Spatial and temporal variation in the Heinz Nixdorf Recall data and their effects on the risk of depression at the district level

Background/Aim: Temporal autocorrelations of health outcomes occur because the data relate to largely the same population in consecutive time periods. In addition, spatial patterns occur either because of neighborhood effect or the omission of spatially patterned risk factors for the response variable. Aim here is to (a) estimate the risk of depression at the district level using data of the populationbased Heinz Nixdorf Recall Study (HNRS), (b) analyze temporal trends and spatial variations in the model and (c) further test the impact of greenness on the risk of depression. Methods: Data of 4, 814 participants…