Moving to greener pastures: Health selection into neighborhood green space among a highly mobile and diverse population in California

Does urban greenness reduce loneliness and social isolation among Canadians? A cross-sectional study of middle-aged and older adults of the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA)

“…Longitudinal analyses also have advantages for assessing self-selection bias related to place of residence and greenness. Namely, those of better health and better income may be more likely to choose to live in greener areas, rather than greenness itself conferring the benefit (Gailey 2022 ; McCormack 2017 ). For all these reasons, efforts to apply longitudinal analyses of greenness and health should be prioritized over cross-sectional data.…”

Playing in urban green spaces according to two generations

“…More than half of the world's population lives in urban areas and it is estimated their growth, by 2050, 68% of Humans will live in cities (Khor et al, 2022). As cities grow and become denser, the population tends to have less contact with Urban Green Spaces (UGS), however several studies point out that UGS are a provider of health and well-being (Holt, et al, 2019;Cleary et al, 2019;Gailey, 2022;Sillman et al, 2022). In addition, the evolution of technology and the appearance and access to new toys, replacing popular games, in which children could observe and learn about the natural environment while playing.…”

Changes in Residential Greenspace and Birth Outcomes among Siblings: Differences by Maternal Race

“…Inconsistent findings limit the relevance this work holds for policies and interventions that aim to improve urban greenspace and, ultimately, promote perinatal health in under-resourced neighborhoods. Researchers have proposed plausible explanations for equivocal results, including that: (1) maternal characteristics associated with both place of residence and perinatal health may explain positive associations between greenspace and birth outcomes [ 13 , 14 ] and (2) maternal sociodemographic characteristics may modify the effects of greenspace on birth outcomes [ 15 , 16 ]. Differentiating these plausible causes of heterogeneity is necessary to understand the effects of greenspace on perinatal health and advance urban greening efforts.…”

“…Most studies examining perinatal benefits associated with neighborhood greenspace use observational and cross-sectional designs, which appear vulnerable to residential self-selection bias [ 30 ]. The selective movement of mothers into greener neighborhoods on the basis of preexisting health and correlated social factors (e.g., income, education, race/ethnicity) presents a rival explanation for previously observed protective associations between neighborhood greenspace and birth outcomes [ 14 , 35 ]. The spatial concentration of healthier mothers in neighborhoods with more greenspace may reflect residential selection, rather than a causal effect of greenspace on health [ 36 , 37 ].…”

“…The spatial concentration of healthier mothers in neighborhoods with more greenspace may reflect residential selection, rather than a causal effect of greenspace on health [ 36 , 37 ]. For example, Gailey [ 14 ] recently found that mothers with lower pre-pregnancy BMI and higher infant birthweights (proxies for better health) moved to greener neighborhoods over time. This form of selection appears less pronounced among Black mothers, who face considerable housing choice constraints imposed by discrimination and other forces of structural racism [ 14 ].…”