Abstract
Objectives: We explored relationships between depressive symptoms and neighborhood environment measures including traffic safety, crime, social capital, and density of businesses in community-dwelling older adults from four different regions of the United States.
Method: The Healthy Aging Research Network walking study is a cross-sectional study of 884 adults aged 65+, which included a 10-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale of depressive symptoms, demographics, self-reported neighborhood perceptions, and objective neighborhood data.
Results: After adjusting for individual covariates, reports of neighborhood crime, unsafe traffic, and unwillingness of neighbors to help each other were significantly positively associated with depressive symptoms among participants.
Conclusion: This research suggests an association between self-reported depressive symptoms and the social and built environment; examining causal association requires additional longitudinal research in diverse populations of older adults.
Acknowledgements
This research is the result of work conducted by the CDC HAN. The CDC HAN is a Prevention Research Centers program funded by the CDC Healthy Aging Program. Efforts were supported in part by cooperative agreements from CDC's Prevention Research Centers Program: U48-DP-000033, 001908, 000059, 001944, 000048, and 000025. The contents of this manuscript are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the CDC.