How green space can reduce violent crime
Researchers seek to enhance public safety by harnessing nature
February 27, 2020
Science Daily/University of Virginia Health System
Properly designed and maintained outdoor green space has the potential to reduce violent crime and gun violence, to make communities safer and keep residents healthier, a new study suggests. Conversely, green space that is poorly designed and inadequately maintained can help crime take root and spread.
The findings come from a team of scientists that has assembled a big-picture review of research on the complicated relationship between nature and crime in urban areas. They identified several patterns that can help inform public policy, guide urban design and promote neighborhoods that are safe and pleasant to live in.
The project came about because members of the research team had been touched by crime, either directly or indirectly. "All of us had some sort of experience, personally or through family members. And we thought maybe we can do something about it," said Hessam Sadatsafavi, PhD, of the School of Medicine. "How to control violent crime is a polarizing issue. We are interested to see, as designers whose work is to shape the physical environment, if it's possible for us to contribute to this conversation and to take some actions to see if we, personally, can contribute to reducing crime."
The Weed of Crime Bears Bitter Fruit
The research, initiated at Cornell University, sought to synthesize the findings of many previous studies that looked at the effects of various forms of green space on crime and criminal behavior. "We said, OK, we have to start by understanding what is out there in terms of theory, what other people have found," Sadatsafavi said. "Green space can be a source of or increase the risk of crime in a neighborhood through some mechanism, and it can also reduce the risk. So why is that happening? Is there any way to find a solution to make the risk reduction more effective?"
The initial review was challenging because the topic is vast and can be approached from many angles. "You might talk about community gardens, you might talk about people's lawns," Sadatsafavi explained. "People who do the studies might go out and count the number of trees on sidewalks, or examine satellite images. Or look at the number of vacant lots that were turned into green space."
That, combined with the wide variety of crime examined and how it was reported, made it difficult for the researchers to draw specific conclusions. "But," Sadatsafavi said, "there are definitely patterns."
For example, nine studies looked at the effect of green space on gun violence. Six found that such interventions reduced crime, while three were inconclusive. "There is evidence that greening interventions at the urban level reduces violent crime, specifically gun violence," said Sadatsafavi, of UVA's Department of Emergency Medicine.
"By looking at all these studies, we were able to propose possible pathways [to reduce crime and] put together an overall picture of why this is happening, both in terms of gun violence and in terms of overall crime rate."
Sadatsafavi hopes that the researchers' findings, outlined in a paper in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, will lead to community interventions that keep people safe, decrease crime and promote better quality of life.
"The dream scenario for me, personally, is to raise awareness about the effectiveness and the cost effectiveness of these strategies," he said. "Our next goal as a team is to develop design guidelines for, say, how a community garden or small community park should be designed, to improve the positive effects of the green space and provide practical, hands-on information for people who are in the field, whether landscape architects or people who are starting their own community garden."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/02/200227144253.htm
Public parks guaranteeing sustainable well-being
May 27, 2020
Science Daily/Université de Genève
An international team led by the University of Geneva (UNIGE) has ascertained how green spaces contribute to the well-being of city-dwellers. The research shows that parks play an essential role in the well-being of individuals, regardless of their social class, and that they cannot be replaced by other venues where people meet, such as shopping centers. When these parks are closed -- as during the COVID-19 pandemic -- it intensifies inequalities in well-being.
Public parks are many things to many people: a space devoid of domestic chores and patriarchal expectations, a spot to cultivate friendship or love, a place where you can experience a feeling of freedom that is absent elsewhere, an opportunity to "visit" trees from a country you have not seen in a long time, a way of being part of a group while sitting alone on your bench -- or even the perfect setting for running a small business to help you get by. Public parks are all this and much more if we're to believe the inhabitants of four Asian mega-cities -- Chennai, Singapore, Manila and Shanghai -- who were interviewed as part of a recently-published study. Green spaces, we learn, do much more than simply benefit biodiversity and health: they also meet numerous other essential human needs that open the door to sustainable well-being, a concept based on a combination of personal well-being and the necessities of sustainable development.
"There are many theories that try to define human well-being," begins Marlyne Sahakian, a professor in the Department of Sociology in UNIGE's Faculty of Social Sciences and the study's first author. "Instead of using subjective notions such as happiness, we used a list of nine 'protected needs' that has recently been developed by colleagues from the University of Basel. These needs correspond to what society can offer the population through the public sector. This list of protected needs is the result of an analysis of the scientific literature and was validated among the Swiss population and by panels of experts."
The nine capital needs
In concrete terms, the list is made up of the following nine items: (1) the availability of goods that satisfy vital needs; (2) turning your own idea of everyday life into reality; (3) living in a pleasant environment; (4) growing as a person; (5) self-determination; (6) doing activities that you value; (7) being part of a community; (8) taking part in decisions about the future of society; and (9) being protected by society.
Armed with this list, researchers from the four Asian cities, co-signatories of the study, asked residents about their use of public parks and the benefits they derived from them. An analysis of their responses first showed that ordinary people can assess their well-being using these protected needs, making the distinction between what they need and what they want. "This suggests that meeting human needs is a societal goal that can be discussed by diverse groups of people around the world," says Professor Sahakian before adding: "This has implications for city planning measures designed to ensure everyone's sustainable well-being for today and tomorrow. In the cities of South Asia in particular, parks -- which offer a naturally cool, shaded microclimate -- are a precious alternative to other leisure spaces, such as air-conditioned shopping centres."
Inclusion rather than exclusion
The research, which was supported by the Swiss Network for International Studies, also found that the use of green spaces fulfils all the protected needs to a certain degree. Three of these needs (3, 4 and 7) however, have a score that is significantly higher than the others.
"Going to the park is a social activity that requires more than just a green space, argues Professor Sahakian. People do different kinds of things in parks to meet the same need, such as exercising, chatting with other people, reading a book, meeting a group or learning about biodiversity. These are very inclusive spaces, where there is ready access for everyone, unlike what happens in shopping centres, which can operate quite a strong form of social segregation. In the immediate context of a post-COVID-19 environment, where public spending will probably be more limited than before, it is all the more important to maintain the infrastructure of the parks (water access points, toilets, trails, etc.) and to ensure access so that they can continue to meet everyone's needs."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/05/200527105025.htm
Living near major roads linked to risk of dementia, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and MS
January 23, 2020
Science Daily/University of British Columbia
Living near major roads or highways is linked to higher incidence of dementia, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease and multiple sclerosis (MS), suggests new research published this week in the journal Environmental Health.
Researchers from the University of British Columbia analyzed data for 678,000 adults in Metro Vancouver. They found that living less than 50 metres from a major road or less than 150 metres from a highway is associated with a higher risk of developing dementia, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and MS -- likely due to increased exposure to air pollution.
The researchers also found that living near green spaces, like parks, has protective effects against developing these neurological disorders.
"For the first time, we have confirmed a link between air pollution and traffic proximity with a higher risk of dementia, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and MS at the population level," says Weiran Yuchi, the study's lead author and a PhD candidate in the UBC school of population and public health. "The good news is that green spaces appear to have some protective effects in reducing the risk of developing one or more of these disorders. More research is needed, but our findings do suggest that urban planning efforts to increase accessibility to green spaces and to reduce motor vehicle traffic would be beneficial for neurological health."
Neurological disorders -- a term that describes a range of disorders, including Alzheimer's disease and other dementias, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis and motor neuron diseases -- are increasingly recognized as one of the leading causes of death and disability worldwide. Little is known about the risk factors associated with neurological disorders, the majority of which are incurable and typically worsen over time.
For the study, researchers analyzed data for 678,000 adults between the ages of 45 and 84 who lived in Metro Vancouver from 1994 to 1998 and during a follow-up period from 1999 to 2003. They estimated individual exposures to road proximity, air pollution, noise and greenness at each person's residence using postal code data. During the follow-up period, the researchers identified 13,170 cases of non-Alzheimer's dementia, 4,201 cases of Parkinson's disease, 1,277 cases of Alzheimer's disease and 658 cases of MS.
For non-Alzheimer's dementia and Parkinson's disease specifically, living near major roads or a highway was associated with 14 per cent and seven per cent increased risk of both conditions, respectively. Due to relatively low numbers of Alzheimer's and MS cases in Metro Vancouver compared to non-Alzheimer's dementia and Parkinson's disease, the researchers did not identify associations between air pollution and increased risk of these two disorders. However, they are now analyzing Canada-wide data and are hopeful the larger dataset will provide more information on the effects of air pollution on Alzheimer's disease and MS.
When the researchers accounted for green space, they found the effect of air pollution on the neurological disorders was mitigated. The researchers suggest that this protective effect could be due to several factors.
"For people who are exposed to a higher level of green space, they are more likely to be physically active and may also have more social interactions," said Michael Brauer, the study's senior author and professor in the UBC school of population and public health. "There may even be benefits from just the visual aspects of vegetation."
Brauer added that the findings underscore the importance for city planners to ensure they incorporate greenery and parks when planning and developing residential neighbourhoods.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/01/200123152616.htm
City parks lift mood as much as Christmas
The greener the greenspace, the happier and less self-absorbed people are
August 20, 2019
Science Daily/University of Vermont
New research shows that visitors to urban parks use happier words and express less negativity on Twitter than before their visit -- and that their elevated mood lasts for up to four hours. The effect is so strong that it's equivalent to the mood spike on Christmas, the happiest day each year on Twitter. With increasing urbanization and mood disorders, this research may have powerful implications for public health and urban planning.
Feeling unhappy and cranky? The treatment: take a walk under some trees in the park.
That may not be the exact prescription of your doctor, but a first-of-its-kind study shows that visitors to urban parks use happier words and express less negativity on Twitter than they did before their visit -- and that their elevated mood lasts, like a glow, for up to four hours afterwards.
The effect is so strong -- a team of scientists from the University of Vermont discovered -- that the increase in happiness from a visit to an outpost of urban nature is equivalent to the mood spike on Christmas, by far the happiest day each year on Twitter.
With more people living in cities, and growing rates of mood disorders, this research may have powerful implications for public health and urban planning.
The new study was published August 20 in People and Nature, an open-access journal of the British Ecological Society.
GREEN MATTERS
For three months, a team of scientists from the University of Vermont studied hundreds of tweets per day that people posted from 160 parks in San Francisco. "We found that, yes, across all the tweets, people are happier in parks," says Aaron Schwartz, a UVM graduate student who led the new research, "but the effect was stronger in large regional parks with extensive tree cover and vegetation." Smaller neighborhood parks showed a smaller spike in positive mood and mostly-paved civic plazas and squares showed the least mood elevation.
In other words, it's not just getting out of work or being outside that brings a positive boost: the study shows that greener areas with more vegetation have the biggest impact. It's notable that one of the words that shows the biggest uptick in use in tweets from parks is "flowers."
"In cities, big green spaces are very important for people's sense of well-being," says Schwartz; meaning that efforts to protect and expand urban natural areas extend far beyond luxury and second-tier concerns -- "we're seeing more and more evidence that it's central to promoting mental health," says Taylor Ricketts, a co-author on the new study and director of the Gund Institute for Environment at UVM.
In recent years, "a big focus in conservation has been on monetary benefits -- like: how many dollars of flood damage did we avoid by restoring a wetland?" Ricketts says. "But this study is part of a new wave of research that expands beyond monetary benefits to quantify the direct health benefits of nature. What's even more innovative here is our focus on mental health benefits -- which have been really underappreciated and understudied."
MEASURING HAPPINESS
The new study relied on the hedonometer. This online instrument -- invented by a team of scientists at UVM and The MITRE Corporation, including Chris Danforth and Peter Dodds, professors at UVM's Complex Systems Center and co-authors on the new study -- has been gathering and analyzing billions of tweets for more than a decade, resulting in numerous scientific papers and extensive global media coverage. The instrument uses a body of about 10,000 common words that have been scored by a large pool of volunteers for what the scientists call their "psychological valence," a kind of measure of each word's emotional temperature.
The volunteers ranked words they perceived as the happiest near the top of a 1-9 scale; sad words near the bottom. Averaging the volunteers' responses, each word received a score: "happy" itself ranked 8.30, "hahaha" 7.94, and "parks" 7.14. Truly neutral words, "and" and "the" scored 5.22 and 4.98. At the bottom, "trapped" 3.08, "crash" 2.60, and "jail" 1.76. "Flowers" scored a pleasant 7.56.
Using these scores, the team collects some fifty million tweets from around the world each day -- "then we basically toss all the words into a huge bucket," says Dodds -- and calculate the bucket's average happiness score.
PARK POSITION
To make the new study, the UVM team fished tweets out of this huge stream -- from 4,688 users who publically identify their location -- that were geotagged with latitude and longitude in the city of San Francisco. This allowed the team to know which tweets were coming from which parks. "Then, working with the U.S. Forest Service, we developed some new techniques for mapping vegetation of urban areas -- at a very detailed resolution, about a thousand times more detailed than existing methods," says Jarlath O'Neil-Dunne, director of UVM's Spatial Analysis Laboratory in the UVM Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources and a co-author on the new study. "That's what really enabled us to get an accurate understanding of how the greenness and vegetation of these urban areas relates to people's sentiment there."
"This is the first study that uses Twitter to examine how user sentiment changes before, during, and after visits to different types of parks," says Schwartz, a doctoral student in the Rubenstein School and Gund Institute graduate fellow. "The greener parks show a bigger boost."
Overall, the tweets posted from these urban parks in San Francisco were happier by a dramatic 0.23 points on the hedonometer scale over the baseline. "This increase in sentiment is equivalent to that of Christmas Day for Twitter as a whole in the same year," the scientists write.
THE CAUSE OF AFFECT
"Being in nature offers restorative benefits on dimensions not available for purchase in a store, or downloadable on a screen," says UVM's Chris Danforth, a professor of mathematics and fellow in the Gund Institute. He notes that a growing body of research shows an association between time in nature and improved mood, "but the specific causal links are hard to nail down."
The team of UVM scientists consider several possible mechanisms through which urban nature may improve mental health, including Green Mind Theory that suggests that the negativity bias of the brain, "which may have been evolutionarily advantageous -- is constantly activated by the stressors of modern life," the team writes.
"While we don't address causality in our study, we do find that negative language -- like 'not,' 'no,' 'don't,' 'can't,' -- decreased in the period immediately after visits to urban parks," says Danforth, "offering specific linguistic markers of the mood boost available outside." Conversely, the study shows that the use of first-person pronouns -- "I" and "me" -- drops off dramatically in parks, perhaps indicating "a shift from individual to collective mental frame," the scientists write.
Of course, Twitter users are not a representative sample of all people -- just who are the "twitter-afflicted" (as Adam Gopnik wrote in a recent issue of the New Yorker) who pick up their phone to tweet from a park? Still, Twitter users are a broad demographic, earlier research shows, and this approach to near-real-time remote sensing via Twitter posts -- not based on self-reporting -- gives a new window for scientists onto the shifting moods of very large groups.
The nature of happiness has been pondered by philosophers for centuries and studied by psychologists for decades, but this new study suggests it might be as clear as that: in nature, people tend to be more happy -- and that's a finding "that may help public health officials and governments make plans and investments," says UVM's Aaron Schwartz.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/08/190820081859.htm
Seeing greenery linked to less intense and frequent unhealthy cravings
July 12, 2019
Science Daily/University of Plymouth
New research shows that being able to see green spaces from your home is associated with reduced cravings for alcohol, cigarettes and harmful foods.
Being able to see green spaces from your home is associated with reduced cravings for alcohol, cigarettes and harmful foods, new research has shown.
The study, led by the University of Plymouth, is the first to demonstrate that passive exposure to nearby greenspace is linked to both lower frequencies and strengths of craving.
It builds on previous research suggesting exercising in nature can reduce cravings, by demonstrating the same may be true irrespective of physical activity.
Researchers say the findings add to evidence that points to the need to protect and invest in green spaces within towns and cities, in order to maximise the public health benefits they may afford. They also suggest the causality of this link needs to be investigated further.
The study, published in the journal Health & Place, is the first to investigate the relationship between exposure to natural environments, craving for a range of appetitive substances and the experiencing of negative emotions or feelings.
It involved academics from the University's School of Psychology, with support from the European Centre for Environment and Human Health at the University of Exeter.
Leanne Martin, who led the research as part of her Master's degree in Plymouth, said: "It has been known for some time that being outdoors in nature is linked to a person's wellbeing. But for there to be a similar association with cravings from simply being able to see green spaces adds a new dimension to previous research. This is the first study to explore this idea, and it could have a range of implications for both public health and environmental protection programmes in the future."
For the research, participants completed an online survey that explored the relationships between various aspects of nature exposure, cravings.
Among other things, it measured the proportion of greenspace in an individual's residential neighbourhood, the presence of green views from their home, their access to a garden or allotment; and their frequency of use of public greenspaces.
The results showed that having access to a garden or allotment was associated with both lower craving strength and frequency, while residential views incorporating more than 25% greenspace evoked similar responses.
The study also measured physical activity undertaken within the same time frame that cravings were assessed, showing the reduced craving occurred irrespective of physical activity level.
Dr Sabine Pahl, Associate Professor (Reader) in Psychology, added: "Craving contributes to a variety of health-damaging behaviours such as smoking, excessive drinking and unhealthy eating. In turn, these can contribute to some of the greatest global health challenges of our time, including cancer, obesity and diabetes. Showing that lower craving is linked to more exposure to green spaces is a promising first step. Future research should investigate if and how green spaces can be used to help people withstand problematic cravings, enabling them to better manage cessation attempts in the future."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/07/190712120211.htm
Contact with nature during childhood could lead to better mental health in adulthood
May 21, 2019
Science Daily/Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal)
Almost 3,600 people participated in a European study on the impact of green and blue spaces on mental health and vitality.
Adults who had close contact with natural spaces during their childhood could have a better mental health than those who had less contact, according to a new study by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), an institution supported by "la Caixa," involving four European cities.
Exposure to natural outdoor environments has been associated with several health benefits, including a better cognitive development and better mental and physical health. However, few studies have explored the impact of childhood exposure to natural environments on mental health and vitality in adulthood. Furthermore, studies have more frequently considered green spaces (gardens, forests, urban parks) than blue spaces (canals, ponds, creeks, rivers, lakes, beaches, etc.).
This study, published in the International Journal of Environment Research and Public Health, was performed within the framework of the PHENOTYPE project with data from almost 3,600 adults from Barcelona (Spain), Doetinchem (Netherlands), Kaunas (Lithuania) and Stoke-on-Trent (United Kingdom).
The adult participants answered a questionnaire on frequency of use of natural spaces during childhood, including purposeful ¬-e.g. hiking in natural parks- and non-purposeful -e.g. playing in the backyard- visits. They were also asked about their current amount, use and satisfaction with residential natural spaces, as well as the importance they give to such spaces. The mental health of the participants in terms of nervousness and feelings of depression in the past four weeks, as well as their vitality -energy and fatigue levels- were assessed through a psychological test. The residential surrounding greenness during adulthood was determined through satellite images.
The results show that adults who were less exposed to natural spaces during their childhood had lower scores in mental health tests, compared to those with higher exposure. Myriam Preuss, first author of the study, explains that "in general, participants with lower childhood exposure to nature gave a lower importance to natural environments." No association was found between childhood exposure and vitality, or the use of or satisfaction with these spaces in adulthood.
Wilma Zijlema, ISGlobal researcher and study coordinator, underlines that the conclusions "show the importance of childhood exposure to natural spaces for the development of a nature-appreciating attitude and a healthy psychological state in adulthood." Currently, 73% of Europe's population lives in urban areas with often limited access to green space and this number is expected to increase to over 80% by 2050. "Therefore, it is important to recognize the implications of growing in up in environments with limited opportunities for exposure to nature," she adds.
"Many children in Europe lead an indoors lifestyle, so it would be desirable to make natural outdoor environments available, attractive and safe for them to play in," explains Mark Nieuwenhuijsen, director of ISGlobal's Urban Planning, Environment and Health Initiative. In most countries, activities in nature are not a regular part of the school's curriculum. "We make a call on policymakers to improve availability of natural spaces for children and green school yards," he adds.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/05/190521193735.htm
How to consider nature's impact on mental health in city plans
July 24, 2019
Science Daily/University of Washington
Almost one in five adults in the U.S. lives with a mental illness. That statistic is similar worldwide, with an estimated 450 million people currently dealing with a mental or neurological disorder. Of those, only about a third seek treatment.
Interacting with nature is starting to be recognized as one way to improve mental health. A number of scientific studies have shown that nature experiences may benefit people's psychological well-being and cognitive function. But it has been difficult to find ways to quantify these benefits in a useful manner for cities or organizations that want to integrate nature to improve mental health.
Now, an international team led by the University of Washington and Stanford University has created a framework for how city planners and municipalities around the world can start to measure the mental health benefits of nature and incorporate those into plans and policies for cities and their residents. The study will appear July 24 in Science Advances.
"Thinking about the direct mental health benefits that nature contact provides is important to take into account when planning how to conserve nature and integrate it into our cities," said Greg Bratman, lead author and an assistant professor at the UW School of Environmental and Forest Sciences. "The purpose of this paper is to provide a conceptual model of one way we can start to think about doing this."
The study brought together more than two dozen leading experts in the natural, social and health sciences who study aspects of how nature can benefit human well-being. Their first step was to establish a baseline, collective agreement regarding the understanding of the impacts of nature experience on aspects of cognitive functioning, emotional well-being and other dimensions of mental health.
"In hundreds of studies, nature experience is associated with increased happiness, social engagement, and manageability of life tasks, and decreased mental distress," said senior author Gretchen Daily, faculty director at the Stanford Natural Capital Project. "In addition, nature experience is linked to improved cognitive functioning, memory and attention, imagination and creativity, and children's school performance. These links span many dimensions of human experience, and include a greater sense of meaning and purpose in life."
While this line of study is still emerging, experts agree that nature can reduce risk factors for some types of mental illnesses and improve psychological well-being. They also agree that opportunities for nature experiences are dwindling for many people around the world because of urban growth.
"For millennia, many different cultures, traditions, and religious and spiritual practices have spoken directly to our deep relationship with nature. And more recently, using other sets of tools from psychology, public health, landscape architecture and medicine, evidence has been steadily gathering in this emerging, interdisciplinary field," Bratman said.
The study outlines how city planners, landscape architects, developers and others could eventually anticipate the mental health impacts of decisions related to the environment.
Many governments already consider this with regard to other aspects of human health. For example, trees are planted in cities to improve air quality or reduce urban heat island effects, and parks are built in specific neighborhoods to encourage physical activity. But these actions don't usually directly factor in the mental health benefits that trees or a restored park might provide.
"We have entered the urban century, with two-thirds of humanity projected to be living in cities by 2050. At the same time, there is an awakening underway today, to the many values of nature and the risks and costs of its loss," Daily said. "This new work can help inform investments in livability and sustainability of the world's cities."
The research team built a conceptual model that can be used to make meaningful, informed decisions about environmental projects and how they may impact mental health. It includes four steps for planners to consider: elements of nature included in a project, say at a school or across the whole city; the amount of contact people will have with nature; how people interact with nature; and how people may benefit from those interactions, based on the latest scientific evidence.
The researchers hope this tool will be especially useful in considering the possible mental health repercussions of adding -- or taking away -- nature in underserved communities.
"If the evidence shows that nature contact helps to buffer against negative impacts from other environmental predictors of health, then access to these landscapes can be considered a matter of environmental justice. We hope this framework will contribute to this discussion," Bratman said. "Eventually, it could be developed and potentially used to help address health disparities in underserved communities."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/07/190724155935.htm
Two hours a week is key dose of nature for health and wellbeing
June 13, 2019
Science Daily/University of Exeter
Spending at least two hours a week in nature may be a crucial threshold for promoting health and wellbeing, according to a new large-scale study.
Research led by the University of Exeter, published in Scientific Reports and funded by NIHR, found that people who spend at least 120 minutes in nature a week are significantly more likely to report good health and higher psychological wellbeing than those who don't visit nature at all during an average week. However, no such benefits were found for people who visited natural settings such as town parks, woodlands, country parks and beaches for less than 120 minutes a week.
The study used data from nearly 20,000 people in England and found that it didn't matter whether the 120 minutes was achieved in a single visit or over several shorter visits. It also found the 120 minute threshold applied to both men and women, to older and younger adults, across different occupational and ethnic groups, among those living in both rich and poor areas, and even among people with long term illnesses or disabilities.
Dr Mat White, of the University of Exeter Medical School, who led the study, said: "It's well known that getting outdoors in nature can be good for people's health and wellbeing but until now we've not been able to say how much is enough. The majority of nature visits in this research took place within just two miles of home so even visiting local urban greenspaces seems to be a good thing. Two hours a week is hopefully a realistic target for many people, especially given that it can be spread over an entire week to get the benefit."
There is growing evidence that merely living in a greener neighbourhood can be good for health, for instance by reducing air pollution. The data for the current research came from Natural England's Monitor of Engagement with the Natural Environment Survey, the world's largest study collecting data on people's weekly contact with the natural world.
Co-author of the research, Professor Terry Hartig of Uppsala University in Sweden said: "There are many reasons why spending time in nature may be good for health and wellbeing, including getting perspective on life circumstances, reducing stress, and enjoying quality time with friends and family. The current findings offer valuable support to health practitioners in making recommendations about spending time in nature to promote basic health and wellbeing, similar to guidelines for weekly physical."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/06/190613095227.htm
Just 20 minutes of contact with nature will lower stress hormone levels
April 4, 2019
Science Daily/Frontiers
Taking at least twenty minutes out of your day to stroll or sit in a place that makes you feel in contact with nature will significantly lower your stress hormone levels. That's the finding of a study that has established for the first time the most effective dose of an urban nature experience. Healthcare practitioners can use this discovery, published in Frontiers in Psychology, to prescribe 'nature-pills' in the knowledge that they have a real measurable effect.
"We know that spending time in nature reduces stress, but until now it was unclear how much is enough, how often to do it, or even what kind of nature experience will benefit us," says Dr. MaryCarol Hunter, an Associate Professor at the University of Michigan and lead author of this research. "Our study shows that for the greatest payoff, in terms of efficiently lowering levels of the stress hormone cortisol, you should spend 20 to 30 minutes sitting or walking in a place that provides you with a sense of nature."
A free and natural stress-relieving remedy
Nature pills could be a low-cost solution to reduce the negative health impacts stemming from growing urbanization and indoor lifestyles dominated by screen viewing. To assist healthcare practitioners looking for evidence-based guidelines on what exactly to dispense, Hunter and her colleagues designed an experiment that would give a realistic estimate of an effective dose.
Over an 8-week period, participants were asked to take a nature pill with a duration of 10 minutes or more, at least 3 times a week. Levels of cortisol, a stress hormone, were measured from saliva samples taken before and after a nature pill, once every two weeks.
"Participants were free to choose the time of day, duration, and the place of their nature experience, which was defined as anywhere outside that in the opinion of the participant, made them feel like they've interacted with nature. There were a few constraints to minimize factors known to influence stress: take the nature pill in daylight, no aerobic exercise, and avoid the use of social media, internet, phone calls, conversations and reading," Hunter explains.
She continues, "Building personal flexibility into the experiment, allowed us to identify the optimal duration of a nature pill, no matter when or where it is taken, and under the normal circumstances of modern life, with its unpredictability and hectic scheduling."
To make allowances for busy lifestyles, while also providing meaningful results, the experimental design was novel in other aspects too.
"We accommodated day to day differences in a participant's stress status by collecting four snapshots of cortisol change due to a nature pill," says Hunter. "It also allowed us to identify and account for the impact of the ongoing, natural drop in cortisol level as the day goes on, making the estimate of effective duration more reliable."
Nature will nurture
The data revealed that just a twenty-minute nature experience was enough to significantly reduce cortisol levels. But if you spent a little more time immersed in a nature experience, 20 to 30 minutes sitting or walking, cortisol levels dropped at their greatest rate. After that, additional de-stressing benefits continue to add up but at a slower rate.
"Healthcare practitioners can use our results as an evidence-based rule of thumb on what to put in a nature-pill prescription," says Hunter. "It provides the first estimates of how nature experiences impact stress levels in the context of normal daily life. It breaks new ground by addressing some of the complexities of measuring an effective nature dose."
Hunter hopes this study will form the basis of further research in this area.
"Our experimental approach can be used as a tool to assess how age, gender, seasonality, physical ability and culture influences the effectiveness of nature experiences on well-being. This will allow customized nature pill prescriptions, as well as a deeper insight on how to design cities and wellbeing programs for the public."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/04/190404074915.htm
Urban parks could make you happier
February 25, 2019
Science Daily/University of Alabama at Birmingham
Researchers found spending 20 minutes in an urban park will make someone happier -- whether they are engaging in exercise or not during the visit.
According to the study, published in International Journal of Environmental Health Research, urban parks have been recognized as key neighborhood places that provide residents with opportunities to experience nature and engage in various activities. Through contact with the natural environment and engagement in health-promoting and/or social and recreational activities in parks, users experience physical and mental health benefits such as stress reduction and recovery from mental fatigue.
Principle investigator Hon K. Yuen, Ph.D., OTR/L, professor in the UAB Department of Occupational Therapy, said the original intent of the project was to validate previous research findings on the impact of park visit on emotional well-being, and evaluate the contribution of choosing to participate in physical activity in the park in relation to emotional well-being after the park visit.
"Overall, we found park visitors reported an improvement in emotional well-being after the park visit," said Yuen. "However, we did not find levels of physical activity are related to improved emotional well-being. Instead, we found time spent in the park is related to improved emotional well-being."
Co-author and chair of the department Gavin R. Jenkins, Ph.D., OTR/L, said this means that potentially all people can benefit from time in a park. If you cannot be physically active due to aging, a disability or any other limitations, the study implies a person can still gain health benefits just from a visit to a local park.
Participants of the study were adult visitors to one of the three urban parks -- Overton, Jemison and Cahaba River Walk Parks -- in Mountain Brook, Alabama. Data were collected from 98 adult park visitors; four visitors reported that they participated in this study twice. Data from the second participation were excluded, resulting in 94 unique participants participating in the study. These parks were selected for the study because they were the three main public parks in Mountain Brook and had a relatively high volume of visitors daily.
Yuen said several limitations of the study included the lack of objective data to measure emotional health and confining the study to just three urban parks in a six-month data collection period.
Although a small study, Jenkins said the significance of these findings helps reinforce the need for more urban parks and the conservation of those that already exist.
"There is increasing pressure on green space within urban settings," said Jenkins. "Planners and developers look to replace green space with residential and commercial property. The challenge facing cities is that there is an increasing evidence about the value of city parks but we continue to see the demise of theses spaces."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/02/190225123030.htm
Being surrounded by green space in childhood may improve mental health of adults
February 26, 2019
Science Daily/Aarhus University
Children who grow up with greener surroundings have up to 55 percent less risk of developing various mental disorders later in life. This is shown by a new study emphasizing the need for designing green and healthy cities for the future.
A larger and larger share of the world's population now lives in cities and WHO estimates that more than 450 millions of the global human population suffer from a mental disorder. A number that is expected to increase.
Now, based on satellite data from 1985 to 2013, researchers from Aarhus University have mapped the presence of green space around the childhood homes of almost one million Danes and compared this data with the risk of developing one of 16 different mental disorders later in life.
The study, which is published today in the Journal PNAS, shows that children surrounded by the high amounts of green space in childhood have up to a 55% lower risk of developing a mental disorder -- even after adjusting for other known risk factors such as socio-economic status, urbanization, and the family history of mental disorders.
The entire childhood must be green
Postdoc Kristine Engemann from Department of Bioscience and the National Centre for Register-based Research at Aarhus University, who spearheaded the study, says: "Our data is unique. We have had the opportunity to use a massive amount of data from Danish registers of, among other things, residential location and disease diagnoses and compare it with satellite images revealing the extent of green space surrounding each individual when growing up."
Researchers know that, for example, noise, air pollution, infections and poor socio-economic conditions increase the risk of developing a mental disorder. Conversely, other studies have shown that more green space in the local area creates greater social cohesion and increases people's physical activity level and that it can improve children's cognitive development. These are all factors that may have an impact on people's mental health.
"With our dataset, we show that the risk of developing a mental disorder decreases incrementally the longer you have been surrounded by green space from birth and up to the age of 10. Green space throughout childhood is therefore extremely important," Kristine Engemann explains.
Green and healthy cities
As the researchers adjusted for other known risk factors of developing a mental disorder, they see their findings as a robust indication of a close relationship between green space, urban life, and mental disorders.
Kristine Engemann says: "There is increasing evidence that the natural environment plays a larger role for mental health than previously thought. Our study is important in giving us a better understanding of its importance across the broader population."
This knowledge has important implications for sustainable urban planning. Not least because a larger and larger proportion of the world's population lives in cities.
"The coupling between mental health and access to green space in your local area is something that should be considered even more in urban planning to ensure greener and healthier cities and improve mental health of urban residents in the future," adds co-author Professor Jens-Christian Svenning from the Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/02/190226112426.htm
It's official -- spending time outside is good for you
July 6, 2018
Science Daily/University of East Anglia
Living close to nature and spending time outside has significant and wide-ranging health benefits -- according to new research. A new report reveals that exposure to greenspace reduces the risk of type II diabetes, cardiovascular disease, premature death, preterm birth, stress, and high blood pressure.
A new report published today reveals that exposure to greenspace reduces the risk of type II diabetes, cardiovascular disease, premature death, preterm birth, stress, and high blood pressure.
Populations with higher levels of greenspace exposure are also more likely to report good overall health -- according to global data involving more than 290 million people.
Lead author Caoimhe Twohig-Bennett, from UEA's Norwich Medical School, said: "Spending time in nature certainly makes us feel healthier, but until now the impact on our long-term wellbeing hasn't been fully understood.
"We gathered evidence from over 140 studies involving more than 290 million people to see whether nature really does provide a health boost."
The research team studied data from 20 countries including the UK, the US, Spain, France, Germany, Australia and Japan -- where Shinrin yoku or 'forest bathing' is already a popular practice.
'Green space' was defined as open, undeveloped land with natural vegetation as well as urban greenspaces, which included urban parks and street greenery.
The team analysed how the health of people with little access to green spaces compared to that of people with the highest amounts of exposure.
"We found that spending time in, or living close to, natural green spaces is associated with diverse and significant health benefits. It reduces the risk of type II diabetes, cardiovascular disease, premature death, and preterm birth, and increases sleep duration.
"People living closer to nature also had reduced diastolic blood pressure, heart rate and stress. In fact, one of the really interesting things we found is that exposure to greenspace significantly reduces people's levels of salivary cortisol -- a physiological marker of stress.
"This is really important because in the UK, 11.7 million working days are lost annually due to stress, depression or anxiety."
"Forest bathing is already really popular as a therapy in Japan -- with participants spending time in the forest either sitting or lying down, or just walking around. Our study shows that perhaps they have the right idea!
"Although we have looked at a large body of research on the relationship between greenspace and health, we don't know exactly what it is that causes this relationship.
"People living near greenspace likely have more opportunities for physical activity and socialising. Meanwhile, exposure to a diverse variety of bacteria present in natural areas may also have benefits for the immune system and reduce inflammation.
"Much of the research from Japan suggests that phytoncides -- organic compounds with antibacterial properties -- released by trees could explain the health-boosting properties of forest bathing."
Study co-author Prof Andy Jones, also from UEA, said: "We often reach for medication when we're unwell but exposure to health-promoting environments is increasingly recognised as both preventing and helping treat disease. Our study shows that the size of these benefits can be enough to have a meaningful clinical impact."
The research team hope that their findings will prompt doctors and other healthcare professionals to recommend that patients spend more time in greenspace and natural areas.
Twohig-Bennett said: "We hope that this research will inspire people to get outside more and feel the health benefits for themselves. Hopefully our results will encourage policymakers and town planners to invest in the creation, regeneration, and maintenance of parks and greenspaces, particularly in urban residential areas and deprived communities that could benefit the most."
'The health benefits of the great outdoors: A systematic review and meta-analysis of greenspace exposure and health outcomes' is published in the journal Environmental Research on 6 July.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/07/180706102842.htm
Living close to green spaces is associated with better attention in children
An ISGlobal study analyses for the first time lifelong residential exposure to greenness in children
October 25, 2017
Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal)
How do green spaces affect cognitive development in children? A new study concludes that children with more greenness around their homes may develop better attention capacities.
Natural surroundings, including green spaces, may be beneficial for brain development in children, but evidence is still limited. A previous ISGlobal study already indicated that green spaces within and surrounding schools could enhance cognitive development in children between 7 and 10 years of age. In the current study, the authors expanded on this finding by evaluating the impact of greenness surrounding all the residential addresses of children since birth and characterizing cognitive development at earlier stages in life.
The analysis, published in Environment Health Perspectives, was based on data from 1,500 children of the INMA -- Environment and Childhood Project cohort in Sabadell and Valencia, collected during 2003-2013. The ISGlobal team analysed residential surrounding greenness -- at 100, 300 and 500 metres distance- at birth, 4-5 years and 7 years of age. Two types of attention tests were performed at 4-5 and 7 years of age. The research shows that children with higher greenness around their homes had better scores in the attention tests.
Payam Dadvand, ISGlobal researcher and first author of the study, emphasizes "this is the first time that the impact of lifelong residential exposure to green spaces on attention capacity in children has been studied." These results "underline the importance of green areas in cities for children's health and brain development," says Dadvand.
Jordi Sunyer, study coordinator and head of the Child Health Programme at ISGlobal, points out that "the possibility that exposure to different types of vegetation might have different impacts on neurodevelopment remains an open question." Therefore, Sunyer considers further studies should be done in other settings with different climates and vegetation.
"Green spaces in cities promote social connections and physical activity and reduce exposure to air pollution and noise, and are therefore essential for the development of the future generations' brains" adds the study coordinator.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/10/171025103123.htm
Life in the city: Living near a forest keeps your amygdala healthier
MRI study analyzes stress-processing brain regions in older city dwellers
October 18, 2017
Science Daily/Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
A new study examined the relationship between the availability of nature near city dwellers' homes and their brain health. Its findings are relevant for urban planners among others.
Noise, pollution, and many people in a confined space: Life in a city can cause chronic stress. City dwellers are at a higher risk of psychiatric illnesses such as depression, anxiety disorders, and schizophrenia than country dwellers. Comparisons show higher activity levels in city dwellers' than in country dwellers' amygdala -- a central nucleus in the brain that plays an important role in stress processing and reactions to danger. Which factors can have a protective influence? A research team led by psychologist Simone Kühn has examined which effects nature near people's homes such as forest, urban green, or wasteland has on stress-processing brain regions such as the amygdala. "Research on brain plasticity supports the assumption that the environment can shape brain structure and function. That is why we are interested in the environmental conditions that may have positive effects on brain development. Studies of people in the countryside have already shown that living close to nature is good for their mental health and well-being. We therefore decided to examine city dwellers," explains first author Simone Kühn, who led the study at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development and now works at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE).
Indeed, the researchers found a relationship between place of residence and brain health: those city dwellers living close to a forest were more likely to show indications of a physiologically healthy amygdala structure und were therefore presumably better able to cope with stress. This effect remained stable when differences in educational qualifications and income levels were controlled for. However, it was not possible to find an association between the examined brain regions and urban green, water, or wasteland. With these data, it is not possible to distinguish whether living close to a forest really has positive effects on the amygdala or whether people with a healthier amygdala might be more likely to select residential areas close to a forest. Based on present knowledge, however, the researchers regard the first explanation as more probable. Further longitudinal studies are necessary to accumulate evidence.
The participants in the present study are from the Berlin Aging Study II (BASE-II) -- a larger longitudinal study examining the physical, psychological, and social conditions for healthy aging. In total, 341 adults aged 61 to 82 years took part in the present study. Apart from carrying out memory and reasoning tests, the structure of stress-processing brain regions, especially the amygdala, was assessed using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). In order to examine the influence of nature close to peoples' homes on these brain regions, the researchers combined the MRI data with geoinformation about the participants' places of residence. This information stemmed from the European Environment Agency's Urban Atlas, which provides an overview of urban land use in Europe.
"Our study investigates the connection between urban planning features and brain health for the first time," says co-author Ulman Lindenberger, Director of the Center for Lifespan Psychology at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development. By 2050, almost 70 percent of the world population is expected to be living in cities. These results could therefore be very important for urban planning. In the near future, however, the observed association between the brain and closeness to forests would need to be confirmed in further studies and other cities, stated Ulman Lindenberger.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/10/171018113515.htm