Beyond green availability: Socioeconomic deprivation and suicide mortality across multidimensional urban green space patterns in high-density Hong Kong.

Although urban green space (UGS) has been widely examined in relation to mental health, its association with suicide mortality remains insufficiently understood, particularly when moving beyond single indicators of green space. This cross-sectional ecological study examined the UGS pattern and its relationships to socioeconomic deprivation (SED) and suicide mortality (2019-2022) in Hong Kong using the large street block as the unit of spatial analysis. Latent profile analysis identified UGS patterns based on three complementary dimensions: availability, accessibility, and visibility. Multinomial logistic regression examined socioeconomic correlates of these patterns, and negative binomial regression assessed their associations with suicide mortality alongside SED, including interaction terms to examine variation in the SED-suicide mortality association across UGS patterns. Four UGS patterns were identified that reflected environmental inequalities. More socioeconomically advantaged areas were more likely to exhibit suburban neighborhoods with high availability and visibility. In contrast, more deprived areas were concentrated in dense urban cores with lower availability but relatively higher accessibility. Moreover, SED was positively associated with suicide mortality, and a weaker positive association was observed in neighborhoods characterized by relatively higher UGS accessibility, even where green space availability was relatively low. These findings highlight green space accessibility as a potentially important dimension for understanding spatial inequalities in suicide mortality in compact, high-density cities.
Mental Health
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Authors

Liu Liu, Guo Guo, Peng Peng, Li Li, Yip Yip
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