People enjoy being in nature because it makes them feel good. New research has shown that it is actually good for your health! Growing up surrounded by green space has been found to lower your risk of developing various mental health disorders later on in life by up to 55%. Even though it may seem obvious and there has been increasing evidence that the amount of exposure to natural environments positively impacts mental health, few studies have analyzed this connection and its specifics until now.
A recent study from Aarhus University, Denmark, reveals that children who grow up with greener surroundings have a better chance of not developing mental health problems as they get older. They organized this research to bring upon the need for designing green and healthy cities for a better future. This study was published in the American Journal PNAS.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that over 450 million of the global human population suffer from a mental disorder and that number is only expected to rise. Could this possibly be because a larger part of the world’s population now lives in cities and they are not green enough? Could we reverse this statistic by designing our cities to incorporate more greenery? Aarhus University firmly believes the answers are yes and yes.
Postdoc Kristine Engemann from the Department of Bioscience and the National Centre for Register-based Research at Aarhus University, who lead the study, said:
Our data is unique. We have had the opportunity to use a massive amount of data from Danish registers of, among other things, residential location and disease diagnoses and compare it with satellite images revealing the extent of green space surrounding each individual when growing up. With our dataset, we show that the risk of developing a mental disorder decreases incrementally the longer you have been surrounded by green space from birth and up to the age of 10. Green space throughout childhood is therefore extremely important.
The Study:
High-resolution satellite data was collected from 1985 to 2013. (Ranged within a 210 × 210 m square around each person’s place of residence.)
The presence of green space around the childhood homes of nearly one million Danes was mapped out to calculate the normalized difference vegetation index throughout the years. (Childhood in this research was people from birth to age ten.)
The data was then compared with the risk of developing one of 16 different mental disorders.
The Results:
They discovered that children with higher levels of green space presence had a lower risk of a wide spectrum of psychiatric disorders later in life. This association even after adjusting for other known risk factors including socio-economic status, urbanization, and the family history of mental illness.
They also found that the presence of green space throughout childhood is very important. (It makes a difference even if it’s only for one year!)
In Conclusion
This study strongly supports the necessity for developing cities to really push for maximum integration of natural environments into urban planning and, consequently, childhood life. Likewise, it is important now for cities to bring about additional greening to their cityscape. Such efforts will successfully result in overall better mental health for all of its inhabitants in the present, and into the future.
This knowledge has important significance for sustainable urban planning since a growing amount of the world’s population lives in cities. Professor Jens-Christian Svenning from the Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, co-author of the study said:
The coupling between mental health and access to green space in your local area is something that should be considered even more in urban planning to ensure greener and healthier cities and improve mental health of urban residents in the future.
Air Pollution
Trees and plants are known to reduce contaminants in the air, reducing overall air pollution in the area. A study based in the UK found that areas with higher air pollution were linked to higher rates of adolescent psychotic experiences. Air pollution has also been linked to higher rates of dementia. The research found that in areas where air quality regulations were enforced, the rates decreased.
