Do Physical Activity, Social Cohesion, and Loneliness Mediate the Association Between Time Spent Visiting Green Space and Mental Health?

Berg, Magdalena M. van den; Poppel, Mireille van; Kamp, Irene van; Ruijsbroek, Annemarie; Triguero-Mas, Margarita; Gidlow, Christopher; Nieuwenhuijsen, Mark; Gražulevičienė, Regina; Mechelen, Willem van; Kruize, Hanneke; Maas, Jolanda

doi:10.1177/0013916517738563

Cited by 124 publications

(74 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…In addition, the strongest evidence suggests that the greatest benefits of physical activity are in the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease and related mortality as well as all-cause mortality (Thompson et al 2003, Van den Berg et al 2015. Second, all these beneficial health outcomes of green spaces may be affected by potential moderating and mediating factors, such as socio-economic status (SES), gender, age, preferences, occupation, culture, and individual perceptions (Triguero-Mas et al 2015, Akpinar et al 2016, Dadvand et al 2016, Sugiyama et al 2016.…”

Section: Pathway 3: Linking Green Space To Ecosystem Healthmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As a result, many studies have explored the negative effect of reduced contact with green space upon public health and the health effects of exposure to green spaces (Hartig et al 2014, Dadvand et al 2015, Gascon et al 2016. In general, exposure to green spaces can have a positive effect on public health, including overall health (Dadvand et al 2016); birth weight (Hystad et al 2014, Markevych et al 2014; stress, depression, and anxiety (Thompson et al 2012, Mceachan et al 2016, Gascon et al 2018, Klompmaker et al 2019; hyperactivity disorder (Amoly et al 2014); postoperative rehabilitation (Ulrich 1984); obesity and type II diabetes (Amoly et al 2014, Ghimire et al 2017; various infectious diseases (Wong and Jim 2016); cardiovascular disease (Shen and Lung 2016); respiratory disease (Vienneau et al 2017); and all-cause mortality (Van den Berg et al 2015). However, green spaces occasionally have negative effects on public health, such as allergic diseases (Cariñanos and Casares-Porcel 2011), infections (Lõhmus and Balbus 2015), injury ( Bortolini et al 2016, and even crime (Kimpton et al 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Links between green space and public health: a bibliometric review of global research trends and future prospects from 1901 to 2019

Zhang

Bing

et al. 2020

Environ. Res. Lett.

142

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Considerable specific cross-sectional and review studies have linked exposure to green spaces to improving public health, but there is no bibliometric review attempting to systemically and retrospectively analyze these existing articles. Here we aim to uncover global research status, trends, and future prospects in green spaces and health (G-H) research then propose a framework for the underlying mechanisms and pathways that link green space to public health. We obtained 18 961 G-H research publications from the core Web of Science collection from 1901 to 2019, analyzing the characteristics of publication outputs, key scientific disciplines, and differences in performance between countries and institutions. Besides, content analysis was conducted to analyze the keywords, including keyword co-occurrence analysis and keyword clustering analysis. We found: (1) a steady quantitative increase in publications, active journals, and involved countries and institutions since the 1990s; (2) a significant increase and changes in G-H related interdisciplinary categories, with environment-related disciplines becoming the mainstream; (3) research focus and trends that were identified based on the analysis of high-frequency co-occurring keywords; (4) three main knowledge domains, namely, green spaces and physical health, mental health, and ecosystem health, that were identified and visualized based on keyword clustering analysis; (5) a framework of underlying mechanisms and pathways linking green space to public health that is proposed based on visualization of the three main knowledge domains. We suggest that the main challenge of G-H research is to further clarify in-depth the underlying mechanisms and pathways from multiple perspectives, including multiple nations, disciplines, and study designs. The lack of co-occurring keywords and clustering information related to social well-being suggests that research related to 'social health' is lacking. Based on a clear understanding of the quantity, quality, and characteristics of green space for public health, a health-based environmental plan should be proposed in the future.

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Section: Pathway 3: Linking Green Space To Ecosystem Healthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Links between green space and public health: a bibliometric review of global research trends and future prospects from 1901 to 2019

Zhang

Bing

et al. 2020

Environ. Res. Lett.

142

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Four potential mediators were obtained from the questionnaire as suggested in the literature [14]. First, respondents' physical activity was quantified by their weekly physical exercise time in hours [19]. Second, self-reported stress [24] was measured by one question.…”

Section: Potential Mediatorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Urban greenery and mental wellbeing in adults: Cross-sectional mediation analyses on multiple pathways across different greenery measures

Wang

Helbich

Yao

et al. 2019

Environmental Research

193

101

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Background: Multiple mechanisms have been proposed to explain how greenery in the vicinity of people's homes enhances their mental health and wellbeing. Mediation studies, however, focus on a limited number of mechanisms and rely on remotely sensed greenery measures, which do not accurately capture how neighborhood greenery is perceived on the ground.Objective: To examine: 1) how streetscape and remote sensing-based greenery affect people's mental wellbeing; 2) whether and, if so, to what extent the associations are mediated by physical activity, stress, air quality and noise, and social cohesion; and 3) whether differences in the mediation across the streetscape greenery and NDVI exposure metrics occurred. Methods:We used a population sample from 2016 of 1,029 adult residents of the metropolis of Guangzhou, China. Mental wellbeing was quantified by the World Health Organization Well-Being Index (WHO-5). Two objective greenery measures were extracted at the neighborhood level: 1) streetscape greenery from street view data via a convolutional neural network, and 2) the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) from Landsat 8 remote sensing images. Single and multiple mediation analyses with multilevel regressions were conducted.Results: Streetscape and NDVI greenery were weakly and positively, but not significantly, correlated. Our regression results revealed that streetscape greenery and NDVI were, individually and jointly, positively associated with mental wellbeing. Significant partial mediators for the streetscape greenery were physical activity, stress, air quality and noise, and social cohesion; together, they explained 62% of the association.For NDVI, only physical activity and social cohesion were significant partial mediators, accounting for 22% of the association. Conclusions: Mental health and wellbeing and both streetscape and satellite-derived greenery seem to be both directly correlated and indirectly mediated. Our findings signify that both greenery measures capture different aspects of natural environments and may contribute to people's wellbeing by means of different mechanisms. 3 Keywords Green space; street view data; deep learning; mediation; mental wellbeing; China Highlights  Mechanisms underlying mental health and wellbeing benefits of greenery are not well established.  Streetscape greenery from street view images and a remote sensing-based vegetation index (NDVI) served as exposure measure. Higher mental wellbeing was correlated with more greenery, independently of the measure. Substantial proportions of greenery-wellbeing associations were explained by mediators; for streetscape greenery, mediation was higher. Different pathways seem to be at play across both greenery measures.

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“…Access to nature can function equigenically, helping to balance health and wellbeing across socioeconomic differences within populations [21]. Relationships between neighbourhood greenspace, health and wellbeing are sometimes partially mediated by PA levels, although research differences pervade the area, and there is no consensus about when this occurs, and how and when other factors interact [22][23][24][25].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Regular Doses of Nature: The Efficacy of Green Exercise Interventions for Mental Wellbeing

Rogerson

Wood

Pretty

et al. 2020

IJERPH

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This study investigated the efficacy of medium-term Green Exercise (GE; being physically active within a natural environment) interventions for improving wellbeing, by pooling data collected at the start and end of participants’ engagement with a range of GE interventions. Hypotheses were that (i) interventions would show good efficacy for improving wellbeing in the overall sample; (ii) compared to participants reporting ‘average to high’ wellbeing at the start of their project, participants with ‘low’ starting wellbeing would report greater improvements post-intervention; and (iii) improvements would significantly differ between age groups. The pooled dataset was categorized in line with UK norms (n = 318) and analyzed using a standardized meta-analysis approach. Effect size was large: g = 0.812 (95% CI [0.599, 1.025]), and differences in wellbeing changes associated with project duration, age or sex were not statistically significant. Compared to those reporting ‘average-high’ starting wellbeing, participants reporting ‘low’ starting wellbeing exhibited greater improvements (BCa 95% CI [−31.8, −26.5]), with 60.8% moving into the ‘average-high’ wellbeing category. GE can play an important role in facilitating wellbeing and can provide alternative pathways for health and social care practice. Public health commissioners should consider integrating such interventions for patients experiencing low wellbeing or associated comorbidities.

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Do Physical Activity, Social Cohesion, and Loneliness Mediate the Association Between Time Spent Visiting Green Space and Mental Health?

Abstract: This cross-sectional study investigated whether physical activity, social cohesion, and loneliness mediate the association between time spent visiting green spaces and perceived mental health and vitality. Questionnaire data

Cited by 124 publications

References 41 publications

Links between green space and public health: a bibliometric review of global research trends and future prospects from 1901 to 2019

Links between green space and public health: a bibliometric review of global research trends and future prospects from 1901 to 2019

Urban greenery and mental wellbeing in adults: Cross-sectional mediation analyses on multiple pathways across different greenery measures

Regular Doses of Nature: The Efficacy of Green Exercise Interventions for Mental Wellbeing

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