ArticleFrontiers in public health2026
Improvements to the living environment and mental health among older adults: an empirical study based on the Chinese experience.
Article in Frontiers in public health, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Against the backdrop of global aging and sustainable development, China is confronted with the dual challenges of improving mental health among the older adults and enhancing their living environment. Methods: Based on data from the 2020 China Longitudinal Study of Aging, this study employs an ordinary least squares regression model to investigate the impact of improvements to the living environment on the mental health of the older adults and its underlying mechanisms. Results: The results indicate that improvements to the living environment can extend beyond the realm of physical health and exert significant positive effect on the mental health of older adults. Every one-unit increase in environmental satisfaction reduces the older adults' depression scores by 0.426 points. Mechanism analysis indicates that improvements to the living environment enhance the mental health of older adults through three parallel pathways: improving sleep quality (physiological pathway), promoting social participation (behavioral pathway), and strengthening confidence in the future (cognitive pathway). However, the psychological benefits of improvements in the living environment are constrained by three factors-urban-rural disparities, economic income, and personal health, these benefits are more pronounced among three specific groups of older adults: those in rural areas, those with high-income, and those who self-reported good health. Conclusion: Consequently,future environmental policies should prioritize the synergistic benefits of mental health, and incorporate them into performance evaluation frameworks. This will better facilitate the channeling of policy resources toward groups with limited access to such benefits, further foster an age-friendly social environment, and ultimately promote the deep integration of improvements to the living environment with active aging.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.