TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2023//
TI  - Mental health impacts of environmental exposures: a scoping review of evaluative instruments
JO  - Science of the total environment
A1  - Baker, Emma
A1  - Barlow, Cynthia Faye
A1  - Daniel, Lyrian
A1  - Morey, Claire
A1  - Bentley, Rebecca
A1  - Taylor, Mark Patrick
SP  - ePub
EP  - ePub
VL  - ePub
IS  - ePub
N2  - To date, much of the health focus of environmental policy has been on preventing physical health impacts of environmental exposures. Recent research has however highlighted increasingly concurrent mental health effects and its consideration is an emerging requirement for many governments and their agencies, yet there are limited universal mental health assessment tools for environmental exposures. This paper details the findings of a scoping model of Systematic Review that evaluated assessment tools used to assess psychological impacts from environmental exposures and pollution, as reported in recent peer-reviewed literature (2000-2022). Across the 126 papers identified in our review, a wide range of tools to assess mental health impact were identified. We document a clear recent upswing of research interest in the mental and psychological impacts of environmental exposures, and an overarching concern for air pollution from industry, traffic, and fires. A majority of studies utilised standardised assessment instruments, but there was little consistency in the way that these were combined or deployed. The dominant mental health outcomes of interest in these studies were depression, anxiety, and mental and psychiatric health. The findings of the review identify a need and opportunity to develop a best-practice approach to consistently assess the mental health impacts of environmental exposures. Future work is needed to define appropriate selection and application of assessment tools to support a more universal, coordinated and cross-jurisdiction approach for the assessment, quantification and targeted response to the mental health impacts of environmental exposures.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0048-9697
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.169063
ID  - ref1
ER  -