Air pollution and individuals’ mental well-being in the adult population in United Kingdom: a spatial-temporal longitudinal study and the moderating effect of ethnicity

Mary Abed Al Ahad; Urška Demšar; Frank Sullivan; Hill Kulu

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0264394

Air pollution and individuals’ mental well-being in the adult population in United Kingdom: a spatial-temporal longitudinal study and the moderating effect of ethnicity

Mary Abed Al Ahad^*, Urška Demšar, Frank Sullivan, Hill Kulu

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Background

Recent studies suggest an association between ambient air pollution and mental well-being, though evidence is mostly fragmented and inconclusive. Research also suffers from methodological limitations related to study design and moderating effect of key demographics (e.g., ethnicity). This study examines the effect of air pollution on reported mental well-being in United Kingdom (UK) using spatial-temporal (between-within) longitudinal design and assesses the moderating effect of ethnicity.

Methods

Data for 60,146 adult individuals (age:16+) with 349,748 repeated responses across 10-data collection waves (2009–2019) from “Understanding-Society: The-UK-Household-Longitudinal-Study” were linked to annual concentrations of NO₂, SO₂, PM10, and PM2.5 pollutants using the individuals’ place of residence, given at the local-authority and at the finer Lower-Super-Output-Areas (LSOAs) levels; allowing for analysis at two geographical scales across time. The association between air pollution and mental well-being (assessed through general-health-questionnaire-GHQ12) and its modification by ethnicity and being non-UK born was assessed using multilevel mixed-effect logit models.

Results

Higher odds of poor mental well-being was observed with every 10μg/m³ increase in NO₂, SO₂, PM10 and PM2.5 pollutants at both LSOAs and local-authority levels. Decomposing air pollution into spatial-temporal (between-within) effects showed significant between, but not within effects; thus, residing in more polluted local-authorities/LSOAs have higher impact on poor mental well-being than the air pollution variation across time within each geographical area. Analysis by ethnicity revealed higher odds of poor mental well-being with increasing concentrations of SO₂, PM10, and PM2.5 only for Pakistani/Bangladeshi, other-ethnicities and non-UK born individuals compared to British-white and natives, but not for other ethnic groups.

Conclusion

Using longitudinal individual-level and contextual-linked data, this study highlights the negative effect of air pollution on individuals’ mental well-being. Environmental policies to reduce air pollution emissions can eventually improve the mental well-being of people in UK. However, there is inconclusive evidence on the moderating effect of ethnicity.

Original language	English
Article number	e0264394
Journal	PLoS ONE
Volume	17
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0264394
Publication status	Published - 9 Mar 2022

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Cite this

@article{2a6fa1f5bf214136a46059a0a998cc40,

title = "Air pollution and individuals{\textquoteright} mental well-being in the adult population in United Kingdom: a spatial-temporal longitudinal study and the moderating effect of ethnicity",

abstract = "Background Recent studies suggest an association between ambient air pollution and mental well-being, though evidence is mostly fragmented and inconclusive. Research also suffers from methodological limitations related to study design and moderating effect of key demographics (e.g., ethnicity). This study examines the effect of air pollution on reported mental well-being in United Kingdom (UK) using spatial-temporal (between-within) longitudinal design and assesses the moderating effect of ethnicity. Methods Data for 60,146 adult individuals (age:16+) with 349,748 repeated responses across 10-data collection waves (2009–2019) from “Understanding-Society: The-UK-Household-Longitudinal-Study” were linked to annual concentrations of NO2, SO2, PM10, and PM2.5 pollutants using the individuals{\textquoteright} place of residence, given at the local-authority and at the finer Lower-Super-Output-Areas (LSOAs) levels; allowing for analysis at two geographical scales across time. The association between air pollution and mental well-being (assessed through general-health-questionnaire-GHQ12) and its modification by ethnicity and being non-UK born was assessed using multilevel mixed-effect logit models. Results Higher odds of poor mental well-being was observed with every 10μg/m3 increase in NO2, SO2, PM10 and PM2.5 pollutants at both LSOAs and local-authority levels. Decomposing air pollution into spatial-temporal (between-within) effects showed significant between, but not within effects; thus, residing in more polluted local-authorities/LSOAs have higher impact on poor mental well-being than the air pollution variation across time within each geographical area. Analysis by ethnicity revealed higher odds of poor mental well-being with increasing concentrations of SO2, PM10, and PM2.5 only for Pakistani/Bangladeshi, other-ethnicities and non-UK born individuals compared to British-white and natives, but not for other ethnic groups. Conclusion Using longitudinal individual-level and contextual-linked data, this study highlights the negative effect of air pollution on individuals{\textquoteright} mental well-being. Environmental policies to reduce air pollution emissions can eventually improve the mental well-being of people in UK. However, there is inconclusive evidence on the moderating effect of ethnicity. ",

author = "\{Abed Al Ahad\}, Mary and Ur{\v s}ka Dem{\v s}ar and Frank Sullivan and Hill Kulu",

note = "This paper is part of a PhD project that is funded by the St Leonard{\textquoteright}s PhD scholarship, University of St Andrews, Scotland, United Kingdom.",

year = "2022",

month = mar,

day = "9",

doi = "10.1371/journal.pone.0264394",

language = "English",

volume = "17",

journal = "PLoS ONE",

issn = "1932-6203",

publisher = "Public Library of Science",

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TY - JOUR

T1 - Air pollution and individuals’ mental well-being in the adult population in United Kingdom

T2 - a spatial-temporal longitudinal study and the moderating effect of ethnicity

AU - Abed Al Ahad, Mary

AU - Demšar, Urška

AU - Sullivan, Frank

AU - Kulu, Hill

N1 - This paper is part of a PhD project that is funded by the St Leonard’s PhD scholarship, University of St Andrews, Scotland, United Kingdom.

PY - 2022/3/9

Y1 - 2022/3/9

N2 - Background Recent studies suggest an association between ambient air pollution and mental well-being, though evidence is mostly fragmented and inconclusive. Research also suffers from methodological limitations related to study design and moderating effect of key demographics (e.g., ethnicity). This study examines the effect of air pollution on reported mental well-being in United Kingdom (UK) using spatial-temporal (between-within) longitudinal design and assesses the moderating effect of ethnicity. Methods Data for 60,146 adult individuals (age:16+) with 349,748 repeated responses across 10-data collection waves (2009–2019) from “Understanding-Society: The-UK-Household-Longitudinal-Study” were linked to annual concentrations of NO2, SO2, PM10, and PM2.5 pollutants using the individuals’ place of residence, given at the local-authority and at the finer Lower-Super-Output-Areas (LSOAs) levels; allowing for analysis at two geographical scales across time. The association between air pollution and mental well-being (assessed through general-health-questionnaire-GHQ12) and its modification by ethnicity and being non-UK born was assessed using multilevel mixed-effect logit models. Results Higher odds of poor mental well-being was observed with every 10μg/m3 increase in NO2, SO2, PM10 and PM2.5 pollutants at both LSOAs and local-authority levels. Decomposing air pollution into spatial-temporal (between-within) effects showed significant between, but not within effects; thus, residing in more polluted local-authorities/LSOAs have higher impact on poor mental well-being than the air pollution variation across time within each geographical area. Analysis by ethnicity revealed higher odds of poor mental well-being with increasing concentrations of SO2, PM10, and PM2.5 only for Pakistani/Bangladeshi, other-ethnicities and non-UK born individuals compared to British-white and natives, but not for other ethnic groups. Conclusion Using longitudinal individual-level and contextual-linked data, this study highlights the negative effect of air pollution on individuals’ mental well-being. Environmental policies to reduce air pollution emissions can eventually improve the mental well-being of people in UK. However, there is inconclusive evidence on the moderating effect of ethnicity.

AB - Background Recent studies suggest an association between ambient air pollution and mental well-being, though evidence is mostly fragmented and inconclusive. Research also suffers from methodological limitations related to study design and moderating effect of key demographics (e.g., ethnicity). This study examines the effect of air pollution on reported mental well-being in United Kingdom (UK) using spatial-temporal (between-within) longitudinal design and assesses the moderating effect of ethnicity. Methods Data for 60,146 adult individuals (age:16+) with 349,748 repeated responses across 10-data collection waves (2009–2019) from “Understanding-Society: The-UK-Household-Longitudinal-Study” were linked to annual concentrations of NO2, SO2, PM10, and PM2.5 pollutants using the individuals’ place of residence, given at the local-authority and at the finer Lower-Super-Output-Areas (LSOAs) levels; allowing for analysis at two geographical scales across time. The association between air pollution and mental well-being (assessed through general-health-questionnaire-GHQ12) and its modification by ethnicity and being non-UK born was assessed using multilevel mixed-effect logit models. Results Higher odds of poor mental well-being was observed with every 10μg/m3 increase in NO2, SO2, PM10 and PM2.5 pollutants at both LSOAs and local-authority levels. Decomposing air pollution into spatial-temporal (between-within) effects showed significant between, but not within effects; thus, residing in more polluted local-authorities/LSOAs have higher impact on poor mental well-being than the air pollution variation across time within each geographical area. Analysis by ethnicity revealed higher odds of poor mental well-being with increasing concentrations of SO2, PM10, and PM2.5 only for Pakistani/Bangladeshi, other-ethnicities and non-UK born individuals compared to British-white and natives, but not for other ethnic groups. Conclusion Using longitudinal individual-level and contextual-linked data, this study highlights the negative effect of air pollution on individuals’ mental well-being. Environmental policies to reduce air pollution emissions can eventually improve the mental well-being of people in UK. However, there is inconclusive evidence on the moderating effect of ethnicity.

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U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0264394

DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0264394

M3 - Article

SN - 1932-6203

VL - 17

JO - PLoS ONE

JF - PLoS ONE

IS - 3

M1 - e0264394

ER -

Air pollution and individuals’ mental well-being in the adult population in United Kingdom: a spatial-temporal longitudinal study and the moderating effect of ethnicity

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