Unequal impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health: Role of the neighborhood environment

The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a significant toll on people's mental wellbeing. Few studies have investigated how the neighborhood environment might help to moderate the mental health impact in a natural disaster context. We aim to investigate the unequal impact of the pandemic on mental health between different popu-lation groups, and the role of the neighborhood environment in alleviating this impact. We collected survey data (n=2,741) on mental health, neighborhood environment, and pandemic-related behaviors in Beijing metropol-itan region between July 10 and 28, 2020, and then applied the partial proportional odds model. Overall, we found that the pandemic has disproportionately affected the lower-income people. The lower-income residents experienced a greater psychological impact than the higher-income residents. We further found that distance to an urban park was a key built environment variable that moderates mental health impact. Residents who lived near urban parks were 4.2 to 4.6% less likely to report an increase in negative emotions, and therefore are more resilient to the mental health impact. In addition to the built environment, a cohesive neighborhood environment may have also helped to mitigate the negative mental health impacts. These findings can inform planning policies that aim to promote healthy and resilient communities.