Escaping to nature during a pandemic: A natural experiment in Asian cities during the COVID-19 pandemic with big social media data

Lü, Yi; Zhao, Jianting; Wu, Xueying; Lo, Siu Ming

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.146092

Cited by 128 publications

(100 citation statements)

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“…Second, air pollution may exacerbate the SARS-CoV-2 infection risk [ 69 ], yet green space can reduce exposure to air pollution, thereby decreasing the virus infection risk [ 67 ]. Other studies also found that green space usage increased during the pandemic [ 70 ], and the availability of green space decreases racial disparity in virus infection rates [ 71 ]. However, two studies suggested a positive association between green space and virus infection risk [ 48 , 52 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Review of Associations between Built Environment Characteristics and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Infection Risk

Wang

et al. 2021

IJERPH

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The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has stimulated intensive research interest in its transmission pathways and infection factors, e.g., socioeconomic and demographic characteristics, climatology, baseline health conditions or pre-existing diseases, and government policies. Meanwhile, some empirical studies suggested that built environment attributes may be associated with the transmission mechanism and infection risk of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). However, no review has been conducted to explore the effect of built environment characteristics on the infection risk. This research gap prevents government officials and urban planners from creating effective urban design guidelines to contain SARS-CoV-2 infections and face future pandemic challenges. This review summarizes evidence from 25 empirical studies and provides an overview of the effect of built environment on SARS-CoV-2 infection risk. Virus infection risk was positively associated with the density of commercial facilities, roads, and schools and with public transit accessibility, whereas it was negatively associated with the availability of green spaces. This review recommends several directions for future studies, namely using longitudinal research design and individual-level data, considering multilevel factors and extending to diversified geographic areas.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Review of Associations between Built Environment Characteristics and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Infection Risk

Wang

et al. 2021

IJERPH

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“…The mental health benefits of access to nature during the pandemic have been demonstrated, but this does not always reflect purposive engagement. While increased visitation to urban greenspaces during the pandemic has been reported across a number of studies internationally [ 34 , 38 , 72 , 73 ], some studies have reported decreases in the time people spent in urban greenspaces during the COVID-19 pandemic [ 32 , 40 ] due to mobility restrictions and fear of infection. Individuals who had greater nature engagement during the pandemic typically had better mental health [ 17 , 20 , 35 , 38 , 41 ] and often reported that nature was important for supporting their mental health [ 31 , 40 , 73 ], helping them cope with lockdowns [ 36 , 38 ], and gave them feelings of “being away” [ 37 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In particular, having access to public urban greenspaces [ 32 , 33 , 34 ] and private outdoor spaces [ 35 , 36 ], living in greener neighbourhoods [ 20 , 37 , 38 ], and having ‘natural’ views from home [ 36 , 37 , 39 ] have been linked with better mental health across a range of populations during the pandemic. Beyond access and incidental exposure to nature, purposive time spent in nature during the COVID-19 pandemic has also been linked with better mental health [ 17 , 20 , 26 , 31 , 34 , 35 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 ]. Only two of these studies exploring the influence of nature focused on young people specifically, and were limited to student samples in the USA [ 17 ] and Bulgaria [ 37 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mental Health of Young Australians during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Exploring the Roles of Employment Precarity, Screen Time, and Contact with Nature

Oswald

Rumbold

Kedzior

et al. 2021

IJERPH

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The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is widely understood to have contributed to mental health problems. In Australia, young people (18–24 years) have been disproportionately affected. To date, research has predominantly focused on the presence or absence of mental illness symptoms, while aspects of mental well-being have been overlooked. We aimed to explore associations between potential risk and protective factors and mental health more comprehensively, using the Complete State Model of Mental Health. An online survey of 1004 young Australians (55% female; M age = 21.23) was undertaken. Assessment of both mental illness and mental well-being enabled participants to be cross-classified into four mental health states. Those with ‘Floundering’ (13%) or ‘Struggling’ (47.5%) mental health reported symptoms of mental illness; a ‘Languishing’ group (25.5%) did not report symptoms of mental illness but mental well-being was compromised relative to those who were ‘Flourishing’ (14%) with high mental well-being. Multinomial logistic regressions were used to examine associations, adjusting for socio-demographic confounders. Protective factors associated with Flourishing mental health included being in secure employment, using screen time to connect with others, and reporting high levels of hope. Both incidental and purposive contact with nature were also associated with Flourishing, while a lack of green/bluespace within walking distance was associated with Languishing, absence of outdoor residential space was associated with Floundering, and lower neighbourhood greenness was associated with all three suboptimal mental health states. Precarious employment, financial stress, living alone, reporting decreased screen time during lockdowns, lower levels of hope, and high disruption of core beliefs were also associated with Struggling and Floundering mental health. Those who were Languishing reported somewhat less hardship and little disruption to core beliefs, but lower levels of hope compared to young people who were Flourishing. This study highlights that young adults require dedicated mental health services to deal with current burden, but should also be supported through a range of preventive strategies which target mental health risk factors, like precarious employment, and enhance protective factors, such as urban green infrastructure.

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“…In some areas, increased greenspace utilization was used strategically in direct response to increased disease prevalence. For example, in several East Asian cities, greenspace utilization increased by 5.3% for every 100 additional new COVID-19 cases reported (Lu et al, 2021b). The cause of increased greenspace utilization is multifactorial.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Association Between Urban Greenspace and Mental Wellbeing During the COVID-19 Pandemic in a U.S. Cohort

Wortzel

Wiebe

DiDomenico

et al. 2021

Front. Sustain. Cities

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The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic brought unprecedented socially isolating measures to mitigate the spread of disease, heightening the importance of public outdoor urban greenspace. Here, we investigated the association between tree-rich greenspace and mental health in a large opportunity sample surveyed using a crowdsourcing research website (www.covid19resilience.org) between April 6th and October 12th, 2020 during the pandemic in the United States. Participants living in the U.S. (N = 2,089, 83.1% females, mean age 42 years, age range 18–90 years) were mapped to 1,080 unique ZIP Codes and mean tree canopy density was calculated with a 250 m buffer around each ZIP Code grouped by quartile as a proxy for nearby greenspace. Four mental health parameters were assessed: (1) COVID-19-related worries; (2) anxiety symptoms; (3) depression symptoms; and (4) a standardized and weighted composite mental health score of all three parameters. Multivariate regression analyses with multilevel models were used to study the association between nearby greenspace and the four mental health outcomes, controlling for participant demographics and ZIP Code urbanicity. In the entire cohort, increased nearby greenspace showed a significant protective effect for depression (Coef. = −0.27; p = 0.0499), and composite mental health scores (Coef. = −0.19; p = 0.038) when comparing ZIP Codes with the most greenspace to ZIP Codes with the least, with no observed effects on COVID-19 related worries or anxiety individually. Stratifying by age suggested protective trends of greenspace on mental health in older subsets of the population (top age quartile, over 51 years old) experiencing less depression (Coef. = −0.45; p = 0.048) and lower composite mental health scores (Coef. = −0.34; – = 0.032) as a function of nearby greenspace. Additionally, younger subsets of the population (second youngest age quartile, 31–38 years) experienced lower COVID-19 related worries (Coef. = −1.34; p = 0.022) as a function of greenspace. These findings may indicate that tree-rich greenspace plays a protective role on mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic, specifically in certain age groups, supporting the use of greenspace-related strategies to help mitigate mental health burden during this challenging and isolating time.

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Escaping to nature during a pandemic: A natural experiment in Asian cities during the COVID-19 pandemic with big social media data

Abstract: Mass social media data enabled an extensive investigation into greenspace use patterns. • Urban greenspace use increased in four Asian cities during the COVID-19 outbreak. • During the COVID-19 outbreak, residents preferred large nature parks close to city centers.

Cited by 128 publications

References 50 publications

Review of Associations between Built Environment Characteristics and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Infection Risk

Review of Associations between Built Environment Characteristics and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Infection Risk

Mental Health of Young Australians during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Exploring the Roles of Employment Precarity, Screen Time, and Contact with Nature

Association Between Urban Greenspace and Mental Wellbeing During the COVID-19 Pandemic in a U.S. Cohort

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