Environmental quality and well-being level in Turkey

The environment is an indispensable dimension of human life and affects important concepts such as health, quality of life, life satisfaction, and well-being. The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of environmental elements such as air quality, forest area, waste services, and noise pollution on the well-being in Turkey. The data of the research were obtained from the well-being index for the Provinces Study prepared by the Turkey Statistical Institute in 2015. A hierarchical multiple regression model was performed to predict the relationship between the environmental variables and well-being by using the Statistical Package for Social Science. Income and education level of provinces were controlled variables of model. At the end of analyses, it was found out that only forest area was positively related with well-being (=0.191, t=2.369, p=0.020), and there were no association between the air pollution, the noise problems, waste services, and dependent variable. The survey results are expected to provide important evidence-based information about an association between environment and well-being to policymakers and academicians on environmental health and public health.