Exploring the Relationship between Walkability of Neighborhoods and Mental Health (Case Study: Rasht City)

جغرافیا و توسعه فضای شهری

Volume 11, Issue 2 - Serial Number 25, August 2024, Pages 99-118   

Document Type: Scientific-Research

DOI: 10.22067/jgusd.2022.77401.1216

Authors

Ali Akbar Salaripour^{* 1}; Zahra Seif Reihani²

¹Professor Assistant, Dpartment of urban planning, University of Guilan

²Department of Urban Planning, University of Guilan, Rasht, iran

Abstract

Extended Abstract

Introduction

Walking is very good for physical and mental health. Walking reduces obesity, diabetes, and other chronic diseases as well as health care/medical costs. Therefore, a wide range of favorable health outcomes (including reduced cardiovascular risk and death) are the favorable outcomes of walking. Throughout history, walking has been the main mode of transportation in urban areas. However, rapid urbanization and the mass introduction of automobiles in the 1950s, followed by suburban population growth, changed the mode of transportation. These changes created a pattern of urban expansion called sprawl, according to which many people from cities move to the suburbs of their cities. As these areas are hugely dependent on personal cars for transportation due to the mono-functionality and dispersion of daily destinations, they are designed to be low-density housing and special lifestyle. Urban built environments significantly impact on the physical activity of people and consequently their health. Considering the above-mentioned issues, this research investigated the impact of the city's physical environment on residents’ physical activity, social cohesion, sense of social belonging, and mental health.
 

Method

This research is descriptive-analytical. Document, library, and field methods were used for collecting the required data. The data were collected in the early 2022, using a questionnaire. A two-stage random sampling method was applied for selecting the participants. At the first stage, 20 neighborhoods were randomly selected from among the historical neighborhoods of Rasht, Iran. Walkability and density were evident the selected the neighborhoods. Then, 19 residential buildings were selected from among the neighborhood, distributed evenly, and one household in each building was randomly selected for answering the posed questions. From among the questionnaires distributed in 20 neighborhoods of Rasht, 380 questionnaires were completed. The questionnaire entailed two sections. The first section asked some demographic questions, including gender, age, education, monthly income, employment, and marital status. The second section was on the main questions, including items related to nine components. The components were: closeness to facilities, reduction of environmental stressful factors, quality of infrastructure, accessibility and connectivity, traffic hazards, physical activity, social cohesion, sense of social belonging, and mental health. To confirm the validity of the questionnaire enjoying Likert scale, experts commented on the face and content of questionnaire. Its reliability was evaluated using Cronbach's alpha, which was 0.931. Structural equation modeling was applied in SMART PLS3 software for analyzing the collected data.

Results

The results showed that the built environment ranked the second among the components “closeness to facilities”, “reduction of stressful environmental issues”, “quality of infrastructure”, “accessibility and connectivity”, and “traffic hazard”. The built environment positively and significantly influences on the social cohesion, sense of social belonging, and physical activity. Moreover, the sense of social belonging and physical activity positively and significantly impact on mental health. The citizens believed that the more such principles as “closeness to facilities”, “accessibility and connectivity”, “safety”, “quality of urban infrastructure”, “absence of stressful environmental issues” be applied to the neighborhoods, the more the neighbors will deal with physical activities. This issue, in turn, will positively influence on citizens’ mental health. Moreover, the participants believed that if they have a more positive attitude towards their neighborhood, the sense of social belonging and social cohesion will increase. Consequently, people’s mental health will increase. This study revealed that the strategies of urban designing and proper planning policies can directly play a significant role in enhancing social cohesion, sense of social belonging, and walking behaviors and indirectly improve mental health. The way of creating a suitable pedestrian-oriented living environment is so significant not only for the urban designers and planners, but also for managers of cities. Taking the issues into account, we can conclude that the findings of this study can be applied for implementing the related issues.

Discussion and Conclusion

Reviewing previous related studies revealed that this study is among the few ones that explored within a single study the relationships between the components of the built environment, physical activity, social cohesion, sense of social belonging and mental health. Through paying more attention to the dimensions of the built environment, urban managers can enhance social cohesion, physical activity, and the sense of social belonging and, as a result, improve people’s mental and physical health. This study made some suggestions for future research, including doing a similar work in other cities or using other components in the model presented by this study.
 
 

Keywords

Walkability; Mental Health; Rasht; Accessibility; Sense of Belonging

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