Urban living and dementia risk: associations with perceived green space qualities and traffic noise annoyance
Abstract
Dementia is a major public health concern, and ambient air pollution is increasingly recognized as a plausible risk factor. Green space and traffic noise have also been proposed as environmental determinants of dementia but have received less attention. We examined whether novel, perception-based measures of urban green space and traffic noise annoyance were associated with dementia risk. We included around 30,250 participants from the Malmö Diet and Cancer cohort, followed from 1991 to 2014. Neighborhood-level perceptions of serenity, wilderness, and species richness (Perceived Sensory Dimensions [PSDs]), as well as road and train noise annoyance, were derived from regional surveys and linked to participants' annual residential addresses. We also constructed a combined PSD index as the sum of z-scores. Time-varying Cox models were used to estimate associations with clinically validated all-cause dementia (ACD), Alzheimer's disease (AD), and vascular dementia (VaD), adjusting for demographic, lifestyle, and health factors. In sensitivity analyses, we additionally adjusted for air pollution. Higher neighborhood PSDs were associated with lower risks of ACD and AD (ACD: hazard ratio [HR] per interquartile range [IQR] increase in the PSD index, 0.94; 95% CI, 0.88–0.99). Road traffic noise annoyance was associated with a higher risk of ACD (HR, 1.07; 95% CI, 1.00–1.14), whereas train noise annoyance showed no clear association. Patterns for VaD were similar but less precise. Neighborhoods perceived as more serene, wild, and species-rich were associated with lower dementia risk, while greater road traffic noise annoyance was associated with higher risk. These findings support the relevance of the residential environment for dementia risk and highlight the value of perception-based exposure measures in environmental epidemiology.
Related
- Associations between marital adjustment, motherhood perception, and body image perception during pregnancy: Statistical indirect associations involving perceived social support and depressive symptoms
- Associations of sleep disturbance and emotion regulation with perceived workplace safety and fatigue among male firefighters with prior occupational accidents : A cross-sectional study
- Associations Between Social Contexts of Alcohol and Cannabis Use and Perceived Descriptive Norms in Sexual Minority Women and Gender Diverse Individuals Assigned Female at Birth
- Associations Between Childbirth-Related Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms and Mother–Infant Bonding Difficulties: The Role of Maternal Stress and Perceived Infant Regulatory Difficulties
- Prospective associations between perceived school climate and psychological distress among Chinese adolescents: a three-wave longitudinal study of school belonging, social avoidance, and psychological resilience
BibTeX
@article{alzhrani2026urban,
title = {{Urban living and dementia risk: associations with perceived green space qualities and traffic noise annoyance}},
author = {Abdullah-J. Alzhrani and Kristoffer Mattisson and Leo Stockfelt and Yiyi Xu and Florencia Harari and Susanna Gustafsson and Jonas Björk and Katarina Nägga and Oskar Hansson and Anna Oudin},
journal = {Scientific Reports},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1038/s41598-026-76867-1},
url = {https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-026-76867-1},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Urban living and dementia risk: associations with perceived green space qualities and traffic noise annoyance
AU - Abdullah-J. Alzhrani
AU - Kristoffer Mattisson
AU - Leo Stockfelt
AU - Yiyi Xu
AU - Florencia Harari
AU - Susanna Gustafsson
AU - Jonas Björk
AU - Katarina Nägga
AU - Oskar Hansson
AU - Anna Oudin
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/26
JO - Scientific Reports
DO - 10.1038/s41598-026-76867-1
UR - https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-026-76867-1
AB - Dementia is a major public health concern, and ambient air pollution is increasingly recognized as a plausible risk factor. Green space and traffic noise have also been proposed as environmental determinants of dementia but have received less attention. We examined whether novel, perception-based measures of urban green space and traffic noise annoyance were associated with dementia risk. We included around 30,250 participants from the Malmö Diet and Cancer cohort, followed from 1991 to 2014. Neighborhood-level perceptions of serenity, wilderness, and species richness (Perceived Sensory Dimensions [PSDs]), as well as road and train noise annoyance, were derived from regional surveys and linked to participants' annual residential addresses. We also constructed a combined PSD index as the sum of z-scores. Time-varying Cox models were used to estimate associations with clinically validated all-cause dementia (ACD), Alzheimer's disease (AD), and vascular dementia (VaD), adjusting for demographic, lifestyle, and health factors. In sensitivity analyses, we additionally adjusted for air pollution. Higher neighborhood PSDs were associated with lower risks of ACD and AD (ACD: hazard ratio [HR] per interquartile range [IQR] increase in the PSD index, 0.94; 95% CI, 0.88–0.99). Road traffic noise annoyance was associated with a higher risk of ACD (HR, 1.07; 95% CI, 1.00–1.14), whereas train noise annoyance showed no clear association. Patterns for VaD were similar but less precise. Neighborhoods perceived as more serene, wild, and species-rich were associated with lower dementia risk, while greater road traffic noise annoyance was associated with higher risk. These findings support the relevance of the residential environment for dementia risk and highlight the value of perception-based exposure measures in environmental epidemiology.
SN - 2045-2322
ER -