Association of residential greenspace with incident depression: a prospective cohort study.

Authors

Chengfang Yang, Tong Lan, Yinghong Zhai, Bin Liu, Fangyuan Hu, Jianbo Ba

Published in

Frontiers in public health. Volume 14. Pages 1897674. Epub Sep 30, 2026.

Abstract

Depression is a major public health challenge worldwide. We aimed to examine the association between residential greenspace and incident depression in UK Biobank participants.
We conducted a prospective cohort study of 265,311 UK Biobank participants. Cox regression models were used to examine the association between residential greenspace (300 m/1,000 m buffers) and all-cause depression, adjusting for varying degrees of confounders across 6 sequential models. Restricted cubic spline regression (RCS) was additionally adopted to assess the dose-response relationship between continuous greenspace and depression risk. A series of sensitivity, subgroup and mediation analyses were also conducted.
265,311 participants entered the primary analysis. During the follow-up period, incident all-cause depression occurred in 10,766 participants (4.06%). The mean greenspace percentage was 36.2% (range: 0%-100%) in the 300 m buffer and 46.0% (range: 0%-100%) in the 1,000 m buffer. In a fully adjusted multivariable model (Model 6), the adjusted hazard ratio for per 10% increment in greenspace percentage was 0.988 (95% CI, 0.979-0.996) for the 300 m buffer and 0.983 (95% CI, 0.974-0.992) for the 1,000 m buffer, corresponding to a 1.2% and 1.7% reduction in depression risk, respectively. Trend test indicated a statistically significant decreasing trend with increasing greenspace levels (P < 0.0001). Similarly, RCS displayed an inverse association of greenspace with all-cause depression, wherein higher greenspace percentage was linked to a reduced risk of depression. Results of subgroup and mediation analyses demonstrated consistent findings.
Increased residential greenspace is associated with a lower risk of all-cause depression. Urban planning strategies that enhance green environments may represent a potential approach for reducing depression risk at the population level.

PMID:
42876648
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 15 Oct 2026.

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