Multivariate Analysis of Noise, Socioeconomic and Sociodemographic Factors and Their Association With Depression On Borough Level in the City State of Hamburg, Germany - Multivariate Analysis of Noise, Socioeconomic and Sociodemographic Factors and Their Association With Depression On Borough Level in the City State of Hamburg, Germany - Open Access Pub

The objective of this first part of our study was to investigate associations of road traffic noise, socioeconomic and -demographic risk factors, and health access on depression on borough level. We investigated in a large metropolis associations between prevalence rates of depression per borough (n = 67 boroughs) in all age groups (excluding the age group of 0–17 years) using health claims data (year 2011) and the variables “social deprivation” and “number of family members”, which were obtained from a previously conducted principal component analysis, and by using multivariate regression model. Additionally, the proportion of borough area affected by noise > 65 db(A) and physician density used as a surrogate parameter for health access were considered as potentially associated factors for depression. The results demonstrated that depression might be associated with increasing social borough deprivation. Additionally, the number of family members used as a proxy measure for positive family support showed decreasing prevalence rates the more family members were present. Furthermore, proportions of borough areas affected by noise > 65 db(A) was positively associated with depression. Our ecological study design has the advantage that a large number of large-scale, population-based aggregated data could easily be obtained and analysed and first potential associations could be found and discussed. To improve our findings, future studies will use data from a survey and data from the Hamburg City Health Study, a local follow-up health study, to better elucidate the individual risk factors together with environmental living and working conditions. DOI10.14302/issn.2476-1710.jdt-17-1564 Worldwide, major mental and behavioural disorders are increasing and account for approximately 7.5 % of disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) with major depressive disorder having the highest impact with 2.5 % within this group 1. In Germany, where this study was conducted, major depressive disorder is the seventh most frequent cause for loss of healthy years of life among men and the third frequent cause for DALYs among women 1, 2. Environmental noise in urban areas is suggested to be one of the major risk factors for adverse health effects and several studies mainly investigated and showed the link between different noise sources and cardiovascular outcomes such as hypertension 3, 4, 5. However, fewer is known about the relationship between traffic noise 6, 7 or aircraft noise 8 and different mental disorders such as depression. Results from the Heinz Nixdorf Recall Study