WP2 provides the foundation of the project by laying a conceptual model of the determinants of mental health in old age, building a data harmonization platform to allow co-analysis of data, and developing a framework for the application of advanced causal inference approaches.

Objectives

  1. To harmonize and link data from population registries and cohort studies of mental health ageing in European cities to allow co-analysis of data, based on expertise by Erasmus MC with registry data and McGill University with survey data.
  2. To develop a conceptual model of mental health in urban settings based on (a) input from experts on mental health from multiple disciplinary perspectives and (b) the integration of results from all work packages on the physical and social environmental, psychosocial, biological and genetic pathways linking the urban environment to mental health.
  3. To develop a methodological framework for the application of advanced causal inference and mediation analysis to study the causal impact of the urban environment on mental health.

Work package leader Frank van Lenthe, Erasmus University Medical Center Rotterdam