WP 7 will assess how psychosocial determinants, including social networks, social isolation, social support and psychological distress influence mental health in old age in different European cities.

Objectives

  1. To develop a harmonised database of urban social environmental characteristics hypothesized to influence mental well-being, covering the period since 1990 for participating cities in Europe, the US and Canada.
  2. To investigate the effect of the social environment on indicators and precursors of mental health, including common mental disorders such as depression and anxiety, biomarkers, somatic health, and cognitive functioning, using advanced statistical models.
  3. To investigate modifying effects of the physical environment on associations between social urban environmental characteristics and indicators of mental health

Work package leader Martijn Huisman, VU University MC Amsterdam (Stichting VU/VUmc)

Research questions

  1. To what extend are social environmental characteristics related with mental health and cognitive impairment within and between cities?
  2. To what extent are social environmental characteristics associated with mental health and cognitive impairment independent of physical environmental characteristics? Do physical environmental characteristics modify the associations of social environmental characteristics with mental health and cognitive impairment?
  3. To what extent are social environmental characteristics associated with individual social risk factors of mental health and cognitive impairment? Do these individual risk factors explain their link with mental health and cognitive impairment?