Mendoza and colleagues studied links between urban design and suicide mortality. They report that “Surrounding greenness was measured using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) within a 300 m and 1,000 m buffer around the residential address at baseline. . . . We observed a 7% . . . and 6% . . . risk reduction of suicide mortality for an . . . increase in residential surrounding greenness for buffers of 300 m and 1,000 m, respectively. . . . After stratification, the inverse association was only apparent among women, and residents of Belgian origin, and that it was stronger among residents aged 36 or older, those with high level of education, and residents of most deprived neighbourhoods. Our results suggest that urban green spaces may protect against suicide mortality, but this beneficial effect may not be equally distributed across all strata of the population.”
Hilbert Mendoza, Lucia Loureiro, Sylvia Gadeyne, Wouter Lefebvre, Charlotte Vanpoucke, and Lidia Casas. “Urban Green Spaces and Suicide Mortality in Belgium (2001-2011): A Census-Based Longitudinal Study.” Environmental Research, in press, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2022.114517