Nature Contact and Human Health: A Research Agenda

Frumkin, Howard; Bratman, Gregory N.; Breslow, Sara Jo; Cochran, B.J.; Kahn, Peter H.; Lawler, Joshua J.; Levin, Phillip S.; Tandon, Pooja; Varanasi, Usha; Wolf, Kathleen L.; Wood, Spencer A.

doi:10.1289/ehp1663

Cited by 875 publications

(766 citation statements)

References 334 publications

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“…The improvement in mental health is consistent with other studies and demonstrates the benefit of this environment [6,27]. Previous investigators have proposed a relationship between decreases in the number of life-threatening events and the presence of individual gardens [37].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

Physical and Mental Health Impacts of Household Gardens in an Urban Slum in Lima, Peru

Korn

Bolton

Spencer

et al. 2018

IJERPH

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Rural poverty and lack of access to education has led to urban migration and fed the constant growth of urban slums in Lima, Peru. Inhabitants of these informal settlements lack land rights and access to a public water supply, resulting in poor sanitation, an inability to grow food, and suboptimal health outcomes. A repeated measures longitudinal pilot study utilizing participatory design methods was conducted in Lima between September 2013 and September 2014 to determine the feasibility of implementing household gardens and the subsequent impact of increased green space on well-being. Anthropometric data and a composite of five validated mental health surveys were collected at the baseline, 6-months, and 12-months after garden construction. Significant increases from the baseline in all domains of quality of life, including: physical (p < 0.01), psychological (p = 0.05), social (p = 0.02), environmental (p = 0.02), and overall social capital (p < 0.01) were identified 12 months after garden construction. Life-threatening experiences decreased significantly compared to the baseline (p = 0.02). There were no significant changes in parent or partner empathy (p = 0.21), BMI (p = 0.95), waist circumference (p = 0.18), or blood pressure (p = 0.66) at 6 or 12 months. Improved access to green space in the form of a household garden can significantly improve mental health in an urban slum setting.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

Physical and Mental Health Impacts of Household Gardens in an Urban Slum in Lima, Peru

Korn

Bolton

Spencer

et al. 2018

IJERPH

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“…Policies and interventions to increase neighborhood levels of greenness are relatively straightforward, potentially low cost, and may have co-benefits for climate mitigation and stormwater runoff control [2]. Yet there are still unanswered questions about how to best incorporate vegetation into communities, what species types are most advantageous for health, what route of exposure is most influential on health, which outcomes are most likely to be influenced by nature, and, fundamentally, whether exposure to nature has a causal effect on health outcomes.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Mental health has recently become a major focus of greenness and health research, as some theories suggested that exposure to nature may provide opportunities for social engagement or may even have a direct effect through lowering of stress [2,3]. Our previous review concluded that the literature consistently supports a positive relationship between greenness and mental health even though it relied mainly on a large number of cross-sectional studies.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Exposure to nature can potentially act through a multitude of biological pathways to affect health [2,3], and therefore there a number of novel outcomes that might be worth studying. A noteworthy example is a recent ecological study of 100 households in Uganda where investigators examined the relationship between NDVI and malaria metrics such as density of mosquitoes, parasite prevalence, and malaria incidence [59].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Review of Epidemiologic Studies on Greenness and Health: Updated Literature Through 2017

Fong

Hart

James

2018

Curr Envir Health Rpt

420

290

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Purpose of review Many studies suggest that exposure to natural vegetation, or greenness, may be beneficial for a variety of health outcomes. We summarize the recent research in this area. Recent findings We observed consistent and strong evidence of associations for higher greenness with improvements in birth weights and physical activity, as well as lower mortality rates. Recent studies also suggested that exposure to greenness may lower levels of depression and depressive symptoms. The evidence on greenness and cardiovascular health remains mixed. Findings are also inconsistent for greenness measures and asthma and allergies. Summary Our knowledge of the impacts of greenness on a wide variety of health outcomes continues to evolve. Future research should incorporate information on specific species and some qualities of natural greenness that might drive health outcomes, integrate exposure assessments that incorporate personal mobility into analyses, and include prospective designs to add to the growing evidence that nature exposure positively affects health.

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“…Taken together, the articles presented here contribute to the explosion of evidence demonstrating that exposure to landscapes with natural elements has pervasive, positive, prolonged impacts on human health [6]. These natural elements need not be vast in scale nor dramatically beautiful to benefit human health.…”

mentioning

confidence: 97%