A solidão e o ambiente urbano: um estudo multi-métodos destinado a orientar a criação de lugares e comunidades pró-sociais

Loneliness is a growing public health and urban challenge of the 21st century. Loneliness is highly prevalent in all age groups and genders and is highly detrimental to mental and physical health. Thus, it is necessary to understand its multifactorial determinants. Studies so far have primarily focused on individual and macro-level factors influencing loneliness, disregarding place-based risk factors. This represents a significant research gap, given that structural factors, such as the conditions in which individuals live and recreate, are amenable to change and thus ideal targets for intervention (GovUK, 2023). Moreover, the available scientific evidence is affected by several limitations — predominantly cross-sectional, quantitative, geographically constrained and with a limited focus on assessing place-based interventions to mitigate loneliness (Feng & Astell-Burt, 2022; Taylor et al., 2023). The LoNePlaces project aims to tackle these complex practical and scientific challenges through the adoption of a multidisciplinary and multi-method approach. LoNePlaces will investigate which urban neighbourhood environments play a role in the development of loneliness and how to alleviate loneliness through place-based interventions. The project will be conducted in the Porto Metropolitan Area, the second largest in Portugal (>1.7 million people) and will address the following specific aims: • Estimate the life-course associations between different aspects of the urban neighbourhood environment and residential architecture and loneliness using geospatial population-based cohort data totaling over 10,000 individuals followed up for several decades. • Understand how urban neighbourhood features influence feelings of loneliness by considering the perspectives of individuals from diverse backgrounds and territories through the conduction of semi-structured interviews coupled with mental mapping and photo elicitation among an information-rich sample of participants. • Develop and test the effect of place-based interventions to reduce loneliness using experimental research designs. More precisely, we wish to test the effect, against a control group, of Forest Bathing and Urban Walk and Talk groups. • Co-create solutions to build prosocial and anti-loneliness spaces through participatory workshops involving citizens, authorities, social organizations, planners, and other stakeholders. • Produce a white paper with urban planning solutions aimed at creating healthy and prosocial neighbourhoods, while also pursuing other sustainability goals and meeting healthy city standards. The LoNePlaces project will contribute to advancing the state of the art by: • Comprehensively addressing an increasingly relevant, but understudied, public health and urban issue using a multi-method and fine-grained life course approach. • Using novel statistical approaches towards the identification of prosocial and lonelygenic urban features. • Quantifying the impact of emergent urban models such as the 15-min city or the 3-30-300 rule (3 trees from home, 30% tree cover, 300 m from the nearest green space) on loneliness. • Using randomized experiments to strengthen the causal evidence from observational studies and generate effective interventions, which value place-based resources, such as natural spaces. • Incorporating participatory methodologies, ensuring that we explore socially relevant questions and interpret findings through the lens of all the interested parties.