The Mediating Mechanism of Health Awareness: Linking Urban Built Environment to Residents' Depression

Li Jin; Qingyu Ma; Mengze Fu

doi:10.54254/2753-8818/2026.31385

Abstract

As times now go on, health awareness has raised, however mental health problems in crowded city environments have grown more. Depression is a severe disorder and important indicator of mental health, now it’s a public health concern related to urbanization. This paper looks at how various kinds of residential built environment factors affect people’s health awareness and depression lev-els and also looks at how health awareness can be a reason for something. According to 775 ques-tionnaires collected in the main urban area of Zhengzhou, multiple linear regression and mediation effect analysis were conducted. Depression was judged with the HADS questionnaire and health awareness through a survey questionnaire, Results show that: (1) Green view ratio raises depres-sion but NDVI and average building height lessen it. (2) Green view ratio, green space quantity, and road network density bring about higher health awareness, concurrently fewer people, sky openness, transit stations, and walkability also improve health awareness. (3) Health awareness acts as a mediator linking improved environmental elements like greenness, streets, and vegetation, to lower depressive illnesses. On contrast, it also explained how certain specific urban arrangement like abundant foliage, a lot of open sky, concentrated residential pattern, pedestrian-friendly infra-structure, a lot of public transport hubs etc. associated itself with higher level of depressive symp-toms This study proves that improving the residential built environment can lead to better mental health both directly and indirectly as a result of health awareness.

Keywords: Residential built environment , Depression levels , Health awareness , Multiple linear regression model , Mediation effect

Article Information

Received: 18 January 2026

Published: 20 January 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.54254/2753-8818/2026.31385

Article Type: Research Article

Cite this article

Jin,L.;Ma,Q.;Fu,M. (2026). The Mediating Mechanism of Health Awareness: Linking Urban Built Environment to Residents' Depression. Theoretical and Natural Science,154,42-50.

Data availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study will be available from the authors upon reasonable request.

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About this Volume

Volume Title: TNS Vol.154

Part of Series: Theoretical and Natural Science

ISSN: 2753-8818 (Print) / 2753-8826 (Online)

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