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Environmental Correlates of Mental Health Measures for Women in Western Australia

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Abstract

A recent study in Western Australia identified area level associations between soil salinisation and hospital admissions for depression. Our study assessed the quantitative relationship between mental health measures at the individual level and location specific environmental measurements on salinity, as well as two other indicators of environmental degradation and change: land surface temperature and normalised difference vegetation index, a proxy for rainfall. Location-specific environmental measurements were linked to individual mental health scores of women in three age cohorts from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health using a geographic information system. Bayesian geostatistical linear regression models were developed to assess associations between environmental exposures and mental health scores of women. In contrast to previous studies using area level measures, our study found no associations between individual level measurements of mental health scores for women in south-west Western Australia and salinity, LST or NDVI.

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Abbreviations

BCI:

Bayesian credible interval

DIC:

Deviance information criteria

GIS:

Geographical information system

LST:

Land surface temperature

MCS:

Mental health component score

NDVI:

Normalised difference vegetation index

WA:

Western Australia

S-W WA:

South West Western Australia

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Population Health, University of Queensland, Herston Road, Herston, Brisbane, QLD, 4006, Australia

    Emily Jane Fearnley, Ricardo Jorge Soares Magalhães, Philip Weinstein & Annette Dobson

  2. Centre of Excellence in Natural Resource Management, University of Western Australia, PO Box 5771, Albany, WA, 6332, Australia

    Peter Speldewinde

Authors
  1. Emily Jane Fearnley
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  2. Ricardo Jorge Soares Magalhães
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  3. Peter Speldewinde
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  4. Philip Weinstein
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  5. Annette Dobson
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Peter Speldewinde.

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Fearnley, E.J., Magalhães, R.J.S., Speldewinde, P. et al. Environmental Correlates of Mental Health Measures for Women in Western Australia. EcoHealth 11, 502–511 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10393-014-0966-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10393-014-0966-3

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