What are we trying to do?
We want to find out whether the density of fast food outlets and leisure centres has an impact on people’s mental health.

 

Why is this important?
Health can be influenced by the environment in which people live. There is evidence to suggest a higher density of fast food outlets can worsen people’s physical health, and that more leisure centres can improve people’s physical health. However, there is limited knowledge about the effect of these types of venues on people’s mental health.

 

How are we doing it?
We are using information about venues from the Ordnance Survey to find the number of fast food outlets and leisure centres in 32,844 small areas in England.

We combine this with mental health data from the UK Household Longitudinal Survey, which is completed by over 20,000 individuals.

Once analysed, the results will provide evidence about whether the types of venues in people’s local area of residence affect their mental health.

 

Findings
We expect findings to become available by the end of 2026.

 

 

More information
 

 

Senior Programme Lead
Mike Spence
michael.spence@manchester.ac.uk