Investigating the Relationship between the Characteristics of the Urban Built Environment and the Citizens’ Mental Health (A Case Study of Mashhad)

Document Type : Independent Research Articles

Author

Assistant prof. Department of Geography, Research Center of Geographical studies & Social Science, Hakim Sabzevari University, Sabzevar, Iran

Abstract

The challenges to citizens' health can be counted among the most important ones of urbanization in the 21st century. Since cities have always been one of the key and powerful determinants of people's health, investigating the relationship between the characteristics of the urban built environment and people's health has been the focus of research in recent decades. The review of the research background showed that most of these studies were conducted in the cities of developed countries and the number of studies related to the cities of developing countries is limited. Based on this, the aim of this research is to investigate the relationship between the characteristics of the urban built environment and mental health in Iran, one of the developing countries. The city of Mashhad, the second largest city in Iran, was selected as the study area. The research is cross-sectional and case study, which follows a descriptive-analytical approach. Land use characteristics, population density, and distance (walking distance) to service destinations are independent variables and mental health is the dependent variable of the research. Based on the results, no significant relationship between land use diversity and mental health was observed. The relationship between commercial land use per capita, green space per capita, net population density, gross population density, and distance (walking distance) to service destinations with mental health is significant and negative. The results showed that the six variables of distance (walking distance) to the grocery and fruit shop, commercial and green space per capita, and gross and net residential density explained 23.1% of the changes in mental health. The results of the path analysis showed that the green space per capita has the most direct effect, and the gross population density has the most indirect and total effects on people's mental health. Considering the lack of similar experimental research in Iranian cities and even other developing countries, it is necessary to conduct more empirical research, especially in the cities of Iran.

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Main Subjects

References

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Urban Structure and Function Studies
Volume 10, Issue 36
2023
Pages 233-257

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History

  • Receive Date: 16 April 2023
  • Revise Date: 14 May 2023
  • Accept Date: 30 September 2023

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