Elli Polemiti, Gunter Schumann
Centre for Population Neuroscience and Stratified Medicine (PONS), ISTBI, Fudan University Shanghai and Dept. of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, Charité University Medicine, Berlin.
Centre for Population Neuroscience and Stratified Medicine (PONS), ISTBI, Fudan University Shanghai and Dept. of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, Charité University Medicine, Berlin.
The EnvironMENTAL project aims to investigate the relationship between environment (built, climate/atmosphere, and regional socioeconomic status) and mental health outcomes (depression, anxiety and stress). Here we present a proof of concept study harnessing the power of the UK Biobank – a large prospective population-based study – with the goal to improve prevention and address health promotion. We propose to take into account our research framework for subsequently studies in other European population-based studies included in environMENTAL, such as the National Cohort Study of Germany (NAKO) and the Norwegian Biobank. Alongside this core aim, the present work centres in (1) describing the geolocation in detail through measurable attributes of environment in which participants reside, (2) identifying and mapping adverse environmental exposures and regional socioeconomic status, (3) testing hypotheses of the effect of environment on mental health (longitudinal analyses of historical and prospective data), (4) identifying interrelated processes and pathways that link environment, social context and health behaviours to mental health and (5) investigating the mediating effect of the structural and functional brain on the association between environment and mental health.
