Health benefits from nature experiences depend on dose
Shanahan, DF; Bush, R; Gaston, KJ; et al.Lin, BB; Dean, J; Barber, E; Fuller, RA
Date: 23 June 2016
Journal
Scientific Reports
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group: Open Access Journals - Option C
Publisher DOI
Related links
Abstract
Nature within cities will have a central role in helping address key global public health
3 challenges associated with urbanization. However, there is almost no guidance on how much
4 or how frequently people need to engage with nature, and what types or characteristics of
5 nature need to be incorporated in cities for the best ...
Nature within cities will have a central role in helping address key global public health
3 challenges associated with urbanization. However, there is almost no guidance on how much
4 or how frequently people need to engage with nature, and what types or characteristics of
5 nature need to be incorporated in cities for the best health outcomes. Here we use a nature
6 dose framework to examine the associations between the duration, frequency and intensity of
7 exposure to nature and health in an urban population. We show that people who made long
8 visits to green spaces had lower rates of depression and high blood pressure, and those who
9 visited more frequently had greater social cohesion. Higher levels of physical activity were
10 linked to both duration and frequency of green space visits. A dose-response analysis for
11 depression and high blood pressure suggest that visits to outdoor green spaces of 30 minutes
12 or more during the course of a week could reduce the population prevalence of these illnesses
13 by up to 7% and 9% respectively. Given that the societal costs of depression alone in
14 Australia are estimated at AUD$12.6 billion per annum, savings to public health budgets
15 across all health outcomes could be immense.
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