Having thought about the ideal place to live and the impact of geography on health, I wanted to write about some considerations. A few are, does mental health improve when living outside urban areas? Does it make sense for people with breathing or heart health concerns to live outside city areas? A few research papers give some interesting food for thought.

Urban Living

Pollution

For people with lung or heart issues, there are some strong arguments for living outside urban areas, or at least choosing less polluted areas with fewer cars nearby. Studies have been extensive on the link between air pollutants (particularly tiny particulates in urban areas) and increased lung inflammation and blood thickening.  In fact, the studies are pretty confident they can say these issues are caused by the pollutants. This is a big deal since scientists emphasize correlations and relationships are not necessarily cause and effect. It takes a lot of evidence to say that causality is likely. See http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140673695901736

Mental Health

Additionally , living in urban areas is connected to more incidence of psychosis. This may be due to mental stress, but may also be due to less insidious factors such as studies unwittingly researching areas with certain groups of people predisposed to mental stress and psychosis http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165032713003911. For instance, areas with fewer material possessions have links to mental stress (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953606003510) . There is more research being carried out to unpack the connection. However, precautionary principle might guide you to consider living in a less urban area if that option is available.

The Positives

On the other hand, urban living can be great for having fast access to your workplace, art, and social life. A shorter commute and richer social life are associated with greater happiness and health according to some. However this is not conclusive since other articles show commutes could be a buffer between private and professional life and a time to engage with entertainment. One study showed emotions during commutes are often positive or neutral : http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11205-012-0003-2 . Additionally, studies are finding people to adapt their commutes particularly now technology allows social activity, work or entertainment to be accessible almost anywhere.  http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.510.3649&rep=rep1&type=pdf . Still more work needs to be done on this aspect.

Green Spaces

There is compelling evidence that living in a green area, with some trees, open spaces around you, leads to sustained happiness over time. This doesn’t necessarily mean living outside the city, but definitely means you could consider somewhere near a park, heath or other natural area. http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es403688w

So what should you do?

It’s hard to say at the moment if the evidence is convincing enough for many people to consider living outside major cities. The truth is there is not housing to accommodate everyone if there was a mass move to do so. Additionally, most jobs are located in cities, so a commute is another aspect to address if living outside cities. The research is most interesting in helping urbanites and commuters adapt to make the most of their different challenges.

It might be worth considering how you mitigate some of the risks – how do you purify air in your house and limit exposure to air pollution outdoors. One way is to use air conditioning which can filter some pollutants out of air. Another is to avoid congested areas of road, especially when walking by as a pedestrian or with open car windows.

Get some exposure to nature – if you are an urbanite it cannot hurt getting into the wild now and then and getting fresh air!

Other Links 

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/wps.20056/full  – Showing a study on the relationship between psychosis and urban living, social stress , and other stressors

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0920996415004570 – Do people with Schizophrenia drift towards urban areas, and does this explain some of the urban link to poor mental health?