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Abstract
Background Area deprivation is associated with adverse mental health outcomes. In Denmark, urban regeneration is being used to dissolve concentrated socio-economic area deprivation and ethnic segregation. However, evidence on how urban regeneration affects mental health of residents is ambiguous partly due to methodological challenges. This study investigates if urban regeneration affects users of antidepressant and sedative medication among residents in an exposed and control social housing area in Denmark.
Methods Using a longitudinal quasi-experimental design we measured users of antidepressant and sedative medication in one area undergoing urban regeneration compared with a control area. We measured prevalent and incident users from 2015 to 2020 among non-Western and Western women and men and used logistic regression to measure annual change in users over time. Analyses are adjusted for a covariate propensity score estimated using baseline socio-demographic characteristics and general practitioner contacts.
Results Urban regeneration did not affect the proportion of prevalent nor incident users of antidepressant and sedative medication. However, levels were high in both areas compared with the national average. Descriptive levels of prevalent and incident users were generally lower among residents in the exposed area compared with the control area for most years and stratified groups confirmed by the logistic regression analyses.
Conclusion Urban regeneration was not associated with users of antidepressant or sedative medication. We found lower levels of antidepressant and sedative medication users in the exposed area compared with the control area. More studies are needed to investigate the underlying reasons for these findings, and whether they could be related to underuse.
- MENTAL HEALTH
- HOUSING
- DRUG PRESCRIPTIONS
- HEALTH SERVICES
- PUBLIC HEALTH
Data availability statement
No data are available. Data are only available through Statistics Denmark for researchers with connection to the project who have undergone data compliance training.
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Data availability statement
No data are available. Data are only available through Statistics Denmark for researchers with connection to the project who have undergone data compliance training.
Footnotes
Contributors The first author (SSN) has led the idea development, scoping, analysis and writing process. TSHJ has actively supported the data analysis and the writing of the manuscript. IKW-A has provided expertise in psychiatric drug prescriptions, contributed to the conceptualisation of the study design and actively contributed to the manuscript. HB-H has supported the data analysis ensuring compliance with data protection regulations, and contributed to writing the manuscript. RL is the PI and the guarantor of the study, and has led the overall supervision of the project and the manuscript.
Funding The overall project is funded by the Nordea Foundation (grant no. 02-2017-0685) with additional funding from the EGV Foundation (846) and Helsefonden (20-B-0089).
Competing interests None declared.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
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