title: Does urban sprawl impact on self-rated health and psychological distress? A multilevel study from Sydney, Australia.
abstract: Mental health can be influenced by a number of neighbourhood physical and social environmental characteristics. We aimed to determine whether urban sprawl (based on population density) in Sydney, Australia, is associated with self-rated health and psychological distress. We used a cross-sectional multilevel study design. Individual level data on self-rated health and psychological distress were obtained from the 2006 and 2007 NSW Population Health Survey. We did not find significant associations between urban sprawl and self-rated health and psychological distress after controlling for individual and area level covariates. However, positive neighbourhood factors were generally associated with better self-rated health and lower psychological distress but few of these associations were statistically significant.
authors: Centre for Research, Evidence Management and Surveillance, Clinical Support Cluster (Western), LMB 7017, Liverpool, NSW 1871, Australia. b.jalaludin@unsw.edu.au
authors: Bin B
authors: BB
authors: Jalaludin
authors: Frances L
authors: FL
authors: Garden
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009517:New South Wales; D057566:Self Report; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000453:epidemiology*; D014507:Urbanization; D055815:Young Adult