Air Pollution and Adolescent Mental Health Research using Linked Administrative Data

世界上约20%的儿童和青少年有精神健康问题，自杀是15-29岁人群的第二大死亡原因（世卫组织，无日期）。到2022年，英国17至19岁的年轻人中有四分之一可能患有精神障碍，比2021年的六分之一有所增加（NHS Digital， 2022年）。青少年（14-25岁）可能是一个弱势群体，因为这是精神障碍最常见的发病时间（Solmi et al., 2021）。焦虑和抑郁症是最常见的精神疾病（世卫组织，2021a），也是造成全球总体负担的一个主要因素（世卫组织，2021b）。这与未满足的精神卫生保健需求相结合（Patel et al., 2018），强调需要采取减少空气污染等解决方案。博士学位的目的是改善英国青少年（10-19岁）的心理健康和福祉。这将通过a)加深对空气污染对焦虑和抑郁等常见精神健康障碍（CMDs）影响的理解，b)探索这些关系如何因城乡地区、性别、年龄、种族和社会经济地位而变化

Around 20% of the world's children and adolescents have a mental health condition, with suicide the second leading cause of death among 15-29-year-olds (WHO, n.d.). One in four 17- to 19-year-olds in England had a probable mental disorder in 2022 - an increase from one in six in 2021 (NHS Digital, 2022). Adolescents (14-25) could be a vulnerable group since this is the most common time of onset for mental disorders(Solmi et al., 2021). Anxiety and depressive disorders are the most common mental illnesses (WHO, 2021a) and a major contributor to the overall global burden (WHO, 2021b). This in combination with the unmet needs for mental health care (Patel et al., 2018) emphasise the need for solutions such as decreasing air pollution. The aim of the PhD is to improve the mental health and wellbeing of adolescents (aged 10-19 years old) in the UK. This will be achieved by a) Deepening the understanding of the impact of air pollution on common mental health disorders (CMDs) such as anxiety and depression, b) Exploring how these relationships vary by urban/rural regions, sex, age, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status