary for emotion regulation and moderated by EXD3, explaining 1.65% of the variance. The third urban environmental profile was correlated with an emotional instability symptom group (r = 0.03, P perm < 0.001). Our findings suggest that different environmental profiles of urban living may influence specific psychiatric symptom groups through distinct neurobiological pathways.",

keywords = "Humans, Adult, Mental Health, Air Pollution/adverse effects, Anxiety/epidemiology, Mood Disorders, Cities",

author = "{the environMENTAL Consortium} and Jiayuan Xu and Nana Liu and Elli Polemiti and Liliana Garcia-Mondragon and Jie Tang and Xiaoxuan Liu and Tristram Lett and Le Yu and N{\"o}then, {Markus M} and Jianfeng Feng and Chunshui Yu and Andre Marquand and Gunter Schumann and Allan Young",

note = "Funding Information: This work received support from the European Union-funded Horizon Europe project {\textquoteleft}environMENTAL{\textquoteright} (no. 101057429 to G.S., A.M. and M.M.N.) and cofunding by UK Research and Innovation under the UK Government{\textquoteright}s Horizon Europe funding guarantee (nos. 10041392 and 10038599) for study design and data analysis; the Horizon 2020-funded European Research Council Advanced Grant {\textquoteleft}STRATIFY{\textquoteright} (no. 695313 to G.S. for study design and data analysis); the Human Brain Project (HBP SGA3, no. 945539 to G.S. for study design and data analysis); the National Institutes of Health (grant no. R01DA049238 to G.S. for study design and data analysis); the German Research Foundation (COPE; grant no. 675346 to G.S. for study design and data analysis); the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 82001797 to J.X., grant no. 82030053 to C.Y., grant no. 82202093 to J.T. and grant no. 82150710554 to G.S. for study design, data analysis and preparation of the manuscript); National Key Research and Development Program of China (grant no. 2018YFC1314301 to C.Y. for study design and data analysis); Tianjin Applied Basic Research Diversified Investment Foundation (grant no. 21JCYBJC01360 to J.X. for study design and data analysis); Tianjin Health Technology Project (grant no. TJWJ2021QN002 to J.X. for preparation of the manuscript); Science & Technology Development Fund of the Tianjin Education Commission for Higher Education (grant no. 2019KJ195 to J.X. for preparation of the manuscript); the Tianjin Medical University {\textquoteleft}Clinical Talent Training 123 Climbing Plan{\textquoteright} to J.X. for the preparation of the manuscript; Tianjin Key Medical Discipline (Specialty) Construction Project (grant no. TJYXZDXK-001A to C.Y. for preparation of the manuscript); the National Key R&D Program of China (grant no. 2022YFE0209400 to L.Y. for study design and data analysis); the Tsinghua University Initiative Scientific Research Program (grant no. 2021Z11GHX002 to L.Y. for study design and data analysis); the National Key Scientific and Technological Infrastructure Project {\textquoteleft}Earth System Science Numerical Simulator Facility{\textquoteright} (EarthLab to L.Y. for study design and data analysis); the Chinese National High-end Foreign Expert Recruitment Plan to G.S.; and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation to G.S. for study design and data analysis. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2023, The Author(s).",

year = "2023",

month = jun,

doi = "10.1038/s41591-023-02365-w",

language = "English",

volume = "29",

pages = "1456--1467",

journal = "Nature Medicine",

issn = "1078-8956",

publisher = "Nature Publishing Group",

number = "6",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Effects of urban living environments on mental health in adults

AU - the environMENTAL Consortium

AU - Xu, Jiayuan

AU - Liu, Nana

AU - Polemiti, Elli

AU - Garcia-Mondragon, Liliana

AU - Tang, Jie

AU - Liu, Xiaoxuan

AU - Lett, Tristram

AU - Yu, Le

AU - Nöthen, Markus M

AU - Feng, Jianfeng

AU - Yu, Chunshui

AU - Marquand, Andre

AU - Schumann, Gunter

AU - Young, Allan

N1 - Funding Information: This work received support from the European Union-funded Horizon Europe project ‘environMENTAL’ (no. 101057429 to G.S., A.M. and M.M.N.) and cofunding by UK Research and Innovation under the UK Government’s Horizon Europe funding guarantee (nos. 10041392 and 10038599) for study design and data analysis; the Horizon 2020-funded European Research Council Advanced Grant ‘STRATIFY’ (no. 695313 to G.S. for study design and data analysis); the Human Brain Project (HBP SGA3, no. 945539 to G.S. for study design and data analysis); the National Institutes of Health (grant no. R01DA049238 to G.S. for study design and data analysis); the German Research Foundation (COPE; grant no. 675346 to G.S. for study design and data analysis); the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 82001797 to J.X., grant no. 82030053 to C.Y., grant no. 82202093 to J.T. and grant no. 82150710554 to G.S. for study design, data analysis and preparation of the manuscript); National Key Research and Development Program of China (grant no. 2018YFC1314301 to C.Y. for study design and data analysis); Tianjin Applied Basic Research Diversified Investment Foundation (grant no. 21JCYBJC01360 to J.X. for study design and data analysis); Tianjin Health Technology Project (grant no. TJWJ2021QN002 to J.X. for preparation of the manuscript); Science & Technology Development Fund of the Tianjin Education Commission for Higher Education (grant no. 2019KJ195 to J.X. for preparation of the manuscript); the Tianjin Medical University ‘Clinical Talent Training 123 Climbing Plan’ to J.X. for the preparation of the manuscript; Tianjin Key Medical Discipline (Specialty) Construction Project (grant no. TJYXZDXK-001A to C.Y. for preparation of the manuscript); the National Key R&D Program of China (grant no. 2022YFE0209400 to L.Y. for study design and data analysis); the Tsinghua University Initiative Scientific Research Program (grant no. 2021Z11GHX002 to L.Y. for study design and data analysis); the National Key Scientific and Technological Infrastructure Project ‘Earth System Science Numerical Simulator Facility’ (EarthLab to L.Y. for study design and data analysis); the Chinese National High-end Foreign Expert Recruitment Plan to G.S.; and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation to G.S. for study design and data analysis. Publisher Copyright: © 2023, The Author(s).

PY - 2023/6

Y1 - 2023/6

N2 - Urban-living individuals are exposed to many environmental factors that may combine and interact to influence mental health. While individual factors of an urban environment have been investigated in isolation, no attempt has been made to model how complex, real-life exposure to living in the city relates to brain and mental health, and how this is moderated by genetic factors. Using the data of 156,075 participants from the UK Biobank, we carried out sparse canonical correlation analyses to investigate the relationships between urban environments and psychiatric symptoms. We found an environmental profile of social deprivation, air pollution, street network and urban land-use density that was positively correlated with an affective symptom group (r = 0.22, P perm < 0.001), mediated by brain volume differences consistent with reward processing, and moderated by genes enriched for stress response, including CRHR1, explaining 2.01% of the variance in brain volume differences. Protective factors such as greenness and generous destination accessibility were negatively correlated with an anxiety symptom group (r = 0.10, P perm < 0.001), mediated by brain regions necessary for emotion regulation and moderated by EXD3, explaining 1.65% of the variance. The third urban environmental profile was correlated with an emotional instability symptom group (r = 0.03, P perm < 0.001). Our findings suggest that different environmental profiles of urban living may influence specific psychiatric symptom groups through distinct neurobiological pathways.

AB - Urban-living individuals are exposed to many environmental factors that may combine and interact to influence mental health. While individual factors of an urban environment have been investigated in isolation, no attempt has been made to model how complex, real-life exposure to living in the city relates to brain and mental health, and how this is moderated by genetic factors. Using the data of 156,075 participants from the UK Biobank, we carried out sparse canonical correlation analyses to investigate the relationships between urban environments and psychiatric symptoms. We found an environmental profile of social deprivation, air pollution, street network and urban land-use density that was positively correlated with an affective symptom group (r = 0.22, P perm < 0.001), mediated by brain volume differences consistent with reward processing, and moderated by genes enriched for stress response, including CRHR1, explaining 2.01% of the variance in brain volume differences. Protective factors such as greenness and generous destination accessibility were negatively correlated with an anxiety symptom group (r = 0.10, P perm < 0.001), mediated by brain regions necessary for emotion regulation and moderated by EXD3, explaining 1.65% of the variance. The third urban environmental profile was correlated with an emotional instability symptom group (r = 0.03, P perm < 0.001). Our findings suggest that different environmental profiles of urban living may influence specific psychiatric symptom groups through distinct neurobiological pathways.

KW - Humans

KW - Adult

KW - Mental Health

KW - Air Pollution/adverse effects

KW - Anxiety/epidemiology

KW - Mood Disorders

KW - Cities

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85161900936&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1038/s41591-023-02365-w

DO - 10.1038/s41591-023-02365-w

M3 - Article

C2 - 37322117

SN - 1078-8956

VL - 29

SP - 1456

EP - 1467

JO - Nature Medicine

JF - Nature Medicine

IS - 6

ER -

Effects of urban living environments on mental health in adults

Abstract

Keywords

UN SDGs

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this