"My Family Was Also Happy": Couples' Qualitative Reports of a Combined Behavioral Economics and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Intervention to Reduce Alcohol Use and Intimate Partner Violence.

Improving intimate partner violence interventions requires understanding pathways to change among couples participating in these interventions. This article presents qualitative data from 18 males and 16 females who participated in a combined behavioral economics (contingency management) and cognitive behavioral therapy alcohol and violence reduction intervention trial in Bengaluru, India. Results confirmed several theorized pathways of change, as well as identified further mechanisms through which the intervention supported the change.

Greenness and Depression Incidence among Older Women.

Background: Recent evidence suggests that higher levels of residential greenness may contribute to better mental health. Despite this, few studies have considered its impact on depression, and most are cross-sectional.

Objective: The objective of this study was to examine surrounding residential greenness and depression risk prospectively in the Nurses' Health Study.

Designing a Pilot Study Protocol to Test a Male Alcohol Use and Intimate Partner Violence Reduction Intervention in India: Beautiful Home.

Evidence suggests alcohol consumption is correlated with intimate partner violence (IPV) making alcohol reduction interventions a promising method for reducing IPV. While both financial incentive and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) interventions in high-income countries, respectively, have effectively reduced alcohol consumption and IPV perpetration among men, little evidence exists demonstrating that these approaches can work in a low-resource setting. The objective of this study is to design and pilot test a low-cost, scalable intervention for reducing alcohol consumption and IPV in Bengaluru, India, where alcohol has been shown to be a key driver of high rates of IPV.

The relationship between surrounding greenness in childhood and adolescence and depressive symptoms in adolescence and early adulthood.

Purpose: Exposure to nature, particularly vegetation (greenness), may be beneficial for mental health. We investigated whether higher surrounding greenness in early life was associated with subsequent reduced risk of depressive symptoms and whether this association was modified by age, sex, or population density.

Methods: Participants from the Growing Up Today Study were included if they reported on depressive symptoms between 1999 and 2013.

The Association Between Natural Environments and Depressive Symptoms in Adolescents Living in the United States.

Purpose: Exposure to nature and natural environments may be beneficial for mental health; however, most population-based studies have been conducted among adults whereas few have focused on adolescents. We aimed to investigate the relationship between both greenness (vegetation) and blue space (water), and depressive symptoms among teenagers in the United States.

Methods: The study population included 9,385 participants ages 12-18 in the 1999 wave of the Growing Up Today Study.

Interrelationships Between Walkability, Air Pollution, Greenness, and Body Mass Index.

Background: Recent studies have linked urban environmental factors and body mass index (BMI); however, such factors are often examined in isolation, ignoring correlations across exposures.

Methods: Using data on Nurses' Health Study participants living in the Northeastern United States in 2006, we estimated associations between neighborhood walkability (a composite of population density, street connectivity, and business access), greenness (from satellite imagery), and ambient air pollution (from satellite-based spatiotemporally resolved PM2.5 predictions and weighted monthly average concentrations of NO2 from up to five nearest monitors) and self-reported BMI using generalized additive models, allowing for deviations from linearity using penalized splines.

Residential greenness: current perspectives on its impact on maternal health and pregnancy outcomes.

Recent research in environmental epidemiology has attempted to estimate the effects of exposure to nature, often operationalized as vegetation, on health. Although many analyses have focused on vegetation or greenness with regard to physical activity and weight status, an incipient area of interest concerns maternal health and birth outcomes. This paper reviews 14 studies that examined the association between greenness and maternal or infant health.

Built Environment and Depression in Low-Income African Americans and Whites.

Introduction: Urban environments are associated with a higher risk of adverse mental health outcomes; however, it is unclear which specific components of the urban environment drive these associations.

Methods: Using data collected in 2002-2009 from 73,225 low-income, racially diverse individuals across the Southeastern U.S.

Exposure to Greenness and Mortality in a Nationwide Prospective Cohort Study of Women.

Background: Green, natural environments may ameliorate adverse environmental exposures (e.g., air pollution, noise, and extreme heat), increase physical activity and social engagement, and lower stress.

A Review of the Health Benefits of Greenness.

Researchers are increasingly exploring how neighborhood greenness, or vegetation, may affect health behaviors and outcomes. Greenness may influence health by promoting physical activity and social contact; decreasing stress; and mitigating air pollution, noise, and heat exposure. Greenness is generally measured using satellite-based vegetation indices or land-use databases linked to participants' addresses.

A health impact assessment of a proposed bill to decrease speed limits on local roads in Massachusetts (U.S.A.).

Decreasing traffic speeds increases the amount of time drivers have to react to road hazards, potentially averting collisions, and makes crashes that do happen less severe. Boston's regional planning agency, the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC), in partnership with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH), conducted a Health Impact Assessment (HIA) that examined the potential health impacts of a proposed bill in the state legislature to lower the default speed limits on local roads from 30 miles per hour (mph) to 25 mph. The aim was to reduce vehicle speeds on local roads to a limit that is safer for pedestrians, cyclists, and children.