Abstract
Although the built environment has been identified as a risk factor for depressive symptoms, it is unclear whether these associations are driven by specific environmental features and whether they remain stable over time.
In 10,310 ALSPAC women living in Bristol city, we conducted preregistered network analyses to investigate cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between built environment features (e.g., population density, green space and walkability) and depressive symptoms (at ages 28, 32 and 48 years).
Contrary to our hypotheses, associations between individual built environment variables and depressive symptoms were consistently weak. Exploratory factor analyses indicated a built environment factor associated with depressive symptoms at baseline (β = 0.148, p < .001) and 4-year follow-up (β = 0.114, p = .011), but not at 18-year follow-up (β = -0.005, p = .950).
These findings suggest the combined influence of built environment features may explain depressive outcomes better than individual built environment measures alone.
Competing Interest Statement
The authors have declared no competing interest.
Funding Statement
The UK Medical Research Council and Wellcome (Grant ref: 217065/Z/19/Z) and the University of Bristol provide core support for ALSPAC. This publication is the work of the authors and FS and EW will serve as guarantors for the contents of this paper. A comprehensive list of grants funding is available on the ALSPAC website (http://www.bristol.ac.uk/alspac/external/documents/grant-acknowledgements.pdf).
EW and VB are funded from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant references: 848158, EarlyCause), and from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) under the UK governments Horizon Europe/ERC Frontier Research Guarantee [BrainHealth, grant number EP/Y015037/1]. EW is also funded from the National Institute of Mental Health of the National Institutes of Health (award number R01MH113930: PI Dunn). LHW is supported by the Leverhulme Trust Research Project Grant (RPG-2023-268). FS is supported by a scholarship from the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Advanced Automotive Propulsion Systems (AAPS), under the project EP/S023364/1.
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Ethical approval for the study was obtained from the ALSPAC Ethics and Law Committee and the Local Research Ethics Committees. Informed consent for the use of data collected via questionnaires and clinics was obtained from participants following the recommendations of the ALSPAC Ethics and Law Committee at the time. Informed consent was obtained from all subjects and/or their legal guardian(s). Participants can contact the study team at any time to retrospectively withdraw consent for their data to be used. Study participation is voluntary and during all data collection sweeps, information was provided on the intended use of data. Full details of the ALSPAC consent procedures are available on the study website (https://www.bristol.ac.uk/alspac/researchers/research-ethics/). The study website (https://www.bristol.ac.uk/alspac/researchers/our-data/) contains details of all data available through a fully searchable data dictionary and variable search tool.
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