PEOPLE living in rural areas are less likely than city dwellers to suffer from mental health problems and are more likely to get better quickly when they do, research suggests.
This is not so much because the tranquillity of the countryside promotes peace of mind, but is probably because people living in rural areas are more likely to be there by choice, researchers believe. The study, published today in the British Journal of Psychiatry, analysed self-reported incidence of mental illness among 7,659 adults throughout Britain taking part in the Government’s British Household Panel Survey.
It then compared the differences between those living in rural and urban wards.
The results were adjusted for age, gender, marital status, ethnicity, education, employment status, financial strain and health. Overall,…