Spatial Analysis of Greenspace and Mental Health in North Carolina : Consideration of Rural and Urban Communities
Greenspace positively impacts mental health. Previous research has focused on the greenspace-mental health relationship in urban areas. Yet, little work has looked at rural areas despite rural communities reporting similar rates of poor mental health outcomes and higher rates of suicide
mortality compared with urban areas. This ecological research study examined the following research questions: (1) Do public and/or private greenspaces affect the spatial distribution of mental health outcomes in North Carolina? (2) Does this relationship change with rurality? Emergency department
data for 6 mental health conditions and suicide mortality data from 2009 to 2018 were included in this analysis. Spatial error and ordinary least squares regressions were used to examine the influence of public and private greenspace quantity on mental health in rural and urban communities.
Results suggest greenspace benefits mental health in rural and urban communities. The strength of this relationship varies with urbanity and between public and private greenspaces, suggesting a more complex causal relationship. Given the high case counts and often lower density of mental health
care facilities in rural areas, focusing attention on low-cost mental health interventions, such as greenspace, is important when considering rural mental health care.
Keywords: greenspace; mental health; spatial analysis; suicide
Document Type: Research Article
Publication date: September 1, 2023
- Access Key
- Free content
- Partial Free content
- New content
- Open access content
- Partial Open access content
- Subscribed content
- Partial Subscribed content
- Free trial content