Exposure to Neighborhood Green Space and Mental Health: Evidence from the Survey of the Health of Wisconsin

Summary & key facts

Researchers used a large, population-level health survey from Wisconsin that covers both cities and countryside to look at how much green space people have near their homes and how that links to mental health. They used statistical methods that took into account many other differences between people and neighborhoods, including how long people had lived there. The study found that neighborhoods with more green space tended to have lower levels of symptoms for depression, anxiety, and stress, and the authors suggest that adding more green space could be one way to help population mental health, while noting this type of study cannot prove cause and effect.

Key facts:

• The study used a population-based health survey from Wisconsin that includes both urban and rural areas to compare neighborhood green space and mental health.
• Researchers used statistical models that adjusted for many other factors, including how long people had lived in their neighborhood, to try to reduce bias from people choosing where to live.
• Higher levels of neighborhood green space were linked with lower levels of depression symptoms.
• Higher levels of neighborhood green space were also linked with lower levels of anxiety symptoms.
• Higher levels of neighborhood green space were associated with lower levels of reported stress.
• Because this is an observational study, the results show a link but do not prove that adding green space will definitely cause mental health to improve.

Abstract

Green space is now widely viewed as a health-promoting characteristic of residential environments, and has been linked to mental health benefits such as recovery from mental fatigue and reduced stress, particularly through experimental work in environmental psychology. Few population level studies have examined the relationships between green space and mental health. Further, few studies have considered the role of green space in non-urban settings. This study contributes a population-level perspective from the United States to examine the relationship between environmental green space and mental health outcomes in a study area that includes a spectrum of urban to rural environments. Multivariate survey regression analyses examine the association between green space and mental health using the unique, population-based Survey of the Health of Wisconsin database. Analyses were adjusted for length of residence in the neighborhood to reduce the impact of neighborhood selection bias. Higher levels of neighborhood green space were associated with significantly lower levels of symptomology for depression, anxiety and stress, after controlling for a wide range of confounding factors. Results suggest that "greening" could be a potential population mental health improvement strategy in the United States.

Topics

Urban Agriculture and Sustainability Urban Green Space and Health Urban Heat Island Mitigation

Categories

Environmental Science Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis Physical Sciences

Tags

Anxiety Computer science Confounding Demography Environmental health Game design Geography Gerontology Human–computer interaction Level design Linguistics Medicine Mental health Pathology Philosophy Population Psychiatry Psychology Residence Sociology Space (punctuation)

Conditions & symptoms

Anxiety Depression Anxiety or worry Sadness or low mood