Hostname: page-component-7bb8b95d7b-w7rtg Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-09-13T07:10:57.675Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Are cities bad for your mental health?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

Glyn Lewis  and
Margaret Booth
Glyn Lewis*
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry and the London School of Tropical Medicine, London
Margaret Booth
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry and the London School of Tropical Medicine, London
*
1Address for correspondence: Dr Glyn Lewis, Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, London SE5 8AF
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Synopsis

A study was conducted using data from the Health and Lifestyle Survey, a population based community survey of England, Wales and Scotland in which psychiatric morbidity was assessed using the General Health Questionnaire. An association was found between urban residence and the prevalence of psychiatric morbidity (odds ratio 1·54, 95% CI 1·32–1·80) which persisted after adjustment for various confounding factors (odds ratio 1·34, 95% CI 1·13–1·58). The discussion mentions the need for further study into the psychologically harmful elements of urban life.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 24 , Issue 4 , November 1994 , pp. 913 - 915
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Barquero, J. L. V., Munez, P. E. & Jaurequi, V. M. (1982). The influence of the process of urganization on the prevalence of neurosis. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 65, 161–170.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blazer, D., George, L. K., Landerman, R., Pennybacker, M., Melville, M. L., Woodbury, M., Manton, K. G., Jordan, K. & Locke, B. Z. (1985). Psychiatric disorders: a rural/urban companion. Archives of General Psychiatry 42, 651–656.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blazer, D. G., Hughes, D., George, L. K., Swartz, M. & Boyer, R. (1991). Generalized anxiety disorder. In Psychiatric Disorder in America: The Epidemiologic Catchment Area Study (ed. Robins, L. N. and Regier, D. A.), pp. 180–203. The Free Press: New York.Google Scholar
Breslow, N. E. & Day, N. E. (1980). Statistical Methods in Cancer Research, Vol. I: The Analysis of Case-Control Studies. International Agency for Cancer Research: Lyons.Google Scholar
Britton, M. (1980). Geographic variations in mortality. In OPCS Mortality and Geography: a review in the mid-1980s in England and Wales Series DS no. 9. HMSO: London.Google Scholar
Brown, G. & Harris, T. (1978). The Social Origins of Depression. Tavistock: London.Google ScholarPubMed
Brown, G. W. & Prudo, R. (1981). Psychiatric disorder in a rural and an urban population: 1. Aetiology of Depression. Psychological Medicine 11, 581–599.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, G. W., Davidson, S., Harris, T., Maclean, U., Pollock, S. & Prudo, R. (1977). Psychiatric disorder in North Uist and London. Social Sciences and Medicine, 11, 367–377.Google ScholarPubMed
Clark, V. A., Aneshensel, C. S., Frerichs, R. R. & Morgan, T. M. (1983). Analysis of non-response in a prospective study of depression in Los Angeles County. International Journal of Epidemiology 12, 193–198.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cox, B. D., Blaxter, M., Buckle, A. L. J., Fenner, M. P., Golding, J. F., Gore, M., Huppert, F. A., Nickson, J., Roth, M., Stark, J., Wadsworth, M. E. J. & Whichelow, M. (1987). The Health and Lifestyle Survey. Health Promotion Research Trust: Cambridge.Google Scholar
Dohrenwend, B. P. & Dohrenwend, B. S. (1974). Psychiatric Disorders in urban settings. In American Handbook of Psychiatry, Volume 2, 2nd edn (ed. Caplan, G.), pp. 424–447. Basic Books: New York.Google Scholar
Goldberg, D. (1972). The Detection of Psychiatric Illness by Questionnaire. Maudsley Monograph No. 21. Oxford University Press: London.Google Scholar
Goldberg, D. & Williams, P. (1988). A User's Guide to the General Health Questionnaire. NFER-NELSON: Windsor.Google Scholar
Lewis, G. & Booth, M. (1992). Regional differences in mental health in Great Britain. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 46, 608–611.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lewis, G., David, A., Andréasson, S. & Allebeck, P. (1992). Schizophrenia and city life. Lancet 340, 137–140.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Morris, J. N. (1975). Uses of Epidemiology, 3rd edn. Churchill Livingstone: Edinburgh.Google Scholar
Office of Population Censuses and Surveys (1980). Classification of Occupations. HMSO: London.Google Scholar
Rutter, M. (1981). The city and the child. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry 51: 610–625.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Statistics and Epidemiology Research Corporation (1988). EGRET. Version 0.2. Statistics and Epidemiology Research Corporation: Seattle, Washington.Google Scholar
Webb, S. D. (1984). Rural–urban differences in mental health. In Mental Health and the Environment (ed. Freeman, H. L.), pp. 226–249. Churchill Livingstone: Edinburgh.Google Scholar
Williams, P. & Macdonald, A. (1986). The effect of non-response bias on the results of two-stage screening surveys of psychiatric disorder. Social Psychiatry 21, 182–186.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed