title: Environmental correlates of mental health measures for women in Western Australia.
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.
authors.affiliation: School of Population Health, University of Queensland, Herston Road, Herston, Brisbane, QLD, 4006, Australia.
authors.forename: Emily Jane
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Fearnley
authors.forename: Ricardo Jorge Soares
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Magalhães
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Speldewinde
authors.forename: Philip
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Weinstein
authors.forename: Annette
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dobson
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001499:Bayes Theorem; D004644:Emotions; D004777:Environment; D004781:Environmental Exposure / Q000009:adverse effects; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008603:Mental Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008875:Middle Aged; D054712:Salinity; D012989:Soil Pollutants / Q000009:adverse effects*; D013696:Temperature; D014904:Western Australia; D016387:Women's Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*
chemical_list: D012989:Soil Pollutants