Natural environments and suicide mortality in the Netherlands: a cross-sectional, ecological study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Natural outdoor environments, such as green spaces (ie, grass, forests, or parks), blue spaces (ie, visible bodies of fresh or salt water), and coastal proximity, have been increasingly shown to promote mental health. However, little is known about how and the extent to which these natural environments are associated with suicide mortality. Our aim was to investigate whether the availability of green space and blue space within people's living environments and living next to the coast are protective against suicide mortality.

Methods

In this cross-sectional, ecological study, we analysed officially confirmed deaths by suicide between 2005 and 2014 per municipality in the Netherlands. We calculated indexes to measure the proportion of green space and blue space per

SUBMITTER: Helbich M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5846805 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature